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5. 2014 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre — Japanese Beginners

2014 Notes from the Marking Centre – Japanese Beginners

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Japanese Beginners 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 Japanese Beginners Stage 6 Syllabus
• the 2014 Higher School Certificate Japanese Beginners examination
• the marking guidelines
• Advice for students attempting HSC languages examinations
• 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 Japanese in Stage 6.

Oral examination

Characteristics of better responses:

• language was manipulated effectively
• responses answered the questions asked
• conjunctions such as soshite, demo, dakara, sorekara were used to link ideas
• a wide range of vocabulary and sentence structures was used
• tense was used correctly
• responses were clear, confident and fluent, with effective pronunciation and intonation.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• errors included tense, time periods and frequency, counters and dates
• incomplete sentences were often used
• question words such as dare, itsu, doushite/naze, doko were misunderstood
• responses were rote-learned and not relevant to the question asked
• imasu/arimasu, otousan/otoutosan, eigo/eiga, nihongo/nihon, jouzu/tokui, negate/heta were confused.

Written examination

Section I – Listening and Responding

Characteristics of better responses:

• answers were succinct, particularly when asked to summarise (Q.8)
• times, dates and days of the week (Q.4) were well understood
• opinions were explained and justified with specific reference to the text (Q.9 and Q.10).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• responses were often simply a translation of the text
• genki was translated as healthy rather than as outgoing/lively (Q.1)
• enpitsu/pen (Q.2) and nihon yori/nihon ryouri were confused
• tense was missed, leading to a misunderstanding of the context (Q.3)
• vocabulary/phrases such as osewa ni narimashita (Q.3), byouki, jinja (Q.8), anzen, yoku tsukatte iru (Q.9), daburu ruumu, onaji nedan, ashita dake shimatte imasu (Q.10) were misunderstood.

Section II – Reading

Characteristics of better responses:

• relevant details from the text were included to support ideas and opinions
• meaning was inferred
• the change in mood was identified and explained (Q.11)
• cause and effect were recognised (Q.13)
• main points and sources of information were identified (Q.15 (b) and (c)).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• ureshikunatta, nakerebanaranai (Q.11), sukii, izumisan ni ai ni ittara (Q.12), omocha, dentouteki (Q.13) were misunderstood
• February/two months (Q.12) and the counter for trees/books (Q.13) were confused
• information from different parts of the text was not connected (Q.15 (c))
• answers were often just a translation of the text.

Section III – Writing in Japanese

Characteristics of better responses:

• ideas were communicated with a high degree of accuracy
• a range of vocabulary, language structures and kanji was used
• ideas were highly relevant to the topic
• information was effectively structured and sequenced through paragraphing and the use of conjunctions
• appropriate text-type conventions were used (article and the context, purpose and audience).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• irrelevant or pre-learned responses were used
• questions were not fully addressed, eg suggesting to go shopping but omitting the purpose (Q.16); writing about only one sightseeing place in Australia (Q.18) or one social event at school (Q.19)
• grammar and sentence structures were overly repetitious, eg tari tari, ga arimasu
• Australian place names were poorly rendered in katakana (Q.18)
• common errors included:
  • particle errors, eg ga instead of ni for positions
  • hiragana errors, eg ru and ro
  • adjectives combined incorrectly, eg kireikute, oishiide
  • incorrect form of verb before kara, mae ni, nakerebenarimasen, to omoimasu
  • incorrect use of agemasu/kuremasu
  • incorrect spelling of isshoni.
• there was inconsistent use of tense (past/non-past) and register (plain/polite)
• Genkouyoushi was not used correctly
• Chinese simplified characters were used instead of kanji
• diary conventions (Q.17) and article text-type conventions (Q.18 and Q.19) were not used.