2015 Notes from the Marking Centre – Italian Beginners
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Italian Beginners course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2015 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 Italian Beginners Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2015 Higher School Certificate Italian 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 Italian in Stage 6.
Oral examination
Characteristics of better responses:
- a variety of tenses was manipulated confidently (present, past, imperfect, conditional/future/reflexives and the use of modals+infinitives and pronouns)
- a variety of vocabulary was used within the topics
- adjective agreements were used consistently and correctly
- responses were elaborated upon with consistent depth and fluency
- pronunciation and intonation were consistently accurate.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- tenses were incorrectly used
- common vocabulary, for example, adverbs, was frequently mispronounced
- questions were misunderstood
- candidates asked incorrectly for a question to be repeated
- common grammatical mistakes were made with: verbs, conjugating and agreements, and pronouns were misused, for example: sono 17 anni, mi piacerebbe, andrò, sono gioco, io visitare, sono studio, mi piace gioco, il mio sorella, ho due sorella, mi piace rilassarsi
- the question asked was mimicked, for example, Sì, ti piace…, Studi…..
- words such as dove, prossimo, scorso, mai (in sei mai stato all’estero?) were misunderstood
- questions such as ‘Come ti descrirebbe la tua amica?’, ‘I tuoi genitori sono contenti di questo?’, ‘Dove vi siete conosciuti?’ and ‘Da quanto tempo vi conoscete?’ were misunderstood
- candidates had difficulty responding to questions in the third person.
Written examination
Section I – Listening
Characteristics of better responses:
- answers were supported with reference to the texts when required
- candidates recognised that detailed information is not required in a summary (Q10)
- both sides of an argument were presented where appropriate, for example, reference was made to both the tennis job and the supermarket job (Q11)
- the ‘Candidate’s Notes’ column was used.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- vocabulary such as eg fare un giro, gli anziani, attrezzatura, palestra, orgoglioso, premio and lo svago was not well understood
- candidates did not identify the purpose of the speech (Q9)
- verbs, such as prendere, provare, ritirare were not well understood.
Section II – Reading
Characteristics of better responses:
- responses were not merely a translation of the text
- candidates were able to explain the reference (Q16c)
- responses were succinct
- the gist of the texts was understood.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- dictionaries were not used correctly
- words such as argomento di discussion were literally translated
- pubblicizzare was misunderstood (Q16)
- the pronouns for ‘he’ and ‘she’ were confused and gender was misidentified
- general knowledge rather than the text was used to answer the question (Q16).
Section III – Writing
Part A – Question 17
Characteristics of better responses:
- modal verbs were used correctly
- a variety of tenses was used
- the verb incontrarsi was manipulated correctly
- direct and indirect object pronouns were used accurately.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- English constructions, such as non posso aspettare were used -
- modal verbs were not used correctly, for example, voglio vado instead of voglio andare
- future and conditional tenses were confused
- adjectival agreement was not well understood
- genders of nouns were not used correctly, for example, la film and la cinema
- articulated prepositions such as a la scuola were used incorrectly
- the text was not concluded or signed off
- dictionaries were not used properly, with verbs and nouns incorrectly identified and the wrong term used, for example, eg Vuoi orologio un film? and Il supermercato è contrario il cinema
- literal translations were used, for example, night as notte as opposed to sera
- incorrect prepositions with days of the week were used, for example su venerdì.
Question 18
Characteristics of better responses:
- a variety of tenses was used
- articulated prepositions were used correctly
- structures that require the infinitive of a verb were used correctly, for example, ho bisogno di studiare, qualcosa da fare.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- soggetto or argomento was incorrectly used for material;
- the adjective favorita was used instead of preferita
- preferisco (the verb) was confused with preferito/a (the adjective)
- the word ‘script’ was misinterpreted to mean ‘dialogue’, and candidates wrote a conversation between themselves and their teacher
- verbs were not conjugated, used in the infinitive form, or were omitted altogether.
Questions 19 and 20
Characteristics of better responses:
- appropriate salutations and concluding statements were used
- irregular past participles were used correctly, for example, pianto, preso, fatto
- a variety of verb tenses such as past, imperfect, future, conditional were used
- structure was more logical and fluent, with evidence of planning
- idiomatic expressions/colloquialisms were used to enhance the responses where appropriate.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- incorrect past participles were used, for example, piangiuto, prenduto, facciuto
- non was incorrectly placed, particularly in - mi non piace, mi piace non
- oggi was incorrectly used instead of giorno for ‘day’, for example, ogni oggi andavo in spiaggia
- auxiliary verbs were used incorrectly when using the past tense, for example, ho andato or no auxiliary was used at all for example, io andato
- the email was begun with the phrase ‘hai fatto una vacanza che non ti è piaciuta’ taken directly from the question without changing the verb and pronoun to the first person
- noioso was incorrectly spelt.
NSW Government