ASL (Assessment of Speaking and Listening)

English as a medium of communication has acquired an important role in bridging the world together.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) envisages that all language skills need to be integrated into the English language curriculum at schools. Speaking and listening should be nurtured in children to equip them with better communication skills. It has been proposed to introduce formal testing of speaking and listening skills in the Summative Assessments in English at Secondary and Senior Secondary levels (Classes IX and XI) in CBSE.

Assessment of Listening Skills

The Listening Comprehension section tests the student’s ability to listen for basic interpersonal, instructional and academic purposes. A number of sub-skills need to be developed in the everyday classroom transaction.

Sub-skills of listening which need to be assessed in the formative and summative assessments:

  • Listening for specific information
  • Listening for general understanding
  • Predictive listening
  • Inferential listening
  • listening for pleasure
  • Intensive listening
  • Evaluative listening

Assessment of Speaking Skills

Speaking skill has acquired a very important place in the communication skills. A number of sub-skills of speaking need to be consciously developed amongst students like listening skills. Some of the sub-skills are given below which can be assessed.

  • Speaking intelligibly using appropriate word stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns.
  • Narrating incidents and events, real or imaginary in a logical sequence.
  • Presenting oral reports or summaries; making announcements clearly and confidently.
  • Expressing and arguing a point of view clearly and effectively.
  • Taking active part in group discussions, showing ability to express agreement or disagreement, summarizing ideas, eliciting the views of others, and presenting own ideas.
  • Expressing and responding to personal feelings, opinions and attitudes.
  • Participating in spontaneous spoken discourse in familiar social situations.