Territory-wide System Assessment 2007
Primary 3
English Language
General Observations of
Students’ Performances
1
Percentage of Students Achieving
English Basic Competency
in 2005, 2006 and 2007
TSA 2004
75.9
TSA 2005
78.8
TSA 2006
79.4
TSA 2007
79.5
2
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Listening – Strengths
• Key words
• e.g. identifying Sheung Shui ★
• e.g. distinguishing ‘May’ from
• Initial
consonants among the distracters 'Bay’, ‘Hay’
& ‘Ray’
• Intonation
• Sounds
• e.g. understanding differences in
feelings of surprise from feelings of
sadness, anger, and happiness ★
• e.g. distinguishing ‘Leung’ from
among the distracters‘Cheung’,
‘Keung’ & ‘Yeung’
3
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Listening – Weaknesses
• Key words
• e.g. identifying ‘Quarry Bay’ from
the distracters ‘Causeway Bay’,
‘Deep Bay’ and ‘Kowloon Bay’
• Sounds
• e.g. distinguishing ‘14th’ from
‘4th’, ’40th’ & ’44th’
e.g. identifying sequencing devices
• Connection
between ideas such as ‘first’ and ‘then’ to identify
different modes of transport and
put them in the correct order ★
4
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Reading – Strengths
• Key words
• e.g. identifying telephone
number ‘2678 3469’
• Connection
between ideas
• e.g. understanding of the use
of the cohesive device ‘and’ to
indicate what students should
wear on picnic day ★
5
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Reading – Strengths
•Book concept
•e.g. identifying the
writer and illustrator
of books ★
•Simple inference
skills (with explicit
•e.g. inferring the age
of the dolphin from, ‘I
contextual and visual was born in the sea
near Hong Kong two
clues)
years ago.’
6
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Reading – Weaknesses
• Key words
• Main ideas
• Reference words
• e.g. identifying departure
time for school picnic from a
timetable
• e.g. understanding how much
Peter has to pay for a large
and small bucket of chicken
wings ★
• e.g. Interpreting the word
‘them’ means ‘the people on
the boat’ ★
7
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Writing – Strengths
Content
• Capable of writing a short story with the
support of pictorial clues. ★
• Capable of providing appropriate
answers to given prompts. ★
8
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Writing – Weaknesses
Content
• Difficulty providing more than a factual
account of a story ★
• Difficulty providing relevant
ideas/responses to given prompts using
many supporting details or examples ★
9
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Writing – Weaknesses
Language
• Difficulty writing without many
grammatical and spelling mistakes ★
• Difficulty using a range of vocabulary,
sentence patterns and/or cohesive
devices
10
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Speaking – Strengths
Reading Aloud
• Capable of reading a text fluently and clearly
with few or no pronunciation mistakes. ★
Personal Experiences/Picture Descriptions
• Capable of providing relevant but brief
answers in response to prompting from oral
assessors. ★
11
P.3 Student Performances in TSA 2007
Speaking – Weaknesses
Reading Aloud
• Difficulty pronouncing some words e.g. ‘waiters’,
‘congee’, ‘snacks’, ‘tuck shop’
Personal Experiences/ Picture Descriptions
• Difficulty elaborating upon answers
• Difficulty using a variety of vocabulary when
expressing ideas
12
Comparison of Performances from 2005 to 2007
P.3 Listening
Progression of
Performances
• Intonation
• Simple inferences
Challenges
• Stressed and
unstressed sounds
• Connection
between ideas
13
Comparison of Performances from 2005 to 2007
P.3 Reading
Progression of
Performances
• Book concept
• Simple inference
skills
Challenges
• Main ideas
• Reference words
• Connection
between ideas
14
Comparison of Performances from 2005 to 2007
P.3 Writing
Progression of
Performances
Content
• writing a topic with
given prompts / a story
based on given pictures
Language
• using cohesive devices
(e.g. and, then)
Challenges
Content
• showing creativity and
imagination
• elaborating on ideas
Language
• using correct verb forms/
spelling
15
Comparison of Performances from 2005 to 2007
P.3 Speaking
Progression of
Performances
• read the text with few
pronunciation mistakes
Challenges
• elaborating on
ideas
• using limited
vocabulary
16
Thank you!
For more details, please refer to the TSA 2007 Report on the
Basic Competencies of Students in Chinese Language, English
Language and Mathematics.
This PowerPoint can be downloaded at
www.systemassessment.edu.hk
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