Profile and Features of the English Test
in the Baccalaureate Exam*

I- Profile of the test
The English test shall conform to the following criteria:
1. The test shall last two hours and shall be graded over 40 marks.
2. It shall evaluate the mastery of the linguistic knowledge and the communicative competences as defined in the official curriculum.
3. It shall reflect the learning acquired via the textbooks in use - and particularly the textbook used in the 4th year Secondary Education.
4. It shall comprise the three following components:
A. Reading Comprehension : 14 marks (14 items x l)
B. Language : 16 marks (32 items x 0.5)
C. Writing : 10 marks (two tasks : 3+7)
These components shall essentially comprise integrative type tasks.
 
II- Features of the test

A. READING COMPREHENSION
The Reading Comprehension component shall deal with the comprehension of a text of about 350 words (about 30 lines). It may consist of 2 or 3 short texts also corresponding to a total of about 350 words.

The texts shall be authentic and extracted from various sources (linear ones such as : novels, magazines, newspapers, etc. and non-linear ones such as: charts, notes,  tickets, menus, notices, timetables, etc.).

The Reading Comprehension questions shall be about:
a. the global (overall) comprehension of the text(s);
b. the detailed comprehension of the text(s);
c. inference, reaction to the text.

The question types will be as follows :
- Wh-questions;
- Sentence completion;
- Information transfer;
- False statements requiring justification;
- Multiple choice alternatives.

The questions shall be about the contents, the organization of the text (e.g. topic sentence and details, outlining), as well as about the following abilities :
- providing the title of the text from alternatives provided;
- paraphrasing;
- finding the relation between referent and object;
- inferring the meaning of some words from the context of the reading passage;
- reacting to the text (what counts while correcting this type of question is the idea; no linguistic mistakes will be taken into account);
- determining the function and type of the text;
- matching paragraphs and titles (in this case, the number of titles provided shall be superior to the number of paragraphs);
- completing a gapped summary of the text.

B. LANGUAGE
The language component shall consist of a series of tasks testing the knowledge and competence of a lexical and grammatical nature in an essentially integrated manner. A representative sampling of the various linguistic elements in the program (vocabulary, grammar, functions) shall be ensured.

The tasks shall be of the type :
- matching sentence parts (in context);
- completing a gapped paragraph with words provided (the number of words should exceed that of the blanks);
- underlining or circling the right options in a paragraph to test syntax and morphology;
- unscrambling sentence parts;
- supplying the appropriate exponents to express the target functions.

 


C. WRITING
The writing component shall consist of two tasks.
A. Task one (3 marks). It shall be one of the following types:
- producing full sentences from notes (dehydrated sentences);
- combining sentences;
- rephrasing / expressing sentences differently ; in this case the first word can be provided;
- proofreading : correcting the words or groups of words underlined in a paragraph.

B. Task 2 (7 marks) Productive writing task types :
- writing a speech, a talk;
- writing a letter (to complain, to apologize, to congratulate. to advise, to inquire or to apply for something - a job, a loan -, to accept or decline an invitation or an offer);
- producing an article, a report or a text of a descriptive, narrative or argumentative nature, in a communicative context;
- developing an outline,  a table, a chart, a map or a diagram into a text.

Note Two distinct tests shall be provided:
- One for the Arts and Management branches (Lettres / Economie et Gestion)
- One for the remaining branches.


*This document was issued in November 2001 by the Ministry of Education and Training, Tunisia.