7: CAPS Language Assessment Essentials: English Home Language (Grades R-3)

The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for English Home Language in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3) provides a structured framework for teaching and assessing language development. For your AI chatbot to effectively assist in assessments, understanding these essentials is crucial.

Core Aims of the Curriculum: The South African curriculum aims to produce learners who are able to:

• Identify and solve problems creatively and critically.
• Work effectively as individuals and with others.
• Organize and manage themselves and their activities responsibly and effectively.
• Collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information.
• Communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills.
• Use science and technology effectively and critically.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems.

Specific Aims of English Home Language:

• Develop learners who are able to listen, speak, read, and write effectively and critically.
• Enable learners to use language to think and reason.
• Foster a love for reading and writing.
• Promote effective communication in various contexts.

Key Content Areas and Skills: English Home Language is divided into four main aspects, each with specific skills to be developed and assessed:

• Listening and Speaking: This includes active listening, participating in conversations, telling stories, giving instructions, and responding to questions.
• Reading and Phonics: Focuses on developing phonological awareness, decoding skills, reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. This includes recognizing letters, sounds, and high-frequency words.
• Writing and Handwriting: Covers pre-writing skills, letter formation, spelling, sentence construction, and various forms of writing (e.g., lists, captions, short stories).
• Language Structure and Use: Involves understanding grammar, punctuation, and how language works to create meaning.

Time Allocation: While Grade R has an integrated approach, for Grades 1-3, specific time allocations are recommended per week:

• Listening and Speaking: 2 hours
• Phonics: 2.5 hours
• Reading: 4 hours
• Writing and Handwriting: 2.5 hours
• Language Structure and Use: Integrated into other aspects.

Assessment in English Home Language: Assessment should be a continuous process, both informal (daily observation) and formal. It should cover a range of cognitive levels and allow learners to demonstrate their abilities through various tasks (oral, practical, written). Records of learner performance provide evidence of progression. Performance is reported in percentages with specific achievement levels (e.g., 7 for Outstanding Achievement 80-100%, 1 for Not Achieved 0-29%).

By familiarizing yourself with these foundational principles, you will be able to better interpret observations and generate relevant assessment insights in English Home Language.