Territory-wide System Assessment 2005

1

Territory-wide System Assessment 2005

Primary 3 & 6

English Language

2

% of Students Achieving English BCin 2004 and 2005

Year TSA 2004 TSA 2005

P.3 75.9 78.8

P.6 -- 70.5

3

Territory-wide System Assessment 2005

Primary 3

English Language

4

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005Listening – Strengths

• Key words (e.g. a table, a money box) ★• Main ideas (e.g. in riddles – toys, utensils

in the kitchen, festivals, vehicles)

• Intonation (e.g. feeling happy and sad) ★• Sounds (e.g. distinguishing ‘3D’ from ‘3A

’, ‘3B’ & ‘3C’; stressed from unstressed sounds ‘30’ and ‘13’)

5

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Listening – Weaknesses

• Key words (e.g. distinguishing ‘Dora’ from ‘Dorothy, ‘Doreen’ & ‘Doris’)

• Main ideas (e.g. ‘grapes’ in a riddle) ★• Sounds (e.g. ‘day’ and ‘play’ in a poem)• Connection between ideas (e.g. the use of

connectives ‘first’ and ‘then’ for correct order) ★• Inference skills (e.g. inferring‘Mandy is clever.’

from‘Excellent! You’re the winner of this game.’ ★)

6

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Reading – Strengths

• Key words (e.g. hamburgers, sunny weather)

• Main ideas (e.g. identifying the main idea – ‘Little Duck was happy’ in ‘Thanks. These sandwiches taste good.’ )

• Book concept (e.g. telling the number of stories in the book) ★

• Unfamiliar words (e.g. ‘hurray’ and ‘yummy’ )

• Inference skills (e.g. able to tell the boy was ‘pleased’ from his smiling face ) ★

7

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Reading – Weaknesses

• Key words (e.g. ‘weekend’, ‘sale’)

• Main ideas (e.g. the reason for an activity ★)

• Unfamiliar words (e.g. ‘smashed’ from contextual clues) ★

• Inference skills (e.g. unable to infer what they thought about a character in the story)

• Pronoun references (e.g. ‘it’, ‘him’, ‘that’) ★

• Connection between ideas (e.g. ‘and’, ‘or’ )

8

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Writing – Strengths

• able to understand the task requirements (e.g. signs, letter, e-mail & story) ★

• able to write a short story based on a series of given pictures

(e.g. a story about Piggy and the Apple Tree) ★

• able to provide the correct recipient and sender in writing a letter and an e-mail ★

9

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Writing – Weaknesses

• only gave brief answers to guiding questions without supporting details (e.g. a letter) ★

• many grammatical and spelling mistakes (e.g. ‘Don’t step on the glass.’ instead of ‘Don’t step on the grass.’ )

10

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Speaking – Strengths

• able to give appropriate spontaneous responses to simple daily situations

• able to read texts aloud quite clearly• able to provide brief answers to questions

about their personal experiences (e.g. seasons, fast food shop, library & activities on Sundays)

• able to respond to questions on topics related to their daily life in the pictures

11

P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Speaking – Weaknesses

• showed some hesitations when encountering unfamiliar words

• could only give short and brief answers to questions raised by oral assessors without elaboration

• lacked the necessary vocabulary to express themselves adequately

12

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Listening

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• able to identify key

words about numbers and letters

• able to distinguish a wide range of mid-vowels (e.g. pot) and some initial consonants (e.g. Molly)

• able to identify key words about objects (e.g a table, a money box)

• able to identify some initial consonants (e.g. Lung, Tung, Fung, Hung)

• only able students could identify rhyming words (e.g. ‘day’ and ‘play’)

13

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Listening

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• able to identify the

intonation about happy feelings (e.g. ‘Hurray’)

• only able students could distinguish stressed and unstressed sounds (e.g. ‘70’ and ‘17’)

• able to identify the variation in intonation about feelings (e.g. sad and happy feelings)

• more students were able to distinguish stressed and unstressed sounds (e.g. ‘30’ and ‘13’)

14

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Reading

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• weak in book concept

– writer and illustrator

– contents page• few students were able

to make inferences from reading texts

• great improvement in book concept

• more students were able to make inferences from pictorial cues (e.g. able to tell the boy was ‘pleased’ from his smiling face)

15

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Reading

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• only able students

with good reading ability were able to interpret pronoun references (e.g. ‘she’ & ‘you’)

• only able students could interpret reference words (e.g. ‘him’ & ‘that’) and identify the connection between ideas (e.g. ‘and’ & ‘or’)

16

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Writing

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• unable to provide

details to the topics• unable to sequence

ideas• had difficulty in

writing complete sentences and correct verb forms

• gave brief answers to guiding questions

• lacked the skills in organising their ideas

• had difficulty in writing complete sentences and correct verb forms

17

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Writing

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• only able students

showed creativity and imagination

• weak in story writing based on a picture given

• more students showed creativity and imagination

• did better in writing a story based on a series of given pictures

18

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Speaking

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• responded quite well

to formulaic expressions in everyday situations

• read the texts aloud quite clearly

• responded better to formulaic expressions in simple situations

(e.g. How are you?)• more students were

able to read the text aloud quite clearly

19

Comparison of Student Performances P.3 Speaking

TSA 2004 TSA 2005• provided brief answers

to questions about the pictures

• provided brief answers on a familiar topic in their conversations

(e.g. school, beach & birthday party)

• unable to elaborate on their answers about the pictures

• gave only short and brief answers when talking about personal experiences (e.g. seasons, fast food shop, library & activities on Sundays)

20

Territory-wide System Assessment 2005

Primary 6

English Language

21

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Listening – Strengths

• Key words (e.g. scores ‘9:5’, day of a week ‘Sunday’, quantity of ingredients ‘1’ pack, ‘2’ cups)

• Sequence (e.g. procedure for baking a cake) ★• Specific information (e.g. age group ‘all ages’,

price ‘$13’ per packet, place ‘supermarkets’ to buy biscuits in an advertisement)

• Predicting development (e.g. why Lucy brought Miss Lam to her home – ‘to give back her cat’ in a story about Lucy and the cat)

22

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Listening – Weaknesses

• Rhyme (e.g.“Sit back and have a snack.”)• Intonation (e.g. speaker’s worried tone –

“Grandfather, look at this poor cat! Can I keep it?” said Lucy.)

• Inference skills (e.g in a riddle, “Drip drop, drip drop. Why won’t it stop?” being inferred as ‘the tap is on’ – the reason ‘I’ can’t sleep)

23

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Listening – Weaknesses

• Simile (e.g. ‘His short, stiff hair is like a brush’ & ‘Her fur is as white as snow’ in a poem about Auntie Mary’s pets)

• Key words (e.g. ingredients of a recipe: ‘a quarter’ = ‘1/4’ cup of water & ‘half a dozen’ = ‘6’ eggs)

24

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Reading – Strengths

• Specific information (e.g. name, age, status and appearance of characters ★; sequencing the popularity of books from a chart ★)

• Main ideas (e.g. why classmates read books ★ )

• Connection between ideas (e.g. able to understand the use of connectives ‘to’ & ‘and’ to get the total number of opening hours in a notice)

25

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Reading – Weaknesses

• Unfamiliar words (e.g. interpreting ‘flock’ by using contextual clues ‘thousands of tourists’ ★)

• Inference skills (e.g. implicit ideas about what the writer wants to say and feels about HK in a poem ★)

• Main ideas (e.g. the blurbs of two books about a treasure hunt and Dolphin Dolly ★)

26

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Reading – Weaknesses

• Rhyme (e.g. ‘hand’ and ‘dreamland’, ‘there’ and ‘everywhere’ in a poem ‘Hong Kong – Live it! Love it!’ ★)

• Simile (e.g. ‘tourists’ like ‘birds’ in a poem ‘Hong Kong – Live it! Love it!’ ★)

• Personification (e.g. ‘moon’,‘sun’ in riddles ★)

27

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Writing – Strengths

• able to understand the task requirements (e.g. library rules on a poster, a response to a play, a reply to a letter & Susan and the Robot Cat ★)

• able to respond to simple texts with relevant content and expressions of ideas (e.g. a response to a play & a reply to a letter ★)

• able to provide a correct letter format– sender and recipient– appropriate beginning and/or closing

28

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Writing – Weaknesses

• no elaboration with supporting details

• lack of coherence (e.g. no cohesive devices to link ideas)

• many grammatical and spelling mistakes

• substitution of words and ideas from the given letter (e.g. a reply to a letter)

29

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Speaking – Strengths

• able to read texts aloud quite clearly and audibly

• able to provide relevant answers in ‘Teacher-Student Interaction’ on familiar topics (shopping, jobs, food & drinks, festivals)

• able to deliver a speech with relevant ideas and appropriate eye contact in ‘Presentation’

30

P.6 Student Performances in TSA 2005 Speaking – Weaknesses

• weak in reading the text with appropriate pace, stress, rhythm and intonation

• unable to give elaboration to questions raised by oral assessors

• lack of ideas and organisation in doing the presentation

• a small range of vocabulary and sentence patterns in ‘T-S Interaction’ & ‘Presentation’

31

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in LISTENING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• able to identify

– key words about objects (e.g. a

table, a money box) with given cues

– main ideas in riddles by interpreting verbal and pictorial cues (e.g. toys, vehicles)

• able to identify

– key words such as scores ‘9:5’, day of the week ‘Sunday’ and quantity ‘1, 2’

– specific information (e.g. age group ‘all ages’, price ‘$13’ and place ‘supermarkets’ to buy the biscuits in advertisement)

32

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in LISTENING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• only able students

could identify rhyming words (e.g. ‘day’ & ‘play’) with options given in spoken texts

• only able students could identify rhyming words (e.g. ‘back’ &‘snack’) with the question given in spoken texts

33

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in READING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• able to identify main

ideas and key words with pictorial cues

• unable to identify the connection between ideas (e.g. ‘and’ & ‘or’)

• able to locate specific information from charts, posters & notices ★

• able to understand the use of connectives ‘to’ & ‘and’ to link ideas in a notice

34

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in READING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• only able students were

able to interpret

– inferences

– rhymes

– unfamiliar words

• only able students were able to interpret

– inferences

– rhymes

– unfamiliar words & expressions

– simile

– personification

35

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in WRITING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• understood the task re

quirements (signs, a letter, an e-mail & a story)

• did better in a story • able to provide a corre

ct letter format

– sender and recipient

• understood the task requirements (library rules, a response to a play, a story & a reply to a letter)

• did better in a reply• able to provide a correct

letter format

– sender and recipient

– appropriate beginning and/or closing

36

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in WRITING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• had difficulty in

vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling, cohesive devices and verb forms

• only able students could provide more details in their writing clearly

• had difficulty in vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling, cohesive devices and verb forms

• only able students could provide many ideas clearly and coherently with elaboration

37

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in SPEAKING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• able to read texts aloud

clearly despite some hesitations when encountering vocabulary

• able to provide brief answers to topics related to personal experiences (seasons, fast food shop, library, activities on Sundays)

• able to read texts aloud quite clearly despite some mistakes in pronunciation

• able to provide brief answers to a given topic in Teacher-Student Interaction (shopping, jobs, food & drinks, festivals)

38

Comparison of Student Performances at P.3 & 6 in SPEAKING in TSA 2005

P.3 P.6• capable of giving

appropriate responses to the questions related to the pictures given

• only able students could provide further details to questions raised by oral assessors

• able to provide relevant ideas to the topic with appropriate eye contact in the ‘Presentation’

• only able students could give elaboration when interacting with oral assessors or doing the presentation

39

Thank you!