Semestral Assessment 1 Information

English Language Paper

Grade 4
2023-2024

1. General Matters
1.1 The English Language Semestral Assessment 1 will be on 17 November
2023.
1.2 The paper-and-pen assessment will be held in the Tan Siong Kee (TSK)
Hall.

2. Format and breakdown of marks for the EL SA1 papers.

2.1 Each paper has 2 parts – Section A (Reading) and Section B (Writing).
2.2 Each paper is 1 hour long and both papers will be taken in one day.
2.3 Both writer-focus technique-focus and text-focus questions will be included.
2.4 Students need to handwrite their responses, tick, match, or number their
responses on the question paper.
2.5 The breakdown of marks is as listed below:

Paper 1 (Non-fiction) Paper 2 (Fiction)

Reading: 30 minutes Reading: 30 minutes

Writing: 30 minutes Writing: 30 minutes

(5 minutes of planning and 25 minutes (5 minutes of planning and 25 minutes
of writing) of writing)

Duration: 1 hour Duration: 1 hour

1
 3. Genre/Text Type and Language Skills
3.1 All genres and text types covered in Semester 1 (Q1 and Q2) may be tested.
3.2 Students should know and understand the language skills taught and apply this
knowledge.

Fiction Non-Fiction

● realistic ● recount letters

● historical ● news reports
● plays ● diaries

Vocabulary and Language

- Use context to suggest synonyms for familiar and unfamiliar words.

- Identify prefixes and suffixes and common word roots and compare their
meanings.
- Use as many initial letters as necessary to organise words in alphabetical order.
- Comment on how a writer’s choice of words, including verbs, strengthens the
impact on the reader, e.g. rushed instead of went.
- Comment on how a writer’s choice of words, including adjectives and adverbs,
enhances the meaning.
- Identify, comment on and use figurative language in texts, including alliteration,
onomatopoeia, rhyme and similes, e.g. as … as …

Grammar and punctuation

- Understand and use commas and apostrophes.

- Understand end of sentence punctuation: exclamation mark, question mark
and full stop, and why they are used.
- Understand and use the standard layout and punctuation of direct speech.
- Identify and use multi-clause sentences.
- Identify connectives in texts.

2
 - Identify in texts examples of quantifiers, e.g. either, neither, both.
- Identify adverbs and adverbial phrases, including their purposes.
- Identify the following word classes in texts: nouns, adjectives and verbs.
- Explore how past, present and future verb forms are used in texts.

Structure of texts

- Explore and describe the main stages in a text from introduction to conclusion.
- Explore and recognise the key features of text structure in a range of different
fiction and non-fiction texts, including playscripts.
- Explore and recognise how ideas are organised in paragraphs and sections.
- Explore and recognise how points are sequenced and linked to develop ideas
within and between paragraphs.

Interpretation of texts

- Understand the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts.

- Identify different fiction genres, their themes and their typical characteristics.
- Identify the purposes and features of different non-fiction texts.
- Explore explicit meanings in texts.
- Identify the main points of a text, including key words and phrases.
- Make inferences from texts, including about story settings and characters.
- Predict what happens next in a story, based on previous events in the story.
- Distinguish between fact and opinion.
- Locate and use relevant information from a text to answer questions.
- Answer questions with some reference to single points in a text, including giving
quotations (from the text).

Appreciation and reflection

- Express personal responses to texts, including linking characters, settings and

events to personal experience.

- Comment on how fiction reflects the time or context in which it is set.