CBSE Board English Core Syllabus for Class 8

CBSE SYLLABUS FOR CLASS 8 ENGLISH

SECTION A: READING

20 Marks

Q 1-4 Four unseen reading passages of 5 marks each. Each reading passage will have 5 sub- parts, each of 1 mark. All questions will be multiple choice questions. The passages will be extracts from poems/factual/descriptive/literary/discursive passages. Questions will test inference, evaluation and vocabulary. There will be at least 04 marks for assessing vocabulary skills. The total length of the 4 passages will be between 650 and 800 words.

SECTION B: WRITING

20 Marks

The writing section comprises of three writing tasks as indicated below:

Q 5 A short answer question of upto 80 words in the form of a Biographical Sketch (expansion of notes on an individual’s life or achievements into a short paragraph)/Data Interpretation, Dialogue Writing or Description (People, Places, Events).

The question will assess students’ skill of expressing ideas in clear and grammatically correct English, presenting ideas coherently and concisely, writing a clear description, a clear account of events, expanding notes into a piece of writing, or transcoding information from one form to another. 4 Marks

Q 6 A long answer question (minimum 120 words) in the form of a formal letter/informal letter or an email. The output would be a long piece of writing and will assess the use of appropriate style, language, content and expression.                                                                                                   8 Marks

Q 7 A long answer question (minimum 150 words) in the form of a diary entry, article, speech, story or debate.

Students’ skills in expression ofideas in clear and grammatically correct English, planning, organising and presenting ideas coherently by introducing, developing and concluding a topic, comparing and contrasting ideas and arriving at a conclusion, presenting an argument with supporting examples, using an appropriate style and format and expanding notes into longer pieces ofwriting and creative expression of ideas will be assessed.                                                                  8 Marks

Important Note on Format and Word limit:

Format will not carry any separate marks and in most cases, format will be given in the question paper.
The word limit given is the suggested minimum word limit. No candidate may be penalised for writing more or less than the suggested word limit. Stress should be on content, expression, coherence and relevance of the content presented.

SECTION C: GRAMMAR

20 Marks

This section will assess Grammar items in context for 20 Marks. It will carry 5 questions of 4 marks each.

Tests items will be Multiple Choice Questions and test various grammatical items in context.

Q 8 to12 will test grammar items which have been dealt with in class IX. Different structures such as verb forms, sentence structure, connectors, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, clauses, phrases, etc., can be tested through formative assessment over a period of time. As far as the summative assessment is concerned, it will recycle grammar items learnt over a period of time and will test them in context through Multiple Choice Question format.

Tests types used will include gap-filling, cloze (gap filling exercise with blanks at regular intervals), sentence completion, reordering word groups into sentences, editing, dialogue-completion and sentence-transformation.

The grammar syllabus will be sampled each year, with marks allotted for: Verb forms Sentence structures Other areas

Note: Jumbled words in reordering exercise to test syntax will involve sentences in a context. Each sentence will be split into sense groups (not necessarily into single words) and jumbled

Section D: LITERATURE

20 Marks

Q 13 Two extracts out of three from prose, poetry or plays in the form of Multiple Choice Questions based on reference to context. Each extract will carry 3 marks.

(Word limit: 20-30 words)                                                                                                     3+3=6 Marks

Q 14 Four out of Five short answer type questions based on prose, poetry and play of 2 marks each. The questions will not test recall but inference and evaluation.

(Word limit: 30-40 words each)                                                                                                     8 marks

Q15 One out of two long answer type questions to assess personal response to text by going beyond
the text/poem/story or extract. Creativity, imagination and extrapolation beyond the text and
across two texts will also be assessed.                                                                                            6 marks