Aims and Objectives of the Functional English Course:

• to enable the learner to acquire competence in different linguistic functions
• to reinforce the various subskills related to reading, writing, listening and speaking.

The Approach to Functional English Curriculum
A skill based communicative approach is recommended in Functional English with graded texts followed by learner centred activities.  It is recommended that teachers consciously take a back seat, playing the role of a manager, coordinator and facilitator.

Language Skills and their Objectives
Approach to Reading
The course aims at introducing variety in text type rather than having short stories and prose pieces. The emphasis will have to be to enlarge the vocabulary through word building skills and to impart training in reading for specific purposes.

Specific Objectives of Reading

To develop specific study skills :
to refer to dictionaries, encyclopedia, thesaurus and academic reference material
to select and extract relevant information, using reading skills of skimming and scanning,
to understand the writer’s attitude and bias.
to comprehend the difference between what is said and what is implied.
to understand the language of propaganda and persuasion.
to differentiate between claims and realities, facts and opinions.
to form business opinions on the basis of latest trends available.
to comprehend technical language as required in computer related fields.
to arrive at personal conclusion and comment on a given text specifically
to develop the ability to be original and creative in interpreting opinion
to develop the ability to be logically persuasive in defending one’s opinion.

To develop literary skills as enumerated below :
to personally respond to literary texts

to appreciate and analyze special features of languages that differentiate literary texts from non-literary ones
to explore and evaluate features of character, plot, setting etc.
to understand and appreciate the oral, mobile and visual elements of drama
to identify the elements of style such as humour, pathos, satire and irony etc.

Speaking and Listening
Speaking needs a very strong emphasis and is an important objective leading to professional competence. Hence testing of oral skills must be made an important component of the overall testing pattern.To this end, speaking & listening skills are overtly built into the material to guide the teachers in actualization of the skills.

Specific Objectives of Listening and Speaking or Conversation Skills (Aural/Oral)
to listen to lectures and talks and to be able to extract relevant and useful information for a specific purpose.
to listen to news bulletins and to develop the ability to discuss informally on a wide ranging issues like current national and international affairs, sports, business etc.
to respond in interviews and to participate in formal group discussions.
to make enquiries meaningfully and adequately and to respond to enquiries for the purpose of travelling within the country and abroad.
to listen to business news and to be able to extract relevant important information.
to develop the art of formal public speaking.

Writing Skills
The course for two years has been graded in such a way that it leads the students towards acquiring advanced writing skills through integrated tasks that move from less linguistically challenging to more challenging ones. It has been planned on the premise that sub skills of writing should be taught in a context and more emphasis should be laid on teaching the process of writing.

Specific Objectives of Writing
to write letters to friends, pen friends, relatives etc.
to write business letters and official ones.
to send telegrams, faxes, e-mails.
to open accounts in post offices and banks.
to fill in railway reservation slips.
to write on various issues to institutions seeking relevant information, lodge complaints, express thanks or tender apology.
to write applications, fill in application forms, prepare a personal bio-data for admission into colleges, universities, entrance tests and jobs.

to write informal reports as part of personal letters on functions, programmes and activities held in school (morning assembly, annual day, sports day etc.)
to write formal reports for school magazines or in local newspapers on the above events or occasions.
to write presentation of opinions, facts, arguments in the form of set speeches for debates.
to present papers for taking part in symposia.
to take down notes from talks and lectures and make notes from various resources for the purpose of developing the extracted ideas into sustained pieces of writing.
to write examination answers according to the requirement of various subjects.

CLASS XI
One Paper 3 Hours Marks: 100

SECTION A
1. ADVANCED READING SKILLS 20 Marks (50 Periods)
Two unseen passages (including poems) with a variety of questions including 04 marks for vocabulary such as word formation and inferring word meaning. The total range of the 2 passages, including a poem or a stanza, should be around 650-1000 words.
1) 350-500 words in length – 8 marks (for note-making and summarizing) 08
2) 300-500 words in length – 12 marks (04 marks for vocabulary)
The passages or poems could be of any one of the following types 12
(a) Factual passages e.g. instructions, descriptions, reports
(b) Discursive passages involving opinion e.g. argumentative, persuasive
(c) Literary passages e.g. poems, extracts from fiction, biography, autobiography, travelogue etc.
In the case of a poem, the text may be shorter than 200 words.

SECTION B
2. EFFECTIVE WRITING SKILLS 25 Marks (50 Periods)
3. THREE writing tasks as indicated below :
One out of two short writing tasks such as composing messages, notices, e-mails and factual description of people, arguing for or against a topic
(50-80 words) Note: e-mail is to be tested only as part of continuous assessment 05
4. Writing one out of two letters based on given verbal/visual input 10
a) Official letter for making inquiries, suggesting changes/ registering complaints, asking and giving information, placing orders and sending replies (80-100 words)
b) Letters to the editor on various social, national and international issues (125-150 words)
5. One out of two long and sustained writing tasks such as writing a speech or writing an article based on or verbal or a visual input (150-200 words). 10

SECTION C

APPLIED GRAMMAR 15 Marks (30 Periods)
A variety of questions, as listed below, may be asked to test grammar items in context (not as isolated sentences). Grammar items such as modals, determiners, voice and tense forms are being dealt with in Class XI. However, other items such as prepositions, verb forms, connectors which have
been learnt earlier would also be included.
6. Drafting questions/questionnaires based on given input 4
7. Composing a dialogue based on the given input 4
8. Testing Pronunciation, Stress and Intonation 3
9. Error correction in sentences 4

SECTION D

LITERATURE 30 Marks (50 Periods)
In the Literature Reader, questions will be asked to test comprehension at different levels and of different kinds such as local, global, interpretative, inferential, evaluative and extrapolatory.
10. One out of two extracts from different poems from the Literature Reader, each followed by two or three questions to test local and global comprehension of ideas and language used in the text. 4
11. Two out of three short answer questions based on different poems to test theme, setting and literary devices. It may or may not be based on the extract. (80-100words) 6
12. One out of two questions on the play from the Literature Reader to test comprehension of characters and / or their motives An extract may or may not be used (80-100 words) 5
13. Two out of three short answer questions based on different prose texts from the Literature Reader to test global comprehension of usage lexis
and meaning (80-100 words) 8
14. One out of two extended questions based on one of the prose texts in the Literature Reader to test global comprehension and for extrapolation
beyond the text (100-125 words) 7

Prescribed Books
1. Language Skillsbook – Functional English published by Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi.
2. Literature Reader – Functional English published by Central Board of Secondary Education. Delhi.

Conversation Skills 10 Marks (30 Periods)  (Listening and Speaking)
Conversation Skills will be tested both as part of Continuous Assessment and at the final  examination. Out of the 10 marks allotted for Conversation 05 marks may be used for testing listening  and 05 marks for testing speaking. The Conversation Skills Assessment Scale may be used for  evaluating.

Listening
The examiner will read aloud a passage based on a relevant theme or a short story. The passage may be factual or discursive. The length of the passage should be around 350 words. The examinees are expected to complete the listening comprehension tasks given in a separate sheet while listening to  the teacher. The tasks set may be gap-filling, multiple choice, true or false or short answer questions. There may be ten different questions for half a mark each.

Speaking
Narration based on a sequence of pictures. In this section the candidate will be required to use the language of narration.
Description of a picture (can be pictures of people or places)
Speaking on a given topic to test recall of a personal experience

NOTE: .
At the start of the examination the examiner will give the candidate some time to prepare for the task.
Students be asked to relate something from their personal experience such as a funny happening, the theme of a book, story of a movie seen recently.
Once the candidate has started speaking, the examiner should intervene as little as possible Conversation Skills Assessment Scale

Examination Specifications
Class XII
One Paper 3 Hours Marks : 100

SECTION A

1. ADVANCED READING SKILLS 20 Marks (60 Periods)
Two unseen passages (including poems) with a variety of questions including 04 marks for vocabulary such as word formation and inferring meaning. The total range of the 2 passages including a poem or a stanza, should be around 650-1000 words.
1. 350-500 words in length (for note-making and summarising) 08
2. 300-500 words in length (4 marks for word attack skills) 12
The passages or poems could be of any one of the following types Factual passages e.g. illustrations, description, reports Discursive passages involving opinion e.g. argumentative, persuasive Literary passages e.g. poems, extracts from fiction, biography, autobiography, travelogue etc.
In the case of a poem, the text may be shorter than the prescribed word limit.

SECTION B

2. EFFECTIVE WRITING SKILLS 25 Marks (60 Periods)
3. One out of two short writing tasks such as notices, advertisements, factual description of people arguing for or against topics, places and objects, drafting posters, accepting and declining invitations. (50-80 words) 5
4. Writing one out of two letters of any of the following types based on given verbal/visual input 10
a) Official letters for making inquiries, suggesting changes-registering complaints asking for and giving information, placing orders and sending replies (80-100 words)
b) Letters to the editor on various social, national and international issues (125-150 words)

c) Application for a job including CV (Curriculum Vitae)/Resume
5. One out of two long and sustained writing task such as writing a speech, a report or writing an article based on verbal/visual input (200 words) 10

SECTION C

APPLIED GRAMMAR 20 Marks (30 Periods)
Variety of questions, as listed below may be asked, involving the application of grammar items in context (i.e. not in isolated sentences). The grammar syllabus will be sampled each year. Grammar items such as modals, determiners, voice and tense forms have been dealt with in class XI. However,
other items such as prepositions, verb forms , connectors which have been learnt earlier would also be included.
6. Reordering of words and sentences 5
7. Composing a dialogue based on the given input 5
8. Error correction in sentences 5
9. Drafting questions/questionnaires based on given input 5

SECTION D

LITERATURE 35 Marks (30 Periods)
In the Literature Reader, questions will be asked to test comprehension at different levels and of different kinds local, global, interpretative, inferential, evaluative and extrapolatory.
10. One out of two extracts from different poems from the Literature Reader, each followed by two or three questions to test local and global comprehension of ideas and language used in the text. 7
11. Two out of the three short answer questions based on different poems to test theme, setting and literary devices. It may or may not be based on an extract. (80-100 words) 8
12. One out of two questions based on the play from the Literature Reader to test comprehension and drawing/evaluating inferences.
An extract may or may not be used (80-100 words) 5

13. Two out of three short questions based on different prose texts from the Literature Reader to test global comprehension of usage & lexis and meaning (80-100 words) 8
14. One out of two extended questions based on one of the prose texts in the Literature Reader to test global comprehension and for extrapolation beyond the text ( 100-125 words) 7

Prescribed Books :
1. Language Skillsbook- Functional English published by Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi.
2. Literature Reader – Functional English published by Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi.

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