Quebec Sec 5 ESL Enriched (136-520) cheat sheet

Interaction grade weighs three things: functional adequacy (does the message accomplish the task), fluency and pronunciation, and accuracy of the grammar and vocabulary targeted by the unit.

Use the turn-taking formula: respond to the partner's idea, add one new element, then return a question; monologue-style answers cap the interaction score.

Clarification gambits that score as strategic competence: "Could you repeat that?", "Do you mean ...?", "Sorry, I didn't catch the last part.", "So, if I understand, ...".

Negotiation of meaning counts as a positive: asking for reformulation or paraphrasing your own idea is rated as strategy use, not as a language error.

Register decision rule: tu/vous and first-name vs title follow the interlocutor's age and status and the task setting (peer interview vs formal role-play).

Pronunciation is rated for intelligibility and targeted features (e.g., final consonants, word stress, intonation in questions), not for native-like accent.

A recorded self-assessment against the unit criteria before the graded task is the standard preparation step; the criteria are the ones used for scoring.

In a role-play, staying in role and reacting to the partner's unexpected line outranks producing long, pre-learned stretches of speech.

Reinvestment means using the content and form of an oral text in a new task (summary, response, note-taking, comparison), not repeating it verbatim.

Listening sequence: global comprehension first (topic, purpose, speakers, setting), then detailed comprehension (specific facts, figures, attitudes), then reinvestment.

Key info in a message is signalled by discourse markers: however, in fact, on the other hand, the point is, what matters is, first/second/finally.

Numbers, dates, and proper nouns are transcribed during listening; they are the facts most often asked for and most often misheard.

Tone and attitude are inferred from intonation, stress, and hesitation markers (well, actually, I guess, to be honest), not only from the words.

A reinvestment task must show the source's main idea plus at least two supporting details, and must be reworded rather than copied.

Note-taking shorthand: abbreviations, symbols (→, =, +, ≠), and keywords only; full sentences during listening cost comprehension.

Distinguishing fact from opinion in the text is a standard reinvestment requirement: opinions carry evaluative adjectives and modals (should, must, probably).

Three reading movements: skimming for gist and text type, scanning for specific information, then close reading of the paragraphs that carry the answer.

Text type determines strategy: an opinion letter, a news article, an advertisement, and an instruction sheet each have different structures and reliability markers.

Unknown words: infer from context (definition clues, examples, contrasts, word families) before using a dictionary; a dictionary entry must be matched to the part of speech in the sentence.

Cohesion markers signal logic: cause (because, therefore, as a result), contrast (although, whereas, despite), addition (moreover, besides), concession (admittedly).

Pronoun and reference tracking (it, this, they, the former, the latter) is required to identify what a sentence actually refers to in a long text.

Reinvestment from reading: summarize in your own words, state the author's purpose and audience, and connect the content to a new situation or your own experience.

Quoting rule: short exact quotation with quotation marks is acceptable; wholesale copying of sentences is not reinvestment and loses marks.

Justify every answer with a line reference from the text; an answer without textual support is treated as a guess.

Text organization is scored: title or subject line, opening that states purpose, logically ordered body paragraphs, closing that matches the purpose (request, opinion, thanks).

Cohesion is scored through connectors and pronoun reference; a text with correct sentences but no linking devices loses points on organization.

Register and format follow the task: informal email (contractions, tu/you, friendly closing) vs formal message (full forms, titles, no slang).

Accuracy is checked in a fixed order: verb tense and agreement, subject-verb agreement, plural and possessive endings, word order, spelling.

Sentence variety rule: combine short sentences with because/although/which/when; a text of only simple sentences caps the range score.

Revision pass: reread for the task requirements (all prompts answered, word count respected) before rereading for grammar; missing content costs more than small errors.

Vocabulary range is shown by precise topic words and paraphrase, not by rare words used incorrectly; a wrong advanced word counts against accuracy.

Proofreading checklist items that catch most errors: third-person -s, past tense -ed, irregular past forms, capital letters, apostrophes, and homophones (their/there, its/it's).