Vol. 5 Issue 1 – Research Paper: ‘Incorporating Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation In English Language Laboratories Of Engineering Colleges—A Case Study’ by Preetha Anthony & Dr. P. Aparna

This research paper is authored by Preetha Anthony, Asst. Professor of English, G. Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad & Dr. P. Aparna, HoD, H&M Department, G. Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad.

Introduction

Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation(CCE) is a new scheme of evaluation formulated by Mr. Kapil Sibal, the Minister of Human Resources Development and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India for Classes IX and X which are affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education.  The main objective is to reduce the accumulated stress of board exams on the students and to introduce a more uniform and comprehensive pattern in education for the students all over the nation. It provides continuity in evaluation and assessment of broad based learning, covering every aspect of students’ development.  CCE helps in enhancing students’ performance by identifying their learning difficulties at regular time intervals right from the commencement of the academic session and employing suitable remedial measures for improving their learning performance.

The concept of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation is a process of determining the extent to which the objectives are achieved. It is not only concerned with the appraisal of achievement, but also with its improvement. As testing evaluation is also concerned with identification of learning experiences and educative environment to produce changes in the learner’s behaviour, it involves information gathering, information processing, judgment forming, and decision-making.

As a part of this new system, student’s marks will be replaced by grades which will be evaluated through a series of curricular and extra-curricular evaluations along with academics. The aim is to reduce the workload on students and to improve the overall skill and ability of the student by means of evaluation of other activities. Grades are awarded to students based on work experience, skills, dexterity, innovation, steadiness, teamwork, public speaking, behaviour, etc. to evaluate and present an overall measure of the student’s ability. This helps the students who are not good in academics to show their talent in other fields such as arts, humanities, sports, music, athletics, etc. This is a new term to assess all round development of a child, irrespective of individual differences.

The CCE will cover the scholastic and co scholastic areas of school education. The two types of assessment are formative and summative. The periodicity of the two types of assessment is four and twice a year respectively.

Formative Assessment totals to 40% weightage.

Summative Assessment totals to 60% weightage.

There are nine grades in Part A of Scholastic assessment and Part B of the same assessment has five grades.  Summative assessment covers non academic areas like attitudes and skills and there are three grades. If a student secures Grade 6 in the academic areas his/her marks would range from 51% to 60%. CCE advocates absolute grading. This means that Grade 9 would imply an A2 grade.

The academic term is divided into two terms.

(The ‘tools and techniques’ used for Scholastic area evaluation is attached in Appendix I )

Having set the premise for the present paper, let us now focus on how CCE can be incorporated in English Language Laboratories of Engineering colleges.  Since English is only one of the components in the Scholastic area of the Engineering curriculum, the under current idea behind a few related aspects of the CCE pattern are taken into consideration.  The rationale is that the “CCE scheme not only provides  necessary feedback about the acquired levels of learning and areas of desired additional inputs for enhancement of learning in scholastic areas, it also lays emphasis on proficiency of learners in the acquisition of essential life skills, attitudes and values, interests and achievement in  co-curricular activities.” (Kapil Sibal)

Aims/Objectives

English Language Laboratories were introduced in the Engineering curriculum to enhance the communication skills of the would-be engineers, thus making them industry-ready. The University stipulated a syllabus which focuses on the production and practice of sounds of language and familiarize the students with the use of English in everyday situations and contexts.  The objectives of the course being, “ to expose the students to a variety of self-instructional, learner-friendly modes of language learning; to help them cultivate the habit of reading passages from the computer monitor, thus providing them with the required facility to face computer-based competitive exams such as GRE, TOEFL, IELTS, GMAT etc.; to enable them to learn better pronunciation through stress on word accent, intonation and rhythm; to train them to use language effectively to face interviews, group discussions, public speaking; to initiate them into greater use of the computer in resume preparation, report writing, format-making etc.”  In all the JawaharlalNehruTechnologicalUniversity affiliated colleges, the above syllabus is followed at length.  Hence the aim of the present paper is to propose an effective evaluation scheme which pronounces “whether the desired learning was achieved” and shows “how this impacted on the teachers or learners involved”.

A Case Study

For the purpose of the present study, the methodology adopted to impart English language learning incorporating the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (partially) in G. Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad is taken into consideration.  The English Language Laboratory here, broadly nomenclatures as ‘Centre for English Language Learning’ (CELL).  It is bifurcated into two divisions: (i) Multi-media Laboratory and (ii) Communication Skills Laboratory.  The activities conducted in these laboratories are designed in such a way that all the four basic language skills like Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW) are integrated.

(The course plan for the Centre for English Language Learning (CELL) is attached in Appendix II)

Before the commencement of the Laboratory sessions, the learners undergo a Diagnostic test to enable the teacher to estimate their language proficiency at the entry level.

The Evaluation pattern for the academic year is as follows:

Internal Assessment:     25 Marks ( 10 Marks – Day-to-day assessment, 10 Marks–

Average of 4 Pronunciation tests and 4 Writing

Skill tests, 5 Marks – Record Work)

External Assessment:      50 Marks (10 Marks: Project Submission, 10 Marks: Project

Presentation, 10 Marks: Writing Skills, 10 Marks:

Interview Skills, 10 Marks: Pronunciation Skills)

Both the Internal and External Assessments are institution-based, corresponding to the CBSE Formative Assessment. To begin with, let us consider the Internal Assessment.  The Day-to-day assessment is conducted by the individual teachers concerned.  It is based on their observations of how the learners perform the specific activities.  The criteria for evaluation is a ten-point scale, on which the components like Confidence level, language fluency, depth and range of content knowledge, body language and temperament; allotting two points each.  The teacher not only maintains a diary to record her observations, but also gives individual feedback to the specific learner in the presence of the peer-group, immediately after the presentation or after the entire session, generally.  This is found very beneficial by the learners because they would be more cautious not to repeat the mistake in future.  Some of the activities are video recorded and played back to the students, mainly to rectify their body language. Finally, the learners document the activity in their records which is evaluated on a five-point scale with parameters such as accuracy, brevity, clarity, coherence and organization of thoughts.

As a part of the External Assessment, a Project Work is assigned to the learners, which is a group activity, pursued outside the laboratory hours for a period of four-five weeks.  The group members and the leader are selected by the teacher concerned, keeping in view the different abilities of the learners. To some extent, Howard Gardner’s ‘Multiple Intelligences’ is the parameter that is used by the teacher to select the members of the team.  The main objective is to provide the students an opportunity to work in team, to learn team dynamics etc., which are the essential pre-requisites of a professional in the corporate field.

To conduct the External Examination, apart from the teacher concerned, who is the Internal Examiner, an Examiner from the University stipulated cluster colleges is also invited.  The students are assessed for their Interview skills, by the External Examiner through face-to-face interaction.  This is to give the students an opportunity to put themselves into a situation wherein they have to face an interview by a stranger, assuming that they would come out of their comfort zones and get acclimatized to face difficult situations in their real-life.  As the students undergo this evaluation process in all their four years of under-graduation, by the time they have to face the Placement interviews, they would feel comfortable.

In addition to the activities in the CELL, there are two other activities that the students of GNITS engage themselves in:  i) Portfolios ii) Wall Magazine.  Portfolio is a collection of evidences of students’ work over a period of time.  It could be day-to-day work or selection of the learner’s best piece of work.  This activity provides a cumulative record of how a learner makes progress in the enhancement of language proficiency and eventually becomes an active participant in learning and assessment.  Wall Magazine is a display of various talents in fine arts, creative writing, photography, writing skills etc., spread throughout the year.  At the end of the academic year, the best displays are identified to be compiled into an in-house magazine called, WE (stands for Women Empowerment).  This enables the students to get a hands-on experience in editing, proof-reading, compiling and getting their works published.  As intellectuals, we cling on to a maxim, “Publish, or…….Perish”.

Implications for teacher development

Through the Scheme of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation, “the teacher can enhance his/her ability to assess the learners’ progress” effectively.  It also gives an opportunity to reflect on one’s own teaching which is essential for the overall professional development of the teacher. When the learners take part in the learning process so actively, the teachers also get motivated to do more for them.  Eventually, it leads to Continuous Professional Development of the teacher.  It would contribute immensely to the quality of teaching, fostering change in teaching practice, applying the knowledge that they gained through training programmes.

Conclusion

Finally, the conclusion is that Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation in Language Laboratory provides a holistic assessment of the learners’ progress and gives an opportunity to the teachers in mentoring them through constant exchange of feedback.

References

• CBSE Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation Teachers’ Manual
• JNTU Syllabus copy