CPE 2015mes.intnet.mu/English/Documents/Examinations/Primary/cpe/... · 2016-10-18 · at least some meaningful sentences in English, although there was wide variation in levels of

CPE 2015 ENGLISH Examiners’ Report

Mauritius Examinations Syndicate April 2016

English

(Subject Code No.110)

General Comments

The performance of candidates in this year’s examination session was in line with the general

trend noted over the past few years. The overall pass rate of 73.04 % is only marginally lower

than that of 2014. It is worth pointing out that for most candidates, the foundation for further

learning has been acquired. Most of them showed ability to read with understanding and to write

at least some meaningful sentences in English, although there was wide variation in levels of

achievement.

In reading comprehension, as noted in previous reports, candidates perform well when it comes

to retrieving explicit information from a given text and when it comes to showing literal

understanding. However, higher order reading skills like making inferences, showing overall

understanding of a text, making links between different ideas and relying on contextual clues to

predict the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary items are found to be more challenging by an

important number of candidates.

In writing, the overall standard of candidates was equivalent to that of previous years. Producing

simple syntactically correct and meaningful sentences is within the grasp of most candidates.

Nevertheless, some problems persist: subject-verb agreement, the interference of French and

Kreol Morisien syntax (e.g *I take bus to go outing) and the positioning of adverbs (* The

policeman caught quickly the thief) continue to be noteworthy issues. In composition writing,

writing well developed stories using a varied and rich vocabulary and a variety of sentence

structures, while maintaining the overall coherence of tenses, marked out the better candidates.

A particular cause for concern was the high frequency of sentence separation errors in the work

of less able candidates.

In sum, concentration on using correct tenses, improving subject-verb agreement and developing

the ability to write using a varied vocabulary and different sentence types would greatly improve

the writing of candidates.

Specific Comments

Section A

Section A, which makes up 60% of the marks available on the paper, assesses Essential Learning

Competencies (ELCs). These are the core competencies and skills in grammar, reading

comprehension, writing and vocabulary. The competencies assessed in Section A make up the

basis upon which further learning in English can be built.

Question 1

Question 1 assesses a mixed bag of grammatical items and vocabulary. In this year’s session, the

grammatical items assessed were pronouns (personal, reflexive and wh-pronouns), the use of

tenses (simple present and future), prepositions, tag questions, comparatives, quantifiers and

structures involving the use of do-support. The best done items were those dealing with personal

pronouns, using the simple future tense, the use of prepositions, wh-pronouns and some of the

vocabulary items. Candidates had greater difficulty with items testing conjunctions, comparative

adjectives, the reflexive pronoun and knowledge of the correct verb forms in a given context,

including structures with the use of do-support.

The best done items were:

Item 1 My aunt is very ill. She has been admitted to hospital.

Item 4 Next week-end, we will go to the zoo.

Item 6 Father parked the car in the garage.

Item 11 The policeman who arrested the thief has been rewarded.

Item 13 I love eating strawberries. They are my favourite fruit.

Item 20 I need some glue to stick these pieces of paper together.

The following items were found challenging by an important number of candidates:

Item 2 Neither Anil nor Fawaz could solve the problem.

Coordinating conjunctions continue to be problematic to many candidates.

Structures with either…or and neither…nor have not been mastered. A common

wrong answer here was and.

Item 8 This summer is hotter than usual.

The word than was the clue for candidates to know that the comparative form of

hot was required here. A strong distractor was so hot although this did not fit in

the structure of the given sentence.

Item 10 The girls hurt themselves while playing.

A common wrong answer was herself, which suggests that candidates did not read

the question carefully enough and were misled by the word girls. The fact that the

noun was in the plural meant that the correct answer was themselves and that

gender should not have been a factor.

Item 12 The dog bit me and ran away.

This item tested candidates’ ability to use contextual clues to determine which

tense (and therefore which verb form) would be correct. Candidates had to know

that to choose the verb that would ensure coherence in the sequencing of events

and in this case both verbs had to be in the past tense. Many candidates wrongly

gave run as an answer.

Item 14 Did you buy the vegetables I asked for?

Using structures with the do-support correctly continues to be problematic to

many candidates, even though this has been highlighted regularly in previous

reports. The auxiliary do is always finite in English (that is it carries tense) and

this is particularly salient in negative and interrogative structures. Many

candidates gave bought as an answer, simply relying on the first tense they saw to

decide what the answer ought to be.

Item 18 He is the tallest boy in his class although he is the youngest.

Using connectives properly is a general challenge for our candidates, especially

despite, although and in spite of. Many candidates gave despite as an answer

although this was not possible in the given structure: *He is the tallest boy in his

class despite he is the youngest is not an acceptable structure in English.

Item 19 Mother asked me to accompany her to the market.

A general rule in English grammar is that to is followed by the infinitive form of

the verb, despite some exceptions. Many candidates gave accompanied as an

answer, showing that they were not familiar with this rule.

Question 2A (Basic Reading Comprehension)

Question 2A assesses basic reading comprehension, with candidates given a short text and asked

to retrieve explicitly stated information. On the whole, performance on this question is

encouraging, with most candidates showing that the elementary reading skill of literal

understanding has been acquired.

As in previous years, a poster was set, this time on a Science Competition. The context was

within the experience of candidates.

A particular problem encountered this year was the fact that some candidates used the

illustrations in the poster to answer the questions. For example, to the question Who is Mr

Lesage? some candidates said The man in the picture. Candidates should be reminded that the

pictures in the poster are meant to be for illustration purposes only and that they should not look

for answers to the questions from them.

It was encouraging to note that fewer candidates resorted to indiscriminate lifting in this question

than in previous years. Nevertheless, it is worth reminding Educators that examination technique

is an important component in this question. In particular, the importance of brief and accurate

answers cannot be over-emphasized. Resorting to lifting of entire chunks of text is unlikely to be

rewarding to candidates.

While most items were generally well answered by candidates, the following items were less

well done:

Item 8 What is the last date by which you can submit your name?

The expected answer here was 18 October 2015. Some candidates wrongly gave

27 December 2015 as an answer, which was in fact the date of the competition

itself. Others lost marks by lifting the entire line Hurry up and give your name to

your headmaster by 18 October 2015! This answer contained surplus information

and could not be given credit.

Item 9 Who is Mr Lesage?

The obvious answer to this question was He is the secretary of the centre. Some

candidates went beyond the text and inferred that He was the organizer of the

competition, which was an acceptable inference. However, those who said He is

the man in the picture or those who provided the indiscriminate lift For further

information, please call Mr Lesage, the Secretary of the centre, on 52540826

could not be given credit.

Question 2B (Extended Reading Comprehension)

The Extended Reading Comprehension task goes beyond literal understanding of a text and

assesses reading comprehension skills in a more varied way and at different levels. Candidates

will be required to show, inter alia, that they can infer meaning, deduce the meaning of

unfamiliar words by relying on contextual clues, show overall meaning of a text and follow the

sequence of events.

This year’s passage was the story of the Titanic. Most candidates seemed familiar with the story,

and cases where candidates failed to understand the passage completely were virtually non

existent. On the whole though, performance on the extended reading comprehension task

reflected the performance of candidates in previous examination sessions. Questions requiring

literal understanding of explicitly stated information were done well by most. However,

questions requiring other types of reading comprehension skills proved to be problematic to a big

number of candidates. In particular, the ability to make inferences and read between the lines

was the hallmark of the strongest scripts.

Also noteworthy this year was the number of telescoping answers found in Questions 9 and 10,

where candidates had to write out their answers. For example, to the question Give two reasons

why most passengers had little chance to survive, some candidates gave answers like The sea

was very cold and The ocean was -2 degrees Celsius, which mean the same thing.

Candidates struggled with the following items:

Item 3 When other ships warned the captain about the presence of icebergs __________

The expected answer here was that the captain continued on his way, which

candidates should have got from an understanding of the line However, the

captain of the Titanic did not pay attention to these messages. Many candidates

gave He rang the alarm bell as an answer. The alarm was only raised much later

in the order of events, showing that some candidates had difficulty following the

sequence of events.

Item 6 Many lifeboats were put in the sea without being full because ______________

The expected answer was there was a rush to leave to ship. Candidates had to

deduce from the words given in the text In the panic that a rush had ensued. A

common wrong answer was There were too many people on the ship. While it

was true that there weren’t enough lifeboats onboard, this was not the reason why

the lifeboats were lowered without being full.

Item 7 “The world was shocked by this tragedy.” The word ‘tragedy’ means __________

This vocabulary item was found to be difficult by many candidates. Even if they

were not familiar with the word, it should have been possible to deduce from the

context that the sinking of the Titanic, with the loss of more than 1500 lives,

could only be described as a sad event.

Item 8 An appropriate title for this passage could be _____________

To be able to provide an appropriate title, candidates need to be able to

demonstrate an overall understanding of the text. This is also a skill which is

found to be difficult by many candidates. The expected answer to this question

was An Unlucky First Voyage. A popular wrong answer was The Rescue of the

Titanic which was not an acceptable answer as the Titanic sank and was in fact

not rescued.

Question 3

Question 3 is the sentence writing task. Candidates are given sets of words and are expected to

write meaningful and syntactically correct sentences with them. The performance of candidates

on this task was on the whole satisfactory, although some recurrent problems are still present.

The intrusive article (*I eat a bread), difficulties in using appropriate connectives to relate

separate propositions, coherence of tenses, subject-verb agreement, the positioning of adverbs

and the influence of Kreol Morisien or French syntax were all visible in the work of candidates.

Educators are reminded of the following principles:

1. Verbs are given in the infinitive form. Candidates are free to conjugate the given verb in

any tense they consider appropriate.

2. Nouns can be used in both the singular and plural forms. For example, from this year’s

examination session, it would have beens acceptable to write a sentence with either

policeman or policemen.

3. All the given words must be used to write a sentence. Omitting any of the given words

will lead to a loss of marks.

4. Only one sentence must be written and the given words must be used to within the same

sentence. /using the words in different sentences leads to a loss of marks.

5. The word class of a given word cannot be changed. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs

must be used as such. For example, quickly cannot be used as quick or quicker.

Item 2 hungry – bread

The major difficulty encountered by candidates on this item was the fact that

bread is uncountable, and therefore it is not correct to say *When I am hungry I

eat a bread or *I like eating breads when I am hungry. One could say When I am

hungry I eat a piece of bread or a loaf of bread. Some candidates had difficulty to

use connectives to write relate the idea of being hungry to eating, producing

answers like *I am hungry, I eat a piece of bread. These are in fact two

sentences, with a comma wrongly inserted in between.

Item 3 film – cinema

Some candidates had difficulty finding the appropriate vocabulary in this item,

giving answers like *I look a film at the cinema instead of using watch or see.

Others omitted the use of the article, producing sentences like *I go to cinema to

watch a film, which is a structure closer to that acceptable in Kreol Morisien than

in English.

Item 4 bus – outing

Sentences like I go on an outing in a bus/ by bus were expected here and were

quite commonly seen. Candidates who struggled with this item had trouble using

prepositions correctly and produced sentences like *I go an outing in the bus. For

a small number of candidates the meaning of the word outing was unclear and

meaningless sentences like *Rita and John are outing the bus were offered.

Item 5 parents – congratulate – exam

The main difficulty of candidates on this item was an inability for some to use the

correct connectives to relate the different ideas. Many in fact produced two

sentences instead of one: *I passed my exam, my parents congratulate me. For

those who were able to use correct connectives the challenge was to make sure

that the different verbs were coherently conjugated. Responses like *As I pass my

exam, my parents congratulated me were not uncommon.

Item 6 policeman – quickly – thief

The challenge set to candidates in this item was whether they would be able to

position the adverb correctly in the sentence. Some did not manage to do so,

offering sentences like *The policeman caught quickly the thief. Adverbs in

English are generally free to move to different parts of a sentence, but not

between a main verb and its direct object, as illustrated in the example above.

This is another important difference between English and French syntax and the

attention of pupils should be drawn to this fact.

Section B

Section B makes up 40% of the paper and assesses the Desirable Learning Competencies

(DLCs), which are essentially higher order skills in the application of grammar, reading and

writing.

Question 4 (Word Formation and Tenses in Context)

This question assesses candidates’ ability to effect correct morphological transformations and to

use the right tense and correct verb form in a given context. This year, the context set was a

moral tale from Aesop’s fables about a dove who rescues an ant and who is then in turn rescued

by the ant, to show that good actions are always rewarded.

It has to be pointed out that the skills assessed in this question remain a significant challenge to a

large number of candidates. Being able to follow the logical sequence of a text and know which

tense is required, along with using the correct verb form, marked out the better candidates. In

particular, irregular verb forms are found to be difficult. Word transformations also continue to

be challenging to many. It was noteworthy this year that only a small number of candidates

managed to transform despair into desperate correctly.

Item 1 She walked in a forest for a long time until she finally found a lake.

This item was well done on the whole, with the only difficulty encountered being

the spelling of the word. Some candidates wrote *finaly or *finali.

Item 2 …while trying to drink from the lake, she slipped and fell into the water.

The past tense of fall was required here and this was generally done well by

candidates. Some had difficulty with finding the correct verb form and gave

*falled as an answer.

Item 3 “Help me,” she shouted loudly

The simple past tense was needed here and an important number of candidates

found the correct answer.

Item 4 …a dove was in a nearby tree and saw how desperate she was.

Transforming the noun despair into the adjective desperate was beyond the reach

of most candidates. Answers like *despaired and *desesperate were often

offered.

Item 5 The courageous bird quickly plucked a leaf and dropped it in the water…

Candidates performed generally well on this item, although the spelling of the

word again posed problem to a few. *Couragous was a common misspelling,

Item 6 The latter swam towards the leaf and climbed onto it.

The past tense of swim was required and while many candidates knew which

tense was needed, the irregular form of the verb proved to be difficult. *Swimmed

or even *swammed were regularly seen.

Item 7 The leaf carried the frightened ant slowly to safety,

The past participle form of frighten was required here. An overall understanding

of the context was needed for candidates to know which transformation was

required. Many offered frightening as an option, although this was not supported

by the context.

Item 8 …she saw a hunter getting ready to throw his net to trap the poor bird.

The present participle form was required here but many candidates had difficulty

to find the correct answer. Such structures are quite common in English (e.g I

saw him looking at me) and pupils should be made familiar with the required verb

forms in such contexts.

Item 9 The ant rushed towards the hunter and bit him strongly on his foot.

Candidates had to transform the adjective strong into the adverb strongly. This

was well done on the whole.

Item 10 The dove immediately flew away, out of reach of the hunter.

The past tense of fly was required here and, just like for item 6, candidates were

able to identify the tense required but had more difficulty in providing the correct

verb form. *Flied and *flowed were common wrong answers.

Question 5 (Cloze Text)

The Cloze Text is a higher order reading task which assesses candidates’ reading strategies and

both receptive and productive vocabulary. Candidates should rely on the context to predict what

words might be missing, draw from their own knowledge of the world, read forwards and

backwards to make predictions and test whether these predictions make sense. These are all

reading skills a proficient reader should possess.

This year the task was set on the myth of the Loch Ness monster. Candidates, as in previous

examination sessions, found the Cloze Test to be challenging. Many did not have the required

vocabulary to provide plausible answers to the gaps provided. Others provided answers which

did not make sense on the overall context of the given passage.

Item 1 In a country/place called Scotland, there is a lake called Loch Ness

Candidates had to draw on their world knowledge to provide a plausible answer

here. Any answer that indicated that Scotland was a geographical location (such

as region, land etc… ) was given credit.

Item 2 …the inhabitants say that there is a monster which lives in it.

This item tested candidates; knowledge of sentence structure and know that the

pronoun there was needed to introduce the subordinate clause. A common wrong

answer was it.

Item 3 They say that it has a huge body, a small head and/with/on a long neck!

This gap also required a grammatical element, with either a coordinating

conjunction or a preposition acceptable. This item was one where candidates

performed well.

Item 4 Does the Loch Ness monster really/even exist?

This item was found to be difficult by many candidates. An adverb was required

here to fit in the interrogative structure of the sentence but this was beyond the

reach of many.

Item 5 Scientists, however, do not think/believe that there is such a creature in the lake.

A common wrong answer was know. In this context, it is not possible to say do

not know whether but not do not know that.

Item 6 They have not found any evidence to solve the mystery.

From the context given it should have possible to deduce that the negative particle

not was required. Another possible answer was never.

Item 7 Nevertheless, the story of Nessie still fascinates many people…

A number of options was possible here: People, visitors, tourists, children etc…On

the whole, this item was satisfactorily done.

Item 8 Thousands of tourists come to the lake every year.

More acceptable answers were, inter alia, flock, fly, travel and on the whole,

performance on this item was satisfactory. A common wrong answer was visit,

which, though logical, did not fit in the structure of the text.

Item 9 They want to see the strange animal.

Other options which were considered acceptable here were go, have, aspire, intend

and words which would be synonymous to these. Some candidates were penalised

by using the past tense of the verb whereas the context made it necessary to use the

present tense.

Item 10 Indeed, Loch Ness has become a major tourist attraction in Scotland.

This item was found to be challenging by many candidates. Some other possible

answers were, inter alia, destination, resort and place.

Question 6

The final question on the paper is the composition writing task. This exercise assesses higher

order skills in writing, such as the ability to develop a given storyline imaginatively and

creatively, to use correct grammar and appropriate syntax to express one’s ideas, to use varied

sentence structures and a rich and varied vocabulary.

This year’s topic was Write about the bravest thing you have ever done. Candidates were free to

write a story from within their own experience or to make up an event. The concept of bravery

was interpreted as widely as possible by examiners and wholly irrelevant answers were very rare.

The range of answers received was very pleasing. Some wrote about catching runaway thieves,

others about saving drowning friends or pets. There were stories about valiant heroes liberating

hijacked aeroplanes and chasing terrorists. A story which particularly struck examiners was one

where a candidate wrote about finding the strength to face his bullies at school to finally put an

end to his suffering.

While the imaginative development of the storyline can be commended, the linguistic challenges

which pupils face when writing longer pieces of prose remain. Subject-verb agreement, the

correct use of modal verbs, the coherent use of tenses and using correct verb forms were all

challenges faced by candidates.

Educators are reminded that examiners are looking for an elaborate development of the given

storyline, the use of accurate grammar, the use of varied sentence structures and the ability to use

rich and varied vocabulary. Answers which are able to combine all these elements will score

highly.

The following sample of essays illustrates the range of answers obtained in this year’s paper.

The comments under each composition will highlight the strengths and weakness it presents.

Composition 1

It was a Sunday morning, the weather is sunny My parents decided I went to bought

potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, and many vegetables. I saw small girl has a many problems.

At home she has many problem has her parents. At a few minutes. I went to the shop to

bought a sweet and gave her and a many sweet. What is your name my name is Sarah. I

went to that at home the girl was very happy. I am very very happy that gave and

sweets.

While this story is complete, it is badly let down by the numerous grammatical mistakes. Many

sentences are syntactically incorrect and there is a real problem with the coherence of tenses.

Sentence separation is also an issue. On the whole, this scores some marks for the attempt at

developing a storyline but has too many language issues to score highly. It stays at the bottom

end of the spectrum.

There is a marked improvement in composition 2 as compared to composition 1. While the

development of the storyline can still be described as basic, the language is a lot more secure.

Grammar is more accurate, and although there are mistakes, they do not mar comprehension. It

scores a mid-range mark. An effort at writing more elaborate sentences and a richer vocabulary

would have earned this essay more marks.

Composition 2

It was a Monday morning, the wheather was fine. It was the school holidays. I had

nothing to do at home, so I decided to go to the river which was near to my house.

I took some foods with me and went to the river. When I arrived to my

destination, I was very happy and excited. Suddenly I saw a boy who shouted, he

was sinking in the river. The situation was difficult because the place where the

boy was too deep for me. I went in the river and swam to the boy. I took the boy

in my arms and brought him to the shore. I was feeling brave. The boy thanked me

and I went home.

Composition 3 is a lot more elaborate in content than compositions 1 and 2. There has been a

greater effort by this candidate to add details to the given storyline and the language is generally

secure, despite some spelling and grammatical issues. Again, it is the repetition of simple

sentences that prevent this candidate from scoring even more highly. Had there been greater

variety in the types of sentences used, this composition could have aspired to more marks.

Composition 3

It was a Saturday morning and I was returning from tuition. On my way, I saw that a

strange man was following a woman as she has gone to withdraw some money from the

bank. Suddenly the man took the woman’s handbag and ran away. As I am brave, I ran as

fast as I could and caught the pickpoket. Mr Anand, my neigbour, saw what was

happening. Losing no time, he phoned the nearby police station. After ten minutes, the

policemen came and took the thief to the police station. The pickpoket was put behind

bars. I took the handbag of the women and gave it to her. She thanked me whole

heartedly by giving me a chocolate. When I returned home, I related my brave action to

my parents. When they learnt about this, they were very happy. I was very proud of

myself by doing such a brave action.

Composition 4 is a truly outstanding piece of work. This candidate displays a level of

sophistication that demarcates it from the rest. Firstly, it is worth noting the elaborate

development of the storyline and the way it flows naturally. The use of a title and direct speech

also contribute to the quality of the work. Where this is really impressive is when it comes to the

variety of sentence structures. There are numerous complex sentences used consistently and in a

very natural way. All in all, it is as much as can be expected from a candidate at this level and

this composition scores very highly.

Composition 4

A narrow escape

That Monday afternoon will always remain unforgettable to me as I had done the

bravest thing in my life on that particular day.

Infact, I went to have lunch with my bosom friend John who was in his late teens just

like myself. While returning, John got a call from his sister who said that a bomb was

planted under his car and if he reduced the speed of the car, the bomb would blast. I

was immediately informed about it. We were panic-stricken. So, plucking up my courage

in both hands, I decided to remove the bomb although it was a very dangerous task.

The car was moving so fast that it went on the opposite lane where there was more risk

of an accident. But I didn’t lose hope. I continued my task when finally I was able to

remove the bomb which I threw very far away. Luckily, there was no loss of lives. At

last, we both heaved a sigh of relief as we were out of danger.

At that very moment, John’s sister arrived on the spot and exclaimed to me, <You are a

very courageous boy and thank you for having saved my brother’s life!> I was feeling very

proud of myself as I had done a very good action.

<Hadn’t it been me, a mishap would have surely happened!>