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5. 2014 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre — Spanish Extension

2014 Notes from the Marking Centre – Spanish Extension

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Spanish Extension 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 Extension Stage 6 Syllabus
• the 2014 Higher School Certificate Spanish Extension 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 presented and developed a well-structured argument, which clearly stated their position
• the position was supported with at least two well-discussed reasons
• the concepts around which their argument was focused were clearly explained
• a coherent monologue was presented which linked ideas and reasons pertinent to the question
• all aspects of the question were addressed.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• the position was not clearly defined
• the monologue was not structured logically
• candidates often repeated themselves
• irrelevant information was often included
• candidates made statements that they could not explain, develop or finish.

Written examination

Section I – Response to Prescribed Text

Part A

Characteristics of better responses:

• candidates demonstrated a good understanding, supported with examples, of the narrator’s relationship with his family and friends (Q.1c)
• candidates discussed, compared and contrasted the issues in both stories (Q.1d).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• candidates did not discuss how the narrator’s relationship with his parents and friends changed throughout the story (Q.1c)
• candidates only discussed one of the stories (Q.1d).

Part B

Characteristics of better responses:

• candidates demonstrated in-depth understanding of the characters (Roxana and Ricardo) and of Las palabras de Roxana which enabled many students to respond with flair and originality, supporting their response with specific references to the character and events in the story (Q.2)
• the question was analysed and valid conclusions were drawn
• language was used authentically and creatively.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• the word limit was not met
• the response was poorly structured, lacking coherency and meaning
• there was a simple re-telling of the extract
• understanding of the characters was poor.

Section II – Writing in Spanish

Characteristics of better responses:

• a high level of grammatical accuracy, sophisticated vocabulary and complex grammatical structures were used
• the argument was supported with relevant examples
• candidates focused on presenting and justifying to the reader how ‘A society is judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable members’
• a good understanding of audience was demonstrated through choice of vocabulary and grammatical structures, the examples used and the way in which the text was structured
• candidates used the appropriate text type (article).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• arguments were repeated
• a range of issues related to ‘vulnerable members of a society’ (minority and disadvantaged groups) was listed rather than presenting an argument
• text was poorly structured and sequenced
• there were a number of grammatical errors with verb conjugations and verb, adjective, gender and number agreements.