A Grammar MCQ That Punishes Dialect and Rewards Interference
You are moderating the 15-mark grammar section of the SSC Sindhi L2 paper. Item 7 is a four-option fill-in: 'Achho ___ sando satkaar kayo.' The options are 'dost', 'dostan', 'doston', and 'dostun'; the key is 'dostan'. Item 9 asks for the correct verb form with 'chidi' (bird) and keys 'udndi thi'. During review, two teachers disagree. One says 'doston' is a useful distractor because it catches Hindi-Urdu influence. The other says it is unfair because the textbook lesson never contrasted '-an' with '-on'. Separately, a group of students from a regional dialect wrote a plural verb form with 'chidi' that is systematic in their speech but not in the standard written key. The paper is due in three days, and the grammar section must be defensible to a moderation committee.
1. Is 'doston' a good distractor in Item 7? Decide whether to keep, replace, or revise it, and explain the reasoning in terms of construct validity and fairness.
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'doston' is a good distractor only if the '-an' versus '-on' contrast has been taught. It is not random noise: it diagnoses a real interference pattern from Hindi-Urdu oblique plurals. That makes it instructionally useful.
However, fairness depends on exposure. If the prescribed lesson and exercises never contrasted the Sindhi oblique plural '-an' with the Hindi-Urdu '-on', the item tests outside the taught syllabus and should be revised. The safest revision is to keep 'doston' but add a brief pre-test reminder or a taught example in the same section, so the contrast is available to all candidates.
If the item remains unchanged, record the rationale in the key: 'doston' is included to assess control of the standard Sindhi oblique plural, not to penalise a dialect. If moderation rejects that rationale, replace 'doston' with a genuinely implausible form such as a nominative singular, which still gives four options without the fairness problem.
2. How should the marking team handle the regional plural form written with 'chidi'? Provide a decision that distinguishes classroom assessment from the board examination.
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Separate the two contexts.
In the board examination, mark according to the published key unless the board's scheme explicitly allows accepted variants. The grammar section is testing standard written Sindhi, and a single script cannot be renegotiated during marking. Record the variant and flag it for review, but do not invent a dual key on the day.
In classroom assessment, accept the regional form if it is systematic in the student's speech and the lesson has not yet taught the standard written contrast. Award the mark for agreement control, then reteach the standard form. The construct being tested is subject-verb agreement, not loyalty to one dialect.
The moderation committee should also ask whether Item 9 is the best place to test this. If dialect variation is known in the local area, the item should either use a form with no known variation or be replaced. Fairness is improved by avoiding the item, not by humiliating the student.
3. Write a short moderation note explaining why a grammar item cannot be defended solely by saying 'it is in the textbook'.
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A textbook mention is not enough. Moderation asks three questions: was the point taught, was it practised, and is it being tested without a confounding factor?
For Item 7, the point is the oblique plural. If the textbook presents the form but the exercises only ask students to copy it, the item may still be unfair because it tests a contrast never practised. For Item 9, the point is agreement. If the local dialect supplies a different systematic form, the item confounds agreement with dialect loyalty.
A defensible note therefore records: the taught page, the practice exercise, the distractor rationale, and any known dialect variant. If any of these is missing, revise the item or drop it. This is more honest than claiming that textbook presence alone settles validity.