Receptive Test: Missing the Question Face
During a receptive skills test, students watch ten short ISL video clips and write in English what the signer means. A candidate scores 6/10. Every error falls on a question form: she writes 'You finished the homework' for a clip meaning 'Have you finished the homework?'; 'You went to the market' for 'Did you go to the market?'; and 'You will come tomorrow' for 'Will you come tomorrow?'. She also misses a clip in which the signer tilts her head, leans forward and holds the final sign while signing 'I don't know'. The candidate says the handshapes were clear and blames the video quality and the signer's speed. The teacher must decide whether to mark the answers wrong, how to explain the pattern, and what to reteach before the next assessment. The class has covered basic vocabulary and question signs but has done little contrastive listening.
1. Diagnose the error pattern. What evidence supports your diagnosis, and what evidence argues against the video-quality explanation?
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The pattern is non-manual, not lexical. The candidate correctly identifies the signs FINISH, GO, MARKET, COME and TOMORROW but reads them as statements. The missing information is the question face: raised eyebrows, forward head position, a hold on the final sign and often a slight forward lean. Those features mark a yes/no question in ISL. Without them, the same signs can be read as a statement.
The video-quality explanation is weak because the errors are systematic. Poor video would produce random misses across vocabulary, not a perfect split between statements and questions. The candidate also reports that the handshapes were clear, which concedes that the manual signal was available. The 'I don't know' clip adds a second non-manual cue: head tilt and lean carry the speaker's stance, not just the dictionary meaning of the signs. The candidate is watching hands only.
A fair diagnosis: she has learned vocabulary but not yet learned that grammar is carried on the face and body.
2. Should the three question items be marked wrong? Justify the scoring decision.
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Yes, mark them wrong, but record the reason separately from a vocabulary error. The test asks what the signer means. 'You finished the homework' and 'Have you finished the homework?' are different speech acts: one reports, the other asks. If the candidate writes a statement for a question, she has not understood the meaning, even though she recognised the signs. Giving the mark would inflate a receptive score and hide a grammar gap.
The marking should nevertheless be diagnostic. Use a two-column record: vocabulary recognised and meaning correct. She scores on the first but not the second. This lets the teacher report progress accurately and plan teaching. For the 'I don't know' clip, award no mark if the answer misses the stance, but note that the lexical signs may have been recognised. The candidate should be shown the clip again with the face visible and asked to identify the eyebrows and head position before translating. The score stays the same; the feedback becomes usable.
3. Design a short reteaching sequence on non-manual features for this class.
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Use contrastive pairs, because the point is meaning change, not feature naming.
Step 1: Freeze-frame. Show two clips with identical signs, one statement and one yes/no question. Pause on the face. Ask: eyebrows up or down? Head forward or neutral? Hold at the end? Students identify the feature before they translate.
Step 2: Mirror drill. Students produce the same sign string twice, once as a statement and once as a question, and watch themselves. A partner calls out 'statement' or 'question' and the signer must switch.
Step 3: Wh- contrast. Add a wh-question with furrowed brows, e.g. WHERE, WHO, WHICH. Students sort clips into yes/no, wh-, and statement, without writing English.
Step 4: Stance. Use short clips such as 'I don't know', 'I'm not sure', 'I'm surprised'. Ask what the body adds that the hands do not.
Step 5: Re-test with new clips. Keep the same format but new vocabulary, so the assessment tests transfer rather than memorised answers. Five to ten minutes per step is enough.