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2009 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre – Chinese

Contents

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 courses in Chinese. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2009 Higher School Certificate examinations, indicating the quality of the responses and highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses.

This document should be read along with the relevant syllabuses, the 2009 Higher School Certificate examinations, the marking guidelines and other support documents which have been developed by the Board of Studies to assist in the teaching and learning of Chinese.

Teachers and students are advised that, in December 2008, the Board of Studies approved changes to the examination specifications and assessment requirements for a number of courses. These changes will be implemented for the 2010 HSC cohort. Information on a course-by-course basis is available on the Board’s website.

General comments

Teachers and candidates should be aware that examiners may ask questions that address the syllabus outcomes in a manner that requires candidates to respond by integrating their knowledge, understanding and skills developed through studying the course.

Candidates need to be aware that the mark allocated to the question and the answer space (where this is provided on the examination paper) are a guide to the length of the required response. A longer response will not in itself lead to higher marks. Writing far beyond the indicated space may reduce the time available for answering other questions.

Candidates need to be familiar with the Board’s Glossary of Key Words which contains some terms commonly used in examination questions. However, candidates should also be aware that not all questions will start with or contain one of the key words from the glossary. Questions such as ‘how?’, ‘why?’ or ‘to what extent?’ may be asked or verbs may be used which are not included in the glossary, such as ‘design’, ‘translate’ or ‘list’.

Beginners

Oral examination

General comments

In the better responses, candidates responded to the examiners’ questions with confidence and effectively presented relevant information and opinions. In addition, intonation and pronunciation were correct and clear. The weakest responses revealed that some candidates struggled to understand even elementary questions.

Candidates need to ensure that they understand the questions asked and, if necessary, ask for the question to be repeated in Chinese. Familiarising themselves with key words and sentence structures and responding in full sentences would assist future students to present a higher quality response.

Written examination

Section I – Listening

Question 2

In the weaker responses, candidates wrote ‘10’ instead of ‘4’ or wrote either more or less than the eight digits required.

Question 3

This proved to be a challenging item.

Question 4

In the weaker responses, candidates confused ‘listening to music’ with ‘singing’.

Question 6

In the weaker responses, candidates did not explain why the male speaker changed his holiday plans.

Question 8

In the weaker responses, candidates misinterpreted ‘pretty clothes’ as a present from the friends. Only the best responses made reference to the fact that people should keep their voice down.

Question 9

  1. In the weaker responses, candidates did not mention that ‘the principal would call her parents if the situation did not improve’.

Question 10

In the best responses, candidates provided all the relevant information and identified the strategies used to persuade the audience to come to the sale.

Section II – Reading

Question 11

In the best responses, candidates understood that the advertisement targeted Year 11 students.

Question 12

  1. In the better responses, candidates indicated what the male speaker would do and justified their response.

Question 13

  1. In the better responses, candidates referred to both happiness and tiredness.
  2. In the better responses, candidates referred to all the information relating to why the speaker moved.

Question 14

  1. In the weaker responses, candidates did not refer to the nature of Zhong Ming’s friend’s holiday plans.

Section III – Writing in Chinese

General comments

Almost all candidates used characters, rather than Pinyin, to express themselves in this section.

In the weaker responses, candidates either included irrelevant information or copied sentences from the previous section of the paper.

Part A

Question 16

Most candidates responded to the question in the appropriate text type and addressed the question appropriately. Most used a variety of vocabulary items and sentence structures. Candidates are reminded of the inappropriateness of including long lists or the repeated use of the same structure in order to meet the word limit.

Question 17

In the weaker responses, candidates did not use the correct tense in discussing their future plans.

Part B

Question 18

  1. Many candidates demonstrated the ability to organise ideas, use correct sentence structures and a variety of appropriate vocabulary items. In the better responses, candidates wrote about their future plans using simple but correct grammatical structures.
  2. In the best responses, candidates included their own experiences to make their speech more convincing. In the weaker responses, candidates’ expression was limited in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure.

Continuers

Oral examination

General comments

Most candidates managed to maintain a high level of relevance and accuracy when responding to questions. The outstanding candidates demonstrated some degree of authenticity, clarity, spontaneity and an ability to justify a point of view.

In the best responses, candidates provided coherent, well-developed and relevant responses which included a wide variety of sentence structures and vocabulary coupled with appropriate idiomatic expressions. These candidates displayed authenticity and originality in the conversation giving a more natural feel to their responses instead of relying on rote-learned responses.

Some candidates responded with long, rote-learned, at times irrelevant, responses that detracted from the overall performance.

Candidates are reminded to avoid long hesitations and, where possible, to elaborate on the response to a question with relevant information during the examination.

Written examination

Section I – Listening and Responding

Question 2

The better responses included the fact that Peter’s immediate action was to talk to his parents.

Question 3

The weaker responses did not include all the required information or included irrelevant detail.

Question 5

In the best responses, candidates summarised the key points rather than directly translating the whole of the text.

Question 6

The better responses avoided direct translation of the text and included an explanation of the change in Mark’s attitude.

Question 7

In the better responses, candidates analysed the reason why Andy was invited to the program.

Question 8

The better responses included a perceptive comparison of the present and the future.

Section II – Reading and Responding

Part A

Question 9

  1. The best responses included a full justification of the writer’s point of view.
  2. In the better responses, candidates demonstrated a good understanding of the texts and explained the points of view of both writers.

Question 10

  1. Most candidates attempted this question successfully. In the weaker responses, candidates did not mention the nature of the impression the mother made on the reader.
  2. In the better responses, candidates described the author’s personality in a coherent response.
  3. In better responses candidates wrote perceptively about the significance of the basketball and justified their opinion with relevant references to the text.

Part B

Question 11

In the weaker responses, candidates demonstrated a limited understanding of the texts and responded with insufficient information.

Section III – Writing in Chinese

Question 12

  1. In the better responses, candidates included detailed information, such as venue, date and activities.
  2. In some weaker responses, candidates did not include the details of the travel experiences of the previous two days.

Question 13

  1. In the best responses, candidates reflected on the events using descriptive language skilfully.
  2. In the better responses, candidates made reference to personal experiences and skills relevant to the position.

Extension

Oral examination

Monologue

General comments

Those candidates who performed well demonstrated a good understanding of the questions and related issues. They spoke with clarity and developed their arguments logically supported by relevant examples.

The weaker candidates did not focus sufficiently on the question and did not present and support a point of view in a sustained manner. These candidates lacked the vocabulary and knowledge of sentence structure to express their ideas effectively.

Candidates are advised to read questions carefully and identify any key words. Candidates are reminded of the need to speak for two minutes in order to demonstrate sufficient control of language and to develop a point of view.

Written examination

Section I – Response to Prescribed Text

Part A

Specific comments

Question 1

  1. In the better responses, candidates included the three ways used to persuade Mr Jiang.
  2. In the better responses, candidates referred to the division between the rich and the poor, rural and urban dwellers, the educated and uneducated.

Part B

Question 2

In the better responses, candidates demonstrated their knowledge of the film by imagining realistically how Xiaochun would react after learning the secret of his background.

Section II – Writing in Chinese

Questions 3 and 4

In the better responses to Question 4, candidates explained how a balance between parental expectation and personal desire could be achieved, whereas in the weaker responses, candidates only described aspects of personal desire and parental expectation.

In general, the better responses were well organised and the information well presented. In addition, a variety of vocabulary items and sentence structures were included.

In the weaker responses, candidates prescribed a very narrow view of the topic and did not support their point of view.

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