Post Test Analysis Of Reading Skills

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

In the above test item, majority of the learners, i.e. 70% of them identified more than fifteen words like remember, understand, learn, speak, etc. The remaining students, i.e. 30% of them identified below ten words. This shows that the learners were able to interact well in the class with the teacher and with their classmates while doing the communicative activities.

Read the words and put them into six groups according to their meaning.

In this test item, out of hundred students, 72% of them were able to categorise the words according to their meaning like church, alter, worship as one category and school, classroom, knowledge as another category, etc. Only 28% of the attempted the test item but could not complete it. They were confused with some of the words like courtroom, power, horseback, etc.

In the given sentences, there is a word whose letter when rearranged will give the name of a part of one’s body.

Out of hundred respondents, majority of the students, i.e. 68% of them tried to get the maximum number of words and rearranged the letters to get the names of the parts of a body. Only a few of them i.e. 32% of the learners could not identify all the words from every given sentence. They were confused with certain words like fringe, lamp, inch, etc.

Read the passage and write a short dialogue between Dr. Einstein and his secretary.

In this test item, majority of the respondents, i.e. 58% of them were able to write a dialogue between Dr. Einstein and his secretary looking at the given passage whereas rest of the 42% of the learners attempted to write it but they could not complete it. Perhaps they were not able to comprehend the passage correctly.

In the last test item, the students were asked to rearrange the sentences to make a complete story.

Out of hundred students, maximum number of students, i.e. 65% of them were able to put them in the order whereas 35% of them got confused and they could not arrange them in the order.

Findings from the test on Reading Skills

After the In-service training programme, majority of the teachers were aware of using various communicative activities and made the learners do them in the language classroom. Learners were exposed to different reading material. According to Social interactionist theory, learning occurs through interactions with others. The teachers were able to have a dynamic interplay between the learners, tasks and interactions with the peer group.

In the test item, ‘looking at the puzzle, find twenty words related to school’, highest number of students answered correctly. This shows that when the students are exposed to different reading material while doing different activities through role plays, group work and pair work, the learners come across a number new vocabulary. Hence, they were able to identify the words in the given puzzle easily.

As the humanistic approach emphasises the importance of the inner world of the learner and places the individual’s thoughts, feelings and emotions, if the learners are given the opportunities, they are able to face the challenges in their learning.

In the test item, ‘read the words and put them into six groups according to their meaning’, highest number of the learners were able to respond correctly. When the teachers involve the learners in their learning and create conducive atmosphere that will help them to stimulate the curiosity and participate actively in the tasks and learn the target language.

It was observed that in the test item, ‘identifying the words and rearranging their letters to get the parts of the body’, only 32% of the learners responded incorrectly. As Piaget rightly puts it that a task should match the cognitive level of the learner, they are able to perform the activities well and will be ready to go to the next level. In this test item, majority of the learners were aware of the parts of the body. Therefore, they were able to comprehend the given words and write them into a correct form.

In the next test item, ‘writing a short dialogue using the passage’, maximum number of the students (58%) answered correctly. When the learners are given chance to use the relevant information for their reading tasks, they show keen interest in their learning. As the learning occurs based on current and past knowledge, the students are able to anticipate the learning outcome. Therefore, the teachers have to create the opportunities suitable to the students and make them participate actively in the given tasks and help them learn the language in a better way. The teachers have to accompany the learners in their process of learning the target language.

Findings from the test on Listening Skills

Listening is a complex process wherein the auditory system, the brain and the language interact. This interaction converges for the realization of one goal, i.e. comprehension. Usha says, "Language, being a means of human communication, plays a vital role in the process of listening. Effective listening is an important prerequisite to acquisition of knowledge and language learning." (28)

After the INSET programme to the teachers, most of them had taken their teaching profession serious and started teaching English using communicative approach. They were able to implement the communicative activities to certain extent. The students started participating in these activities enthusiastically. Majority of the teachers started using radio, T. V., mobile, etc. to listen to various news items. The students are given a lot of exposure to the language and made them do the tasks after listening to these news items. This exposure to the language helped the learners to answer the test in ‘listening skills’ well.

In the test item, ‘true/false’, majority of the learners, i.e. 75% of them responded correctly. Only a few of the learners found it difficult to understand the passage. In behaviouristic view, the learners were asked to memorize the answers, drill them and practice of each structure one at a time. Whereas, after the INSET programme, the teachers started to using social interactionist approach, in which learning occurs through interactions. The emphasis is on the importance of the learners’ inner world where they bring not only their thoughts, feeling and emotions, but also the background knowledge to the classroom learning. This gives the learners willingness to learn the language in a better way.

It was observed that in the test of ‘News item’, the maximum number of learners responded correctly indicates that they were able to do well than the in the pre-test. The tasks were given to match the cognitive level of the learners. They were allowed to interact with the teacher and with their classmates while doing the tasks.

In the test item, ‘listening to the announcement and answering the questions’ Majority of the learners responded correctly. Similar test item was given in the pre-test but the students have done well in the post-test as they were given lot of tasks to do within the class hours. These results show that if the opportunities are given, the learners are ready to do the tasks well. The teachers have to transform the material in the tasks to suit the cognitive level of the learners. As the learners mostly depend upon their previous experiences and anticipate what will happen in the future, the teachers have to select the materials which will enable the learners to participate actively in the given tasks and learn the language well.

In the next test item, ‘identify the correct word’ the maximum number of students answered correctly. These results indicate that the learners are given the opportunities to interact well while doing the tasks, they became familiar with the new vocabulary and also grammatical functions which had helped them to do this test item well.

It was found that in the test item, ‘trace out the odd word’, only 38% of the students responded incorrectly. The learners were able to identify the phonemic variation of different words given viz., simple, temple, sample, tremble, and dimple.

Finally, ‘identifying and recalling the days and telephone numbers’, 65% of the respondents answered correctly. Some of the learners missed when they were more than six digits and also missed grammatical structures of, the, on, etc. in the given test items.

These results indicate that if the learners are accompanied closely while doing the tasks and are given the opportunities to listen to various public announcements and given them the follow up tasks accordingly, they will be able to master the target language with great interest.

Analysis on Listening Skills

Listen to the passage and say whether the statements are True/False.

S. No.

Responses

True

False

Percent

1

The prince wanted to marry a real queen

30

70

100

2

The prince went round the palace looking for a real queen

29

71

100

3

One night there was a great storm

70

30

100

4

Someone knocked on the city gate

71

29

100

5

The princess wore a silk crown

31

69

100

6

The queen put a pea on twenty mattresses

29

71

100

7

The prince said she didn’t close her eyes once all night

72

28

100

8

Only a real princess could have seen the pea at all

68

32

100

9

The pea is kept in the royal palace

28

72

100

10

The prince was able to find the princess very easily

31

69

100

(Note: hundred students have taken the test in Listening skills)

This table shows majority of the students i.e. 70% have understudy were able to answer correctly saying that the first statement is false whereas 30% of the learners responded incorrectly saying that the given statement is true.

Out of hundred students, 71% of the learners responded correctly to the second statement saying that it is wrong whereas 29% of the learners answered incorrectly saying that the statement is true.

The maximum number of students, i.e. 70% of them answered correctly to the third statement saying that it is true whereas 30% of them responded incorrectly saying that it is false.

The majority of the learners i.e. 71% of them answered correctly to the fourth statement saying that it is true. Only 29% of them responded incorrectly saying that the given statement is false.

It is observed that out of hundred students, the majority of the learners i.e. 69% of them answered correctly to the fifth one saying that the given statement is false whereas 31% of them responded wrongly saying that the statement is true.

Out of hundred students 71% of the learners answered correctly to the sixth one saying that the given statement is false whereas 29% of them answered wrongly saying that it is true.

The maximum number of students i.e. 72% of them answered correctly to the seventh one stating that it is true whereas 28% of them responded wrongly saying that it is false.

It was noticed that 68% of the learners responded to the eighth statement saying that it is true whereas 32% of them answered wrongly as false.

The majority of the learners i.e. 72% of them responded to the ninth statement saying that it is false whereas 28% of them answered incorrectly as true.

Out of hundred students the maximum number of students i.e. 69% of them responded correctly to the tenth statement that it is false whereas 31% of them answered incorrectly as the given statement is true.

II. Listen to the News item and answer the questions.

The first man made satellite was ----------

S. No.

Responses

Percent

a

b

c

d

Missile

Sputnik I

Pritvi I

Sputnik II

-

71

29

-

Total

100

The above table shows that 71% of the students were able to answer correctly as Sputnik I whereas 29% of them responded incorrectly.

The first satellite was send it to space by -----------

S. No.

Responses

Percent

a

b

c

d

4 October 1947

4 December 1957

4 October 1957

12 April 1962

30

-

70

-

Total

100

Out of hundred respondents, 70% of the learners answered correctly as ‘4 October 1957’ whereas 30% of the students responded incorrectly.

The animals and later spaceman were sent up by -------------

S. No.

Responses

Percent

a

b

c

d

Airships

Air engines

Space engines

Spaceships

26

-

-

74

-

Total

100

In this test item, the majority of the students i.e. 74% of them responded correctly as ‘spaceships’ whereas 26% of the learners answered incorrectly.

They send television pictures from one country to another by -----------

S. No.

Responses

Percent

a

b

c

d

Satellite

Air bus

Space machines

Missiles

77

-

23

-

Total

100

The above table shows that out of hundred students 77% of the learners answered correctly as ‘satellite’ whereas rest of the learners i.e. 23% of them responded incorrectly.

As the above test item is similar to the test item given in the pre-test, the majority of the learners responded correctly. Only a few of the learners responded incorrectly shows that these learners did not listen to the news item well. After the INSET programme, the teachers were conscious of making the learners do the communicative activities using T.V., radio, tape recorder, mobile, etc. as and when possible to listen to various news items

As social interactionist approach claims, the learners need to be exposed to the target language; the teachers need to take care of choosing the materials for listening that will enable the students to learn the target language.

III. Listen to the announcement carefully and answer the questions.

One can hear this kind of announcement at -----------------

Out of hundred students, the majority of them i.e. 75% of them answered correctly as ‘bus stand’ whereas only 25% of them responded incorrectly. These results show that the learners started paying attention to various announcements.

The bus number announced is --------------

The maximum number of students i.e. 73% of them answered correctly as 3628 and the remaining 27% of them responded wrongly. This result indicates that some of the students have a problem with listening to the numbers correctly.

The number from which the bus starts is -----------------

The majority of the students i.e. 80% of them answered correctly as the bus starts at No. 21 whereas only 20% of the learners gave different answers. This result shows that the learners are eager to learn the language when they are given enough exposure to it.

The bus starts at --------------

Out of hundred respondents the maximum number of students i.e. 69% of them responded correctly as 22 hours and 10 minutes or 10 p.m. whereas a few students i.e. 31% of them responded incorrectly. This gives the picture that some of the learners are not aware of these timings.

The bus is going to ---------------

It was observed that 81% of the learners were able to answer correctly as ‘the bus is going to Tirupathi’ whereas 19% of them answered incorrectly. This result indicates that a few students are not able to pay attention in the class especially to the listening tasks.

These results show that the majority of the learners are able to respond to the listening tasks well. As similar task was given in the pre-test, the students were aware of it and this time they listened to the announcement carefully and responded correctly.

Analysis of Writing Skills

Fill in the blanks in the paragraph below with the compound words, Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

Range of Marks/Level of Students

Frequency

Percent

0-2 – poor

3-5 – average

6-8 – good

9-10 – very good

25

30

35

10

25

30

35

10

Total

100

100

As the above table shows that 25% of the learners are in filling the blanks with suitable compound words, while 30% of the students are of average level. The maximum number of students i.e. 35% of them is good and a small minority of the students are very good at this writing skill. These results indicate that there is a lot of improvement in their understanding of compound words to fill in the given passage.

Complete the questions.

Range of Marks/Level of Students

Frequency

Percent

0-2 – poor

3-5 – average

6-8 – good

9-10 – very good

15

20

48

17

15

20

48

17

Total

100

100

This table shows that 15% of the students are poor in completing the questions while 20% are of average level. This table shows that the maximum number of students i.e. 48% of them are ‘good’ in competing the questions while a small minority 17% of them are very good at this writing skill.

These results indicate that the students have improved in this writing skill to some extent as they were given a number of tasks in group work and pair work after INSET programme to the teachers.

Match the sentence-halves correctly and write out the complete sentences in the space provided.

Range of Marks/Level of Students

Frequency

Percent

0-2 – poor

3-5 – average

6-8 – good

9-10 – very good

12

31

42

15

12

31

42

15

Total

100

100

The written responses of students regarding combining the sentence halves correctly and writing the complete sentences indicate that 12% of the learners have rather ‘poor’ knowledge while 31% of the learners have average knowledge. The majority of the students i.e. 42% of them were able to write the complete sentences and a few of them, 15% are very good at combining the sentence halves correctly.

These results indicate that the learners are able to understand the given sentences and combine them correctly according their meaning. When the students are given exposure to the target language they are able to comprehend the vocabulary and their meanings in a better way.

IV. Use the given information in the table and write a paragraph on each of the ants.

Range of Marks/Level of Students

Frequency

Percent

0-2 – poor

3-5 – average

6-8 – good

9-10 – very good

25

29

33

13

25

29

33

13

Total

100

100

As per the writing of a paragraph using the given information in the table, the maximum number of respondents i.e. 33% of them is good while 13% of them have written well whereas 29% of them are average while 25% of them are poor in this writing skill.

As lot of information was given in the table, it was easy for the students to write a paragraph on three different kinds of ants. These results show that the students have improved in their writing skills compare to the result of pre-test.

V. Look at the diagram and write a paragraph on lobsters.

Range of Marks/Level of Students

Frequency

Percent

0-2 – poor

3-5 – average

6-8 – good

9-10 – very good

22

33

28

17

22

33

28

17

Total

100

100

According to this table, 22% of the learners are of poor to write a paragraph while 33% of them are of average level whereas 28% of the students understudy are good while 17% of the learners have written a very good paragraph on ‘lobsters’ using the information in the diagram.

These results indicate that the learners are able to do well in their language skills if the teachers give them the opportunities to participate actively in the given tasks in the classroom. As they are exposed to the reading materials, listen to various news items, announcements and discussions and interact with the teachers and with their classmates, the students are able to learn new vocabulary, grammatical functions and are able to do well in their written work.

Findings from the Writing Skills

Before the INSET programme almost all the teachers had followed the behaviouristic approach in which the teachers made the students learn the answers by rote and practice the grammatical structures one at a time. Though the students were getting high percentage of marks, they had no knowledge of language skills.

As the teachers had in-service training programme, they started interacting with the learners while implementing what they learnt in the INSET.

The results of test item one, ‘fill in the blanks in the paragraph with the given compound words’, shows that the majority of the learners (72%) were able to do well. Only a few of the students’ (25%) performance was poor. When the learners are involved in an active process of making of what they are learning, they are able to learn in a better way.

It has been identified that in the test item, ‘complete the questions’, some of the errors were committed by the learners in sentence level also due to the dissimilarity of syntax pattern between L1 and L2. Some students have written the interrogative sentences in the reverse order as ‘when she was ill’ instead of ‘when was she ill?’. This is due to the influence of L2 spoken form on writing. But in the post-test, the students have made very few errors compared to the pre-test.

It has been noticed that in the test item, ‘match the sentence halves and write out the complete sentences’, the maximum number of students have written correctly. Only a few of them made a few errors. This is due to the failure in understanding of the compound words and also ignorance of the meanings of the grammatical functions. It was noticed that as the teachers have taken care in the process of teaching English after the INSET programme, the students are able to perform well to some extent.

It has been identified that in the test item, ‘using the information and writing a paragraph’, the majority of the learners were able to write a good paragraph. This shows that when the students are exposed to various language items, in the process of doing the tasks in group work and pair work, the weaker learners are also able to learn further from their classmates.

In the last test item, ‘writing a paragraph using the information in the diagram’, the maximum number of students have attempted and written a good paragraph on ‘lobsters’. A few of the learners were not able to write a paragraph. The errors have been unearthed in the grammatical agreement between words, demonstrative adjectives and nouns, subject and verb, and pronouns and verbs.

Hence, the interaction of the learners with materials and the teachers are very important. The teachers need to create tasks like puzzles, matching the vocabulary according their meanings, synonyms and antonyms, jumbled stories, or give the hints to write a paragraph on different topics, etc. The variety of activities will help the learners to interact well with one another in the classroom and also with the teacher to improve their language skills. The teachers need to continue the process of teaching actively to help the students in the process of learning to develop their language skills.

Test on Speaking Skills-Data Analysis

Avoidance

As the learners became familiar with the research scholar, many of them showed willingness to speak to her. It was observed that a few of the students (52%) did not want to speak in English. The reasons could be that these students do not feel confident and are aware of their inadequacy to speak in English with others. Hence, they used the strategy of avoidance.

Syntactic Avoidance

In the post-test, majority of the learners tried to make sentences while speaking whereas some of them (56%) adopted this strategy to conceal their linguistic inadequacy. They tried to use one word or phrases instead of using full sentences.

Samples

Come school by bicycle

Bicycle

Public bus

Come to school walking

In response to

How do you come to school?

I like singling. I did not like dance

Sports I like...

Cooking...

In response to

What are your likes and dislikes?

Participated in singing, for me first prize

In response to

Do you participate in different competitions?

These are the few examples where the students tried to speak to the researcher. Many of the students made an effort to speak in detail. But some of the students were brief in giving their answers due to their inadequacy in vocabulary and grammar. They tried to convey the crux of the meaning of their response.

As the students are given the opportunities to interact with the teacher and classmates, they are able to overcome their fears of speaking in L2.

Semantic Avoidance

As the learners are given exposure to the target language, they tried to give meaningful sentences. Majority of the learners tried to speak in English except a few who did not follow the questions and gave different responses using the strategy of semantic avoidance.

Samples

Work and study...

I go for Intermediate...

Stay home...

In response to

What will you after 10th class?

Serve sick people

Build hospital in our village

For

What will you do if you become a doctor?

The above examples explain that the students tried to give answers according the questions posed to them. They tried to recall the similar interactions they had earlier in the classroom while playing a game. It was observed that the maximum number of students (55%) tried their linguistic utterances adequately while speaking.

Literal Translation

Majority of the learners (58%) tried to avid the literal translation.

Samples

Evening I play cricket with my friends

Homework I am doing

For

How do you spend your time after the school?

I like teacher work

Doctor I want to become

For

What do you want to become after your studies?

In the post-test the maximum number of students avoided using translation for every single word. They were able to relate the words in their mother tongue with the words in English which were collected and stored in their memory and they could use them in their responses. It was noticed that 62% of the learners have adopted this strategy of L1 construction and later tried to formulate the correct sentences in L2 as shown in the examples.

Fillers

In some cases, some of the learners adopted fillers to cover the internal processes that were taking place in their minds. The fillers were the usual expressions of the learners which do not carry any literal meaning. The sounds like ‘ummm..., tharuvatha’ (afterwards), etc. are used to denote that they are searching for the right word.

Samples

Computers are useful in daily life. Work go fast.....ummm .....use in offices, calculate soon, ummm..... tharuvatha..(afterwards) .... record programmes. I am learning computers daily outside...

These examples reveal the fact that once the students are given a topic, they try maximum to convey all that they know. But, they face trouble in the course of time as they do not get exact vocabulary. Therefore, the use of the fillers helps the learners in their mental search. When they are given guidance and assistance in their communicative tasks, they will be able to avoid using the fillers.

Repetition

When the students do not get words to convey what they want, they try to repeat some of the words, phrases or parts of sentence; meanwhile they try to recollect the next word. For example:

I .....I feel happy

I like ..... I like English very well

English is useful.....English is useful for higher studies.

The above examples reveal that the words repeated by the students belong to different grammatical elements. They are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, etc.

After repeating these words, they are able to continue their speech with confidence. This repetition of words shows that the students are in the process of searching for the next words. 62% of the learners used this strategy of repetition.

Voice Reduction

Voice reduction is yet another strategy used by the learners when they realise that what they are going to say is wrong. Instead of avoiding pronouncing the word, or asking for help, or keeping silence, they pronounce the word with their voice lowered and feel satisfied thinking that they have used complete sentence.

Samples

We celebrate Dasara, Diwali, Christmas, Ramzan, Sankranthi, etc.

During Christmas, we get gifts, Santhaclause (voice reduce)... bring new cloths.

Diwali ..... full of enjoyment, we burn (voice reduce) crackers.... lights (voice reduce) ..full of lights. We see colourful lights.

These examples show that the students used the strategy of lowering the voice whenever they find it hard to get exact words. This shows that they lack confidence over their linguistic ability when speak in English. It is observed that 56% of them used this strategy of voice reduction in the process of their communication with the researcher.

Strategy of Intra Lingual Transfer

The majority of the students find it hard in the use of irregular verbs and plural noun forms, hence, they simply add ‘S’ to all the singular nouns and ‘ed’ to all the verbs.

Samples

Womans for women

Foots for feet

Another strategy in the case of morphology, the students use similar words. For example, in the case of English, the suffix ‘ed’ is used while changing the verb into past form without being aware of some exceptions to this rule.

For example

Write – wrote

Come – came

Bring – brought

The students have obtained the similar change, namely adding ‘ed’ to every verb when they have to change it from present to the past tense. But they have not learnt the exceptions in this case also. They made similar mistakes as they have done in the pre-test.

Buyed for bought

Gived for gave

Goed for went

70% of the students have used intra lingual strategy such as over simplifying plural suffix ‘es’ as well as past tense ‘ed’ as they had done the same mistake in the pre-test.

Findings from the Speaking Skills

The present post research findings show that the students have improved compared to their pre-test results. The learners were free to talk to the researcher in spite of their inadequacy to speak in English with others.

After the INSET programme, the teachers have changed their methodology in the process of teaching English using lot of communicative activities. The rapport between the teacher and the learners has improved to some extent. They motivated the learners to learn English in an effective way.

Some of the students used the strategy of avoidance. But the majority of the learners have interacted well with the researcher. They gained confidence as they were made them do lot of communicative activities in the classroom where they had to interact with the teacher and with their peer group.

A few of the learners have used the technique of syntactic avoidance in which they used one word answers or the phrases instead of using full sentence. As any language is important for cognitive growth, the teachers need to facilitate the opportunities for language learning. The teachers have to select the materials to suit the cognitive level of the learners. In the beginning, the teachers can have short interactions in the form of games up to leading them write to write their bio-data as given in the communicative activities ( see also ).

Semantic avoidance is yet another strategy used by the students. As the learners were asked to learn everything by rote without understanding its meaning, they find it difficult to understand the language and use it meaningfully. Hence, it is the responsibility of the teachers to see that the classroom language and the routine things that occur should facilitate the opportunities for language development.

Some of the learners (62%) have adopted the strategy of literal translation. In some cases they followed the word for word translation from their mother tongue to L2. And some used the fillers to cover the internal process taking place in their mind to get the next word. This can be avoided if the teachers encourage the students to think and be creative in their learning. The communicative tasks can challenge them arousing curiosity in order to help the learners realise their potential and become confident in their learning the target language.

Repetition is another strategy adopted by the students. The repetition of incomplete words gives the learners some more time to search for the next words or phrases.

As learning occurs through interactions with others, it is important for the teachers to create situations which will enable them to have interactions resulting meaningful social experiences.

When the students are not confident in what they are saying in L2, they suddenly lower their voice. It indicates that they lack confidence to speak in English fluently. This can be avoided if the teachers conduct some competitions in oral presentations, debate, extempore speeches, etc. and help the students build their confidence.

The students used yet another strategy of intra lingual transfer even in the post-test. When they are not aware of the syntactic rules in the target language they tend to apply the same rule in every case especially when they have to change the nouns into plural forms and irregular verbs.

As Erik Erikson points out that success in one task has influence upon how one can deal with subsequent tasks, the teachers have to select the tasks carefully that will cater to the needs of the learners to participate actively in these activities and learn English well.

The teachers and the students have to participate actively in their process of teaching/learning to see the learning outcome both in the teachers and the learners.