LANGUAGE EVALUATION
As already mentioned, the term "Language Evaluation" while, it covers "Language Testing"; also involves evaluation of materials, methods and media. Evaluation of Language curriculum and language syllabus also come under this rubric.The role of linguistic in language teaching is not only descriptive but prescriptive as well. In other words, "Linguistics" not only describes as to what goes on in the language teaching process in order to make the programme i.e. what happens when the improvisation of the programme as a whole by either making the learners learn the same quantity in a lesser period of time, or more easily (or making it possible for lesser number of teachers to cater to the needs of more number of learners etc.) Thus while we are concerned with improving the efficiency existing in language teaching programmes, we are also concerned with devising newer materials, methods and media for instruction. In order to be able to undertake and fulfill this task, it is essential to have a means of evaluating our procedures or methods, materials and media i.e., we need a monitoring device. That is to say that we have to have a continuous or constant feedback about the effectiveness of the methods, materials and media.
Apart from the evaluation of above aspects, Language Evaluation includes Language Testing. Language Testing is focussed around the testing the attainment of a learner during the course of instruction at a given time. In other words language tests are the tools or instruments applied to learners and not to the materials or methods/teachers. Therefore language tests do not tell us directly about the contribution of the teacher of the materials to the learning process. They are designed to measure the knowledge or competence of the learner in the language at a particular time.
Before we go on to discuss "Language Testing" in detail, it would be useful to discuss briefly the other aspects of language evaluation viz.,
1. Evaluation of grammar
2. Evaluation of Instructional objectives
3. Evaluation of Instructional material (Text book)
4. Evaluation of Instructional methods/procedures
5. Evaluation of Instructional media
6. Evaluation of curriculum
ROLE OF GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND ITS EVALUATION
From the point of view of linguistic knowledge and language teaching methods a clear cut distinction needs to be made between scientific or formal grammar and practical or pedagogic grammar. While the former specifics the formal properties of language, the latter has a practical utilitarian value in the context of language teaching. In other words the scientific or formal grammars are mainly concerned with the Code whereas the practical or pedagogic grammars are concerned with the use of Code.As Chomsky had pointed out, the scientific or formal grammars need to satisfy the three adequacies viz., observational, descriptive and explanatory, if such a grammar has to be a perfect grammar. Until date the issue has been controversial and no specific criteria for the evaluation of such grammars have been arrived at.The main aims of pedagogic grammar are not to present a systematic description of the language in terms of rules but they provide a relatively informal framework of definitions, exercise etc., which will be useful for the language learner to acquire the knowledge of the language and fluency in using it. However, it is the scientific grammar or the formal grammar that forms the basis for writing a pedagogic grammar. Factors like the age of the learners, the teacher's skill, the course objectives etc., are to be kept in view while preparing a pedagogic grammar. The language teacher or the applied linguist has to select and choose the rules and statements from the formal grammars keeping in view his experience as a teacher and his tentative decisions about the utilitarian value of such selected rules and their use in language teaching.Three steps have been suggested for the development of a pedagogic grammar from scientific or formal grammers.
The language teacher has to first extract those features and rules from the scientific grammars which have a strong bearing over the language teaching. This process has been referred to as Methodics by Haliday, McIntosh and Strevens. It is at this level that the linguistic facts about the language pedagogy and this step proceeds the actual preparation of the instrumental material.
The second and third stages in the development of pedagogic grammar form the linguistic grammars are referred to as Methodology by Halliday etc. In the second stage a skeleton outline is drawn consisting of the quantum of grammar that needs to go into instructional programme. This is normally referred to as the Structural Syllabus.
In the third or the final stage, the applied linguist prepares the instructional material based on the structural syllabus and develops the texts, drills and exercise and explanations, etc.Keeping in view the aspects involved in the preparation of a pedagogic grammar, it may be desirable to develop a checklist or a questionnaire which should be used for the evaluation of pedagogic grammars. The following checklist is suggested for the purpose:
1. Does the grammar provide a systematic description of the formal properties of
the language?2. Is it concerned with the use of the Code rather than the Code itself?
3. Is the presentation of grammatical rules relevant to language teaching?
4. Is the grammar geared to the specific needs of the particular group of learners?
5. Does the grammar have any bearing over the efficiency of the teacher?
6. Are the statements in the grammar included in the light of the teacher's experience in teaching?
7. Does it have the basis or background of different formal grammars?
8. Are the rules and their presentation useful and effective from the point of view of the language learners?
9. Has an appropriate syllabus been possible to develop based on the pedagogic grammar?
10. Does it provide adequate basis for the preparation of different exercise and drills in the instructional material?
11. Does the pedagogic grammar provide appropriate and adequate explanation?
12. Does it aid the material producer in developing the instructional material
making use of different forms of presentation for different concepts?(The above checklist is only a tentatively suggested one and this perhaps may need the addition of some more aspects for the evaluation of pedagogic grammar. The answers expected in the case of an ideal pedagogic grammar for all the questions are 'YES'.)
It may be mentioned here that appropriate and perfect instruments for the
evaluation of grammars whether pedagogic or scientific have not been developed as yet and this needs a thorough research.
EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
The instructional objectives stated in behavioural terms provide a description of the course content and expected behavioural change in terms of student's learning. In other words, the expected effect of the course content on student's entry behaviour is spelled out in terms of his terminal behaviour.
The instructional objectives therefore provide the focus and directions for the evaluation process. It may be clearly mentioned here that nobody evaluates the instructional objectives but tries to measure or evaluate the learner's progress with respect to these objectives.
The Nature of Instructional Objectives :
The objectives may be of two main types :
a) Main objectives and
b) Sub objectives
These objectives give direction to the developments or progress of the learner and
Also to the instructional programme. In other words, the objectives help in choosing the materials, methods, media etc. Generally, the instructional objectives are regarded as describing the learning outcomes, abilities or qualities of the learner expected during and at the end of the programme. They are usually not related to the classroom experiences of the teachers. The one important factor regarding the instructional objectives is that they should be started in behavioural terms to the extent possible and each major or main objective must be divided into minor or sub objectives so that the evaluation of the student's learning and also the materials becomes relatively easy.For example, see the following statement :
STATEMENT OF LEARNING OUTCOMES
Intensive English Course for Beginners
DISTINGUISHES between minimal distinctive significant contrastive units
of sounds or 'Phonemes'.IDENTIFIES intonation patterns.
IDENTIFIES stress patterns.
DISTINGUISHES between lexical items and their inflections.
IDENTIFIES basic parts of sentences patterns.
EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL
Evaluation of instructional material involves judgement about its effectiveness as an effective tool of instruction. Thus it involves the assessment of the desirable qualities and assignment of appropriate values to such qualities. Therefore the evaluator of instructional material has to identity various essential aspects or qualities of the material and the criteria for evaluating them as he considers important.
As claimed by most of the language material producers, the four important factors involved in the production of material are :
1. Selection
2. Gradation
3. Presentation
4. Repetition
Therefore while evaluating the language instructional material, the first and foremost thing for the evaluator o attend to is to examine whether the vocabulary and grammatical structures included in the material have been properly selected or not. In other words the evaluator should be concerned with examining as to whether the vocabulary included in the material is active or passive. If so has it been arranged in such a way that the more frequent and easy items appear first before the less frequent and difficult items are presented. Similarly he should also examine whether the grammatical structures have been properly graded in terms of simple to complex (in case of non-cognate second/foreign language material) or known to unknown (in case of mothertongue/second (cognate) language material).
The third factor that the evaluator will be the presentation of the material, i.e., the form in which the material has been presented. In other words he would examine whether the material is in an appropriate form suitable for various concepts and ideas in terms of narratives, conversations or dialogues, concepts and ideas in terms of narratives, conversations or dialogues, short stories etc. He would also examine the suitability of these forms for the material included in each lesson while keeping in view the audience whom the material is meant for. The evaluator will also have to examine appropriateness of the topics from the point of view of audience (The audience or learners could be either children or adults). Another point of concern for the evaluator would be to examine the appropriateness of the drills and exercises included in each lesson/unit and to point out the need for additions, changes or modifications if necessary. One should also examine whether or not the grammatical and cultural notes and explanations have been provided in clear and unambiguous terms.Various kinds and visuals also play a very important role in the instructional material. The evaluator, therefore would also be concerned with examining the suitability and appropriateness of visuals and charts included in the material.
It is a known fact that in India, Language Teaching has not been taking place as it ought to Lots and lots of literature in the concerned language is taught under the guise of language teaching. It is also true that the so-called language teaching in our country has been, in general, more content oriented than skills oriented. Therefore the evaluator ought to be more seriously concerned about the coverage of various language skills than the content. Depending upon whether the material is meant for mother tongue teaching or second/foreign language teaching, the evaluation has to examine whether or not appropriate weightages have been given to various skills. At the same time, he should also be concerned to see what variety/kind of language is used i.e., whether the language used is spoken variety or written variety. Also he should examine whether there has been a gradual switch over from one variety to the other, in the material. It is needless to mention that the evaluator would be concerned as to whether the teaching material suits the level of instruction.While the evaluator of instructional material is concerned about various academic aspects as indicated above, he has also to worry about the physical aspects of the book like the type and/or size of the letters etc.,(For details see the following analysis sheet).
ANALYSIS SHEET FOR THE EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL
I General Information :
a) Title of the material
b) Language
c) Author/Compiler
d) Published/unpublished
If published
i) Year of publication
ii) Publisher
e) Level which the materials are meant forII Academic Aspects:
Selection Comprehensive Coverage
a) Vocabulary items _________
b) Grammatical structures ___1. Content, in terms of Vocabulary items and structures, is appropriate and in accordance with the following instructional objectives.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.2 Nature of Content:
Variety Number Proportiona) Vocabulary
b) Structures
c) Themes
d) Concepts
e) Registers
f) Styles (literacy)
g) Dialects
CHECKLIST FOR THE EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING MATERIAL
1. General Information :
a) Title of the book
b) Language
c) Author/Compiler
d) Published/unpublishedIf published
i) Name of the Publisher
ii) Year of Publication
e) Level which the material is meant for
II Academic aspects :
a) Does the material cover the aims and objectives of the course and is in
accordance with the syllabus/curriculum? Is the material prepared for a
specific language group?b) Are the vocabulary items properly graded?
(Keeping in view the learners)c) Have the grammatical structures been graded in terms of simple to complex or
known to unknown? (Keeping in view the learners)d) Are the units/lessons arranged in a graded manner?
e) Is the form of presentation of each unit/lesson appropriate from the point of
view of
i) the learner (child or adult)
ii) contentf) Is there a gradual switch over from the spoken language to the written language?
g) Are the contents adequate for the instructional hours allotted?
h) Are the contents compatible with the mental maturity of the learners?
i) Are they compatible with the learner's achievement in the previous level?
j) Are the visuals used in the material appropriate to the context and motivate the learning process?
k) Is the material skill oriented?
l) Have appropriate weightages been given to various language skills viz.
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
m) Is the material to be used through the planned medium (Class room, Television, Language Laboratory, Radio etc.,).
n) Does the material aim at conceptual prose (after the coverage of language skills)?
o) Does the material cover any aspects of culture of the language group?
p) Does it cover history of the land?
q) Is the material literature oriented?
r) Have the difficult vocabulary items been listed in each unit/lesson separately and meanings indicated?
s) Have the grammatical notes been presented and explained in each unit/lesson?
t) Does each unit/lesson consist of appropriate drills and exercise?
Are the items in exercise free from providing clues for the answers for other questions?
Is there a broad variety of drills and exercise?
Are they interesting to the learner?
Do the drills and exercises cover the aspects of :
RecognitionIdentification
Discrimination
Repetition
Production
u) Are the titles appropriate and suitable to the context?
v) Does the material encourage practical outdoor observation by the learners?
w) Is the style of language standard and accepted one?
x) Are the topics related to Indian and regional situations?
y) Is the length of each lesson in correlation with the time, topic/concept prescribed?
III. Physical Aspects :
a) Is the cover design of the book attractive?
b) Is the type size appropriate?
c) Is the paper good?
d) Is the printing neat and free from errors?
e) Is the binding durable?
f) Is the cost reasonable?
IV. Other Aspects :
a) Does the material possess a preface containing necessary information about the
purpose it is meant for?b) Does it provide guidelines for the class room teacher?
c) Have the special features if any of the material been explained which
discriminate it from other existing materials?Each of the items in the checklist will have to be assigned weightages and this is normally done on a five point relating scale ranging from very high to low;
1. To provide a method, whereby the various items in the checklist would be assigned weights in accordance with their importance.
This may be done in the following manner:
a) The main heading in the check-list other than the General information
are (i) Academic aspects covering selection, gradation, presentation
etc., the physical and other aspects. A value or weightage may be fixed
to all these heads and considering the relative weightages for each suc-head may be assigned.b) After fixing the weightages to various items in the check-list, the second step is to measure or evaluate the material with respect to the standards develop for items included in the check-list. This necessarily involves rating quality of the material, item by item. The evaluation of each item may be done on a five point scale with values fixed as follows:
1. Low
2. Below Average
3 Average
4 Good
5 Very Good
2. After having assigned the weightages and measured each item, the scores assigned may be calculated and compared with the total score. Evaluation or value judgement can then be made easily based upon this calculation .
EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS
Having discussed about the evaluation of language instructional materials, it would be proper to throw some light on the evaluation of language teaching methods.There are a large number of language teaching methods among which the following methods are very popular and largely used.
1 Direct method
2 Grammar method
3 Conversational method
4 Grammar-translation method
5 Audio-lingual method
6 Eclectic method etc.,
It would not be out of place to mention briefly what these different methods are like.
1. Direct Method : The main characteristics of Direct Method are :
a) use of everyday vocabulary and structure
b) Grammar taught by situation
c) Use of many new items in the same lesson to make the language sound natural and to encourage normal conversation
d) Oral teaching of grammar and vocabulary
e) Concrete meanings through object lessons and abstract ones through association of ideas
f) Grammar illustrated through visual presentation
g) Extensive listening and imitations until forms become automatic
h) Most of the work done in class and therefore more class hours required for this methodi) The first few weeks devoted for pronunciation
j) All reading matters first presented orally
2. Grammar Method :In this method rules of grammar are learned along with groups of words. The words are ten put together according to the rule, thereby giving practice in application of the rule. Knowledge of the rule however is more important than its applications. There is no oral work or teaching of pronunciation. One of the advantages claimed for this method is that it can be classed as mental discipline. It is easy to apply and does not require a teacher who is a fluent speaker of the language. It is also simple to test and easy to control..
3. Conversational Method :In this method the vocabulary of everybody usage and the language structures in a general manner are made use of and simple conversations are presented. Through conversations, the learners also can easily understand the language use in different situations. This method has been claimed to be very effective particularly in the mastery of the spoken language.
4. Grammar-Translation Method :Grammar-Translation method is a simple combition of the activities of grammar and translation. The grammar is an outline of formal grammar and vocabulary depends on selected texts. The teaching begins with rules, isolated vocabulary items, paradigms and translation. Easy classics are then translated. Vocabulary is divided into lists of words to be memorized; but there is little relationship between the vocabulary of successive lessons. Pronunciation either is not taught, or is limited to a few introductory notes. Grammar rules are memorized as units which often include illustrative sentences.
5. Audio-Lingual Method :In this method listening and speaking are the main considerations. The learners are expected to listen carefully to the teacher in the class room and repeat the utterances as closely as possible to the teachers' pronunciation. In this method generally everyday vocabulary and graded structures of the language are integrated together and the material is presented in the form of dialoguges and conversations, descriptions and narrative. A limited number of structures are made use of in each lesson.
6. Eclectic Method :This method is nothing but a compromise among various methods existing and is given a shape depending upon the demands of the teachers and learners. The language skills are generally introduced in the following order: Speaking, Writing, Listening and Reading. Activities include oral practice, reading aloud, drills and exercises. There is a certain amount of translation, with some deductive grammar and some audio-visual aids.
No scholars would, however, claim that there is one best method out of there as the teacher has to adopt his own techniques and strategies depending upon the kind of learners, the materials and situation. Therefore it would be more appropriate to talk of evaluation of teacher's teaching techniques and strategies then the evaluation of teaching methods as such. For this purpose it might be useful to draw up a check-list as in the case of material evaluation and assign weightages to each of the items in the check-list for this purpose. The following check-list is suggested for the purpose.
CHECK-LIST FOR THE EVALUATION OF TEACHERS TEACHING TECHNIQUES AND STRATEGIES IN LANGUGE TEACHING
1. Does the teacher successfully create the situations with introductory remarks etc., before presenting the teaching point/item/concept?
2. Does the teacher explain the difficult vocabulary items?
3. Does the teacher reinforce the previous day's lesson before going on to a new item?
4. Does the teacher explain the grammatical points involved clearly after introducing the lesson?
5. How much of languages other than the Target Language does the teacher use?6. Does the teacher ensure that he repeats the items afresh for each individual learner?
7. Does he allow any of the learners to follow the other students(in Drills)?
8. Does he repeat the item again after each learner's repetition?
9. Does he ever slow down from the normal speed and does he give unnatural pause?
10. Is the teacher partial to any of the learners?
11. Does he neglect or ignore the better learners and concentrate more on the poor ones?
12. Does he clearly explain what he expects from the learner?
13. Does he stick to the vocabulary range of the learner?
14. Does he introduce a lot vocabulary items at once?
15. Does the teacher hold the attention of the entire class?
a) Does he change the order of calling on the student? for their responses/
b) Does he name the student after putting the question?
c) Does he answer the question himself if any learner fails to answer?
d) Does he repeat the same question?
e) Does he permit the learners to deviate from the topic?
f) Does he repeat the question if the learner has any difficulty?
16. Does the teacher ensure that the students keep their books closed when the basic sentences are introduced by him?
17. Does he makes sure that no student repeats the same item more than thrice?
18. Does he come back to the poor student again?
19. Does the teacher give an impression of ridiculing or discouraging any learner at any time?20. Does the teacher use drills which require the learners to use their vocabulary that are not in the material, but are within the range of the structures taught?
21. Does he give adequate exercise as home assignments?
22. Does he use appropriate visuals and charts (wherever possible) to explain the concept clearly?
23. Does he use the black board to the extent it is necessary?
24. Does he ensure the degree of learners' participation in the class room?
25. Is his emphasis in teaching skill oriented rather than content oriented?
26. Is the teacher qualified to teach language?
The items on the above check-list could also be rated on a five point scale as in the case of check-list given on page No. 40, and the teachers' techniques and strategies measured and evaluated.*
As far as the evaluation of Teaching methods is concerned, one method could be compared with the others experimenting them over the same kind of learners using the same parallel material 'B' etc., providing empirical experimental data. The same is true of "media" also.
EVALUATION OF CURRICULUM
The term Evaluation, in general, meant to must people the evaluation of products rather than the programmes and processes. In other words most of the evaluators were concerned with the achievement of learner in an instructional programme and have bothered very little about the quality of materials and appropriateness of the syllabus/curriculum. Therefore almost everyone who talked of evaluation depend upon the administration of tests and the interpretation of the "The basis for this check-list is Pattanayak's "Aspects of Applied Linguistics", pp- 14-15 test scores. The effectiveness of otherwise or any instructional programme was judged on the basis of test score of the examinees. Of late, some scholars have felt that evaluation should be perceived over a wider range including the programmes themselves and the processes involved in the execution of it in addition to the products. Hence the need for the curriculum evaluation in any instructional programme.Curriculum8 of any instructional programme consists of the aims and objectives of the programme and in turn, such objectives stated in terms of the learners' terminal behaviour. In other words each objectives must clearly specify what the student is expected to achieve after going through the course of instruction. There are two general purposes involved in the context of curriculum evaluation. The first one concerns with the collection of information which could be used in feed-back for the curriculum makers to improvise the programmes and processes and also the methods, materials and media of instruction. In the absence of such information, it is dangerous and unwise to think of revision as mentioned just now.The second purpose in such evaluation is to decide about the adoption of the course including materials based upon the appropriateness of the aims and objectives. Therefore it would be necessary to develop a check-list or questionnaire in respect of curriculum evaluation also as in the case of material evaluation and method evaluation. The following check-list is suggested:
CHECK-LIST FOR THE EVALUATION OF CURRICULUM
1. Does the curriculum contain the aims and objectives of the programme?
2. Have the aims and objectives been clearly stated in behavioural terms?
3. Does each of the main objectives contain sub-objectives?
4. Does the curriculum indicate the level of instruction?
5. Does it have any bearing on the previous level of instruction? In other words does it take off from the final point of instruction at the previous level?
6. Does it lead on to the next level of instruction?
7. Does it indicate about the kinds of materials, methods and media?
8. Does it provide adequate background for the instructor to administer the course?
9. Does it throw any light on the requirement of the teacher's qualities and
qualifications?9. Is the curriculum framed in accordance with the time expected to be
allotted for the instructional programme?10. Is the curriculum framed in accordance with the time expected to be
allotted for the instructional programme?11. Does it emphasise concept formation, critical thinking, creativity etc.
12. Does the curriculum clearly indicate the time allotted, topical form, skill category and the sequence in an appropriate manner?
13. Does it take proper care of factors like secularism etc?
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR THE EVALUATOR
The first and foremost step in the process of evaluation is the identification of the aspects to be evaluated and the specification of criteria for their evaluation (various aspects as listed in the check-lists may be taken into consideration).As a second step the evaluator has to analyse the material. Simple reading or having a bird's eye view of the material is not enough for the purpose. Either the evaluator has to note down the specific characteristics of different aspects like content, exercises, illustrations, printing etc., are kept in view simultaneously while going through the lessons and the specific characteristics noted down. For an intensive and thorough evaluation it would be necessary to analyse and record the dues for each lesson.
Each lesson will have to be analysed in terms of the ideational content, linguistic content, registers, styles, forms of literature etc. Under the linguistic content, the sentence patterns and vocabulary play a significant role. Under the ideational content the theme, concept, register etc., should be considered. Next to the analysis of the text of the lessons, come the drills and exercises included under the lesson. The items included in them should be classified into various types as questions, review exercises etc., their nature like recapitulation, incremental, inferential and Grammatical and cultural notes that may be present in the material should also be looked into and analysed just as the analysis of drills and exercises is done. Then come the physical aspects like the size of the book, get up, book binding, the quality and colour of printing, type and size. It is only after a thorough analysis of each lesson or unit in the total instructional material, that the evaluator has to take each aspect as the basis and make a value judgement based upon them. An illustration has been provided in Appendix No. I.
LITERACY EVALUATION
The recent awareness among scholars working in the area of adult literacy that has brought out an extension of views regarding the goals and objectives of literacy are that in addition to the acquisition of the three Rs, knowledge about narrow and technical, social and economic change is also essential. Pattanayak points out in his paper on "Linguistics ad Adult Education" that if literacy has to be functional, language must be well integrated with content9. He further says "if the aim of adult education is to impart a level of competence to the learner so that he can sustain his interest on his own without lapsing into illiteracy, then it is not enough to give a mere recognition and manipulation of scripts, reading of controlled texts and writing letters to the grand-children about one's health and the village fair. The adult learner must be competent reader of controlled texts and writing letters to the grand-children about one's health and the village fair. The adult learner must be competent reader with understanding of fairly complex structures so that he can read newspapers and make sense of various governmental forms and notifications"10. Thus the concept of adult literacy has taken much broader shape than what was conceived earlier. The present day views regarding literacy may be summarized in one sentence tat it should enable the development of a particular quality of life which is man centered. It stresses the importance of social quality, social justice and self-reliance and also the development of a particular quality of life which is man centered. It believes in the necessity of people's participation in the planning and decision making processes of their own development.Faith is put in the people's own capacity to develop themselves instead of them being pushed about, for people cannot be developed, they can only develop themselves.Keeping these factors in view the material for purposes of adult literacy must be focussed both on the literacy skills and content. The knowledge sought to be imparted in an adult education situation must be need specific and the medium of communication location specific. At the initial levels perhaps a common primer at the first level could be prepared for all adult illiterates. Once the basic skills have been taken care of in the first primer, the specific needs of the adult learners must be kept in view in developing the literacy manuals. Separate manuals would thus be required for different groups of people like the farmers, industrial workers, tribals, workers in different trades, housewives etc. It is in this context that the aspect of integration of language with content becomes essential.
Scholars have argued that the literacy material can start off by making use of a primer aiming at the development of basic skills as is done in the case of formal schooling system for children at the elementary level is different from educating that adult illiterates. In this context Pattanayak emphasizes the need for developing confidence among the adult illiterates which should enable them to use their oral fluency in speech for :
a) Representation
b) Argumentation
c) Refutation
d) Establishment of a point of view.While this aspect is very important in the context of adult literacy, the
instructional material should focus on the development of the basic skills like the recognition, recall, manipulation of symbols and generative words in texts. After the basic skills have been taken care of, the material should focus on developing the capacity for composition- guided and free. It is at this stage that the aspect of free communication (mainly speech and secondarily writing) or communicative competence should be developed so as to enable the learners to take care of their needs in daily life.It is also argued that the literacy skills need not be delayed until the oral facilities are well established as the learners are familiar with the language in their regions. In the development of instructional material for literacy purposes it would be desirable to focus the material on the themes like hygiene and general health, social information, ecnomic and political information etc. To the extent possible, if material is presented in the form of dialogues it could perhaps be more effective and therefore this form of presentation is recommended.
Keeping these above factors in view on following check-list is suggested for the evaluation of literacy materials:
1. Does the literacy material focus on development of basic skills like recognition, recall, manipulation of symbols etc., in the initial level of instruction?
2. Does it aim at developing composition among the learners form the guided to
free composition?3. Does the literacy material focus on the needs of specific groups of learners after
the development of basic skills?4. Does the literacy material deal with problems of living?
5. Is it structured according to the learners' perceived roles and activities and
helps in the development of vocational skills?6. Does the material contain subject matters related to general education like
health and hygiene, civic education?7. Is the material written in the language and style of the region to which the
learners belong?8. Is there a gradual switch over from the regional variety of language of the
learners to the main-stream?9. Is the language aspect integrated with content in the instructional material?
10. Is the language used unambiguous and clear?
11. Are the structures and vocabulary presented in a properly graded manner?
12. Has the generative vocabulary been given necessary weightage in the material?
The above check-list is only a tentative one and needs elaboration.
As far as the testing of language skills is concerned, more or less the same strategies could be adopted as we do in the case of second language learners. In addition to that, it may be necessary to keep the dialect differences and the use of local dialect and the language of the main stream in view. For a detailed discussion in this area, a Manual of Literacy Evaluation may be referred to11.
