From the standpoint of assessing a child's language ability at the upper…
2019
From the standpoint of assessing a child's language ability at the upper primary level, the WEAKEST question is —
- A.
What should the India of your dreams be like? Write.
- B.
Write your views, with reasons, on how meaningful the programmes of news channels are.
- C.
Which two events of his life did the author describe as important?
- D.
When can exposing flaws take a harmful form?
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept
Assessing a child's language ability means measuring what the child can DO with language — express ideas, give opinions, reason, argue and create — through their OWN production. A task that only requires the learner to locate or recall information already stated in a given text measures reading recall, not the child's productive language ability. So the weaker a question is at prompting the child's own thinking and expression, the weaker it is as a language-assessment task.
Application
Judge each prompt by how much original language the child must produce:
"What should the India of your dreams be like? Write." — demands imaginative, free composition; the child generates ideas and organises them in their own words.
"Write your views, with reasons, on the meaningfulness of news-channel programmes." — demands opinion plus justification; the child must take a stance and argue it.
"When can exposing flaws take a harmful form?" — demands reasoning and analysis; the child must think through conditions and explain them.
"Which two events of his life did the author describe as important?" — asks only to find and reproduce two facts already stated in the passage; the answer is fixed and lifted directly from the text.
Why "which two events did the author describe as important?" is the weakest
This prompt has a single predetermined answer that the child copies out from the text. It tests literal recall of given information, so it reveals almost nothing about the child's capacity to express, reason or create with language. The other three force the child to compose, opine or analyse — they actively elicit language ability — which is exactly what this one fails to do.
Cross-check
Swap each prompt's answer source: three of them have no "right" answer printed anywhere — the child must build the response. The factual-recall prompt's answer is already on the page. The one whose answer is merely retrieved is the weakest measure of language ability.