2015 Notes from the Marking Centre – Modern Greek Beginners
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Modern Greek 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 Modern Greek Beginners Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2015 Higher School Certificate Modern Greek 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 Modern Greek in Stage 6.
Oral examination
Characteristics of better responses:
- candidates conversed effectively by exchanging relevant information and elaborating on their responses
- an excellent control of a variety of vocabulary and language structures was demonstrated
- candidates used acceptable intonation and pronunciation.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- candidates often asked for clarification or required prompting from the examiner when responding to simple questions
- a limited knowledge of vocabulary and language structures was demonstrated
- candidates responded with one-word answers or incomplete sentences.
Section I – Listening
Characteristics of better responses:
- responses were not simply a translation of the text
- candidates gave coherent and cohesive responses
- candidates supported their arguments with reference to the text where appropriate
- responses demonstrated a thorough understanding of the text.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- only some of the relevant information was provided, for example, very few candidates made reference to Dina’s genuine concern for Nikos (Q7), and George’s influence was not included (Q9)
- candidates translated information rather than addressing the question
- the text was misunderstood, for example, some candidates wrote that the son was too ‘small’ rather than too ‘young’(Q2)
- candidates listed points rather than developing the argument (Q8).
Section II – Reading
Characteristics of better responses:
- relevant textual references were incorporated where appropriate
- candidates correctly identified the purpose of the notice (Q11)
- candidates demonstrated a thorough understanding of the ways Elpida’s holiday did not meet her expectations (Q13).
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- candidates provided some points rather than addressing the question
- only a limited understanding of Eleftheria’s and Sotiria’s overseas experience was demonstrated (Q15b)
- candidates listed information but did not address Dimitri’s suitability for the position (Q16c).
Section III – Writing
Characteristics of better responses:
- ideas and information appropriate to audience, purpose and context were communicated
- candidates demonstrated good knowledge of Greek vocabulary and language structures
- candidates used the appropriate past tense to talk about their experience overseas.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- there was a lack of grammatical agreement and incorrect use of tense
- ideas were not communicated effectively
- candidates experienced difficulty with the accusative case and verb tenses, for example, στην Κυριακή, τα οικογένεια, τους αδερφές
- candidates presented some information relevant to the task with some knowledge of vocabulary, language structures and features.
NSW Government