2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Vietnamese Continuers
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Vietnamese 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 Vietnamese Continuers Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2013 Higher School Certificate Vietnamese 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 Vietnamese Continuers in Stage 6.
Oral examination
Characteristics of better responses:
- manipulated language effectively in response to a range of questions
- used wide vocabulary and advanced sentence structures
- elaborated by giving examples and expressing a point of view clearly without ambiguity
- engaged with the questions and responded fluently and confidently with authentic intonation and pronunciation.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- made common errors in time periods and dates
- often used incomplete sentences
- gave simple responses which did not express a point of view.
Discussion
Characteristics of better responses:
- provided well-prepared responses with a good choice of topic and well-researched resources
- chose topics that allowed use of a literary text, eg novel, film, short story, poem, song
- demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the topic and substantiated their point of view using their texts as well as their personal experience
- evaluated their resources and made a logical judgement of the issues raised by their research.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- did not have a literary text as a resource or use their resources effectively
- presented information without expressing a point of view or evaluating the information.
Written examination
Section I – Listening
Characteristics of better responses:
- supported answers with evidence from the text
- provided all relevant details
- elaborated effectively.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- did not support answers with close reference to the text
- translated text without answering the question.
Section II – Reading and Responding
Characteristics of better responses:
- supported answers with evidence from the text
- analysed language of text effectively and justified the change in Van in Question 8.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- translated the text rather than answering the requirements of the question
- did not provide details for questions beginning ‘Why …?’.
Part B
Characteristics of better responses:
- used the correct text type (email) with appropriate salutations and structure
- identified and responded to the main elements of the stimulus text
- clearly showed why Thanh and Yasu should become penfriends, mentioning all elements of what they had in common and how they could mutually help each other
- responded creatively with relevant information and opinions to the more open-ended aspects of the text.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- listed personal characteristics of Thanh and Yasu but did not explain purpose of email
- showed limited evidence of understanding the stimulus text.
Section III – Writing in Vietnamese
Characteristics of better responses:
- used correct text type structures
- fully explored the topic and task requirements
- wrote a well-structured, logical, organised interview
- wrote authentically and fluently.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- did not fully respond to the requirements of the task
- lacked structure
- used unclear language.
NSW Government