2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Ukrainian Continuers
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Ukrainian Continuers 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 Ukrainian Continuers Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2013 Higher School Certificate Ukrainian Continuers 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 Ukrainian Continuers in Stage 6.
Oral examination
Characteristics of better responses:
- used relevant vocabulary for a variety of topics
- moved competently across tenses
- justified, explained and expressed feelings
- gave supporting evidence for points of view
- responded appropriately to hypothetical situations
- provided evidence of depth of research and perceptive understanding of topic and texts.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- used basic vocabulary and expressions
- made errors in declension and verb conjugations
- information was superficial and there was limited evidence of research for in-depth study
- relied on general knowledge or personal experience rather than research in the Discussion.
Written examination
Section I – Listening
Characteristics of better responses:
- understood content, language and tone of texts
- provided substantial detail – for example in Question 3(b), details such as the condition, occasion for release and country of origin of the collections.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- did not understand that the ‘how’ in Question 6(b) meant they had to talk about how the announcer conveyed the message using the medium of radio, not simply transpose what was said
- lacked depth of response
- lacked specificity.
Section II – Reading and Responding
Part A
Characteristics of better responses:
- clearly understood the link between each speaker’s topics for presentation and the seminar’s aims (Q.8).
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- confused the features of the speakers with the features of the speech (Q.7b)
- failed to assess the suitability of the speakers (Q.8).
Part B
Characteristics of better responses:
- understood the text
- used good idiomatic expressions
- used accurate spelling, language and syntax
- manipulated language appropriately
- used vocabulary relevant to the topic.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- made errors in the use of prepositions and cases, for example chekaju na rezul’taty rather than dla, vid stresu not vid stresom
- made spelling errors such as stressed and unstressed y and e, chykaju versus chekaju
- used double negatives with second negative missing
- did not use correct conventions of text type (ie email)
- did not structure information and ideas well.
Section III – Writing in Ukrainian
Characteristics of better responses:
- used a range of literary devices such as metaphor, simile, personification
- used appropriate idiomatic language for text type
- wrote imaginatively.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- made errors of syntax and spelling.
NSW Government