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2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Spanish Beginners

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Spanish Beginners 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:

Oral examination

Characteristics of better responses:

  • candidates spoke for the required time
  • candidates responded effectively to factual, probing and thought-provoking questions
  • a variety of vocabulary, grammatical structures and tenses was used
  • detail was provided that expanded upon previous information.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

  • many pauses, silences and question repetition were evident
  • candidates responded to factual questions only
  • prepared information was presented that was not relevant
  • tenses (past, present, future) and agreements (noun-adjective, subject-verb) were not used appropriately
  • vocabulary was limited and grammatical structures were used repetitively.

Written examination

Section I – Listening

Characteristics of better responses:

  • responses contained only the information that answered the question
  • all parts of the question were addressed
  • responses were written in the candidate’s own words
  • judgement was supported with relevant details from the text.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

  • responses were simply translations of the text
  • responses were often incomplete/incoherent
  • there was no evidence of comparison or supporting judgement with evidence from the text
  • some candidates used Spanglish.

Section II – Reading and Responding

Characteristics of better responses:

  • relevant details from the text were included to support opinions
  • candidates responded effectively to a range of questions with differing levels of complexity
  • candidates found all the information required by a question in longer texts
  • candidates extrapolated what was implied in a text.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

  • candidates responded to simple factual questions with sufficient information only
  • candidates did not address all aspects of the question
  • candidates did not locate all relevant information in longer texts
  • responses were limited to what was stated in a text.

Section III – Writing in Spanish

Characteristics of better responses:

  • a range of vocabulary and grammatical structures was manipulated effectively
  • audience, purpose and context demands of each task were addressed
  • candidates wrote creative, detailed responses within the word limit
  • content was organised coherently and written to capture reader interest.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

  • not all the demands of the task were addressed
  • responses lacked detail and interest
  • candidates used basic vocabulary and grammatical structures repetitively.
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