2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Heritage Korean
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Heritage Korean course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2013 Higher School Certificate examination, indicating the quality of the responses and highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses.
This document should be read along with:
- the Heritage Korean Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2013 Higher School Certificate Heritage Korean examination
- the marking guidelines
- Advice for students attempting HSC languages examinations, and HSC Languages oral examinations – advice to students
- Advice for HSC students about examinations
- other support documents developed by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW to assist in the teaching and learning of Korean in Stage 6.
Oral examination – Interview
Characteristics of better responses:
- the chosen topic was discussed through the development of information, ideas and experiences, using a variety of sources from a range of contexts
- detailed and perceptive references to the texts studied, including information on their reliability and usefulness were made
- a point of view was justified, supported with examples
- actively participated in the interview and engaged effectively with the examiner
- spoke with a high level of grammatical accuracy, a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, and a high level of fluency and correct pronunciation.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- minimal information provided and the chosen topic was treated superficially
- were unprepared or used prepared responses that had little relevance to the question being asked
- made few references to the texts studied
- spoke with a low level of grammatical accuracy and unsophisticated vocabulary
- used incomplete sentences and/or a mixture of plain and polite forms with some use of English vocabulary.
Written examination
Section I – Responding to texts
Characteristics of better responses:
- the main points of the text were identified and all relevant information about the text was included
- specific references to the text were presented with a number of appropriate examples to support candidates’ points of view
- responded appropriately with relevant expressions in accordance with the text type
- demonstrated an in-depth understanding of the text with specific reference to the values, beliefs, practices and ideas expressed.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- were simply a translation of the text
- made insufficient appropriate references to the text
- had a tendency to copy information from the text
- provided limited contexts and ideas to support understanding of the purpose of the text
- relied on prepared ideas which were not relevant to the question.
Section II – Creating texts in Korean
Characteristics of better responses:
- relevant details from the text were included to support opinions
- ideas were expressed with reference to context, purpose and audience
- information and ideas were organised, sequenced and structured effectively
- presented a coherent text that was well structured with an introduction, a body with in-depth analysis of the issues, and a convincing conclusion.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- used tense incorrectly and the honorific forms inappropriately
- made spelling errors
- included inaccuracies in written expression, and sequenced poorly
- included content which did not engage the reader’s interest
- did not meet the required word limit
- used the incorrect text type.