Language II: English
Language II English is a 30-mark section testing comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, phonology and English-language pedagogy for the primary stage. Questions are application-based: you must choose the grammatically or pedagogically correct option, not just label a rule.
Grammar anchors
- Tense and aspect: present perfect continuous for an action begun in the past and still continuing.
- Subject–verb agreement: each, every and either take a singular verb.
- Articles depend on sound: a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds.
- Conditionals: first (real future), second (unreal present), third (unreal past).
- Reported speech usually backshifts the tense when the reporting verb is past.
Vocabulary and phonology
Synonyms, antonyms, idioms, one-word substitution; minimal pairs such as ship/sheep and bit/beat; stress, intonation; phoneme versus grapheme.
Pedagogy
Communicative Language Teaching prioritises meaning and interaction; TPR suits young learners; task-based learning gives a purpose for language; phonics supports early decoding; process writing and selective error correction build fluency without humiliating the child.
Worked example
He is an honest man. Reasoning: the article is chosen by initial sound, not initial letter. Honest begins with the vowel sound /ɒ/ because the h is silent, so an is correct. Contrast a university: /juː/ is a consonant sound, so a is correct.
Traps
Since 2015 versus for five years; an university is wrong; few means almost none while a few means some; failure to backshift in reported speech; correcting every spoken error instead of focusing on meaning.