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5. 2014 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre — French Continuers

2014 Notes from the Marking Centre – French Continuers

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 French Continuers course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2014 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 French Continuers Stage 6 Syllabus
• the 2014 Higher School Certificate French 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 French in Stage 6.

Oral examination

Characteristics of better responses:

• questions were understood and answered with relevant detail
• tenses and structure were manipulated effectively in a range of contexts
• a broad range of vocabulary was used
• unexpected questions were answered in some depth.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• candidates had difficulty with straightforward questions
• there was poor pronunciation of basic words and final consonants
• there was inconsistency between responses to expected and unexpected questions
• grammatical inaccuracies included the misuse of prepositions, verb conjugations, superlatives and articles as well as omitting agreements.

Written examination

Section I – Listening and Responding

Characteristics of better responses:

• the Candidates’ Notes column was used well and all relevant information was transferred into the candidate’s response
• candidates responded to all of the requirements of the question
• candidates provided a summary of the information rather than repeating unnecessary detail (Q.6)
• content and language were both addressed (Q.8)
• candidates expressed themselves succinctly without repetition.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• candidates quoted in French which did not allow them to demonstrate their comprehension
• a number of candidates misunderstood the meanings of auditeurs, une balade à vélo, patron, auprès de, les baskets, quatre-vingts
• candidates did not link the feelings with evidence from the text (Q.7)
• candidates named language techniques without providing examples and/or commenting on how they engaged the audience (Q.8).

Section II – Reading and Responding

Part A

Question 9

Characteristics of better responses:

• candidates wrote succinctly and clearly
• candidates structured their responses in accordance with the terms of each question and with relevant detail
• quotes from the text were either translated or paraphrased into English
• the description of Pierre as closed-minded was clearly justified, with well-supported details from the text (Q.9c).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• details were restated from earlier questions or responses were unnecessarily wordy
• candidates misunderstood pour les jeunes as ‘by young people’ rather than ‘for young people’ and/or quoted in French and did not provide translations
• language features were cited that were either not correct or not substantiated with relevant references from the text
• candidates mistranslated l’histoire as ‘history’ rather than ‘story’, salle as ‘room’ rather than ‘cinema’ and expérimentés as ‘experimented’ rather than ‘experienced’.

Question 10

Characteristics of better responses:

• candidates answered concisely and coherently with clear English expression
• answered were comprehensive and used accurate details from the text to support a point
• relevant information was summarised rather than paraphrased from the text
• the language and content were linked and insights were offered into how the last paragraph offered hope (part e).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• answers lacked precision and were not supported with evidence from the text
• irrelevant and overly complex literary devices were listed with no meaningful supporting details (part e)
• candidates demonstrated poor use of the dictionary, translating climat doux as ‘soft’ or ‘smooth climate’, taux as ‘tax’ and chômage as ‘homelessness’.

Part B

Question 11

Characteristics of better responses:

• candidates clearly showed they were dissatisfied with their hotel stay and maintained an indignant tone throughout, while using the correct register
• candidates referred to the manager’s reply to their original email and developed ideas in depth about various problems encountered
• the complaints and explanation of experiences were relevant, logical and well organised
• vocabulary, tenses and structures were carefully chosen to express dissatisfaction
• writing displayed a high level of accuracy; a variety of tenses were used appropriately, language was manipulated authentically, genders, spelling, verb stems and conjugations were correct.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• ideas were general in nature and not clearly linked to the stimulus
• vocabulary was poorly chosen, not cross-referenced in the dictionary, often of an inappropriate register and vocabulary from the stimulus was often misused
• writing displayed a lack of accuracy – basic words were misspelt; tu and vous were mixed; meaning was marred by poor conjugation of verbs; poor manipulation of tenses; anglicisms were used and there was a reliance on English syntax, especially when attempting to recount incidents
• common errors included poor adjectival agreements, the misuse of gender and number, possessive pronouns, relative pronouns especially ce qui/ce que, superlatives and object pronouns.

Section III – Writing in French

Question 12

Characteristics of better responses:

• the language was manipulated with authenticity
• sound grammatical knowledge was demonstrated, using a variety of tenses and structures, with particular attention paid to the conjugation of verbs and the sequence of tenses
• a detailed description using topic-specific vocabulary was given
• the appropriate text type was used within the word limit.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• the language was not manipulated to clearly express ideas
• frequent errors included spelling, agreements, absence of conjugation, prepositions
• basic vocabulary and formulaic structures were used.

Question 13

Characteristics of better responses:

• an excellent understanding of the text type was demonstrated
• the text of the speech was relevant to the topic throughout
• the context and audience were addressed well
• the appropriate language register was used
• selected and relevant details were included
• a wide range of structures was used in correct and authentic French
• ideas were sequenced coherently and effectively.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• the response read like a letter or email rather than a speech
• candidates did not distinguish between nouns, adjectives or verbs and the spelling of key words was often incorrect, for example bonheur, anniversaire, discours
• responses were far too short or too long
• candidates attempted to manipulate the question to fit a rote-learnt but unsuitable answer
• responses were more descriptive than reflective.