2014 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 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 Spanish Beginners Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2014 Higher School Certificate Spanish Beginners 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 Spanish in Stage 6.
Oral examination
Characteristics of better responses:
- candidates responded to a broad range of questions which asked for factual information, thoughts, feelings, and explanations
- relevant information was provided using correct Spanish sentences
- vocabulary and grammatical structures were manipulated
- reasons were offered to explain certain responses
- candidates showed depth of ideas.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- candidates had difficulty with questions requiring expression of thoughts and feelings, or explanations
- questions were answered with single disjointed words, or with lists of information
- candidates struggled to deliver simple information in the third person, singular/plural
- responses were often rote-learnt
- candidates responded using the present tense and ignored verb, adjective, gender and number agreements.
Written examination
Section I – Listening
Characteristics of better responses:
- all required information was extracted from the listening texts
- responses were clear, concise and accurate
- all elements of the question were addressed
- only key pieces of information were included in responses, rather than all the notes taken while listening.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- the content of the listening text was re-told
- candidates failed to identify that it was a credit card being discussed in (Q.5)
- candidates were not able to summarise (Q.8)
- references to the text were limited or absent (Q.9).
Section II – Reading
Characteristics of better responses:
- all parts of the questions were addressed
- discussions were supported using evidence from the text (Qs.13b, 14b and 15b)
- the reason for the event’s wide appeal to a range of students was clearly identified (Q.13b)
- the two opinions were clearly identified, and contrasted with reference to the text (Q.14b)
- the effect of the council’s decision on the community was clearly identified and supported with reference to the text (Q.15b).
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- candidates often failed to consider content and context
- often only part of the text was considered rather than considering the whole text in determining the response
- evidence from the text was not used to support the arguments.
Section III – Writing in Spanish
Characteristics of better responses:
- the opinion included specifics, for example good service, handsome waiters, particular dishes on menu, suggestions on menu choices (Q.17)
- candidates wrote within the demands of the text type
- candidates expressed and justified negative opinions in correct Spanish
- responses were well organised, with obvious planning and paragraphing
- diverse vocabulary and grammatical structures were manipulated accurately.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- generic information about food was delivered, using basic vocabulary and repetitive grammatical structures
- the writing lacked coherence – candidates did not use connectors, conjunctions and linking words
- the response did not meet the text type requirements
- a limited range of basic vocabulary and grammatical structures was used
- the text lacked structure and was often written as one paragraph
- thoughts and ideas were not clearly expressed in accurate Spanish.
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