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5. 2011 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre — Swedish Continuers

2011 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre – Swedish Continuers

Contents

• Introduction
• Oral examination
• Written examination
  • Section 1: Listening and Responding
  • Section 2: Reading and Responding
  • Section 3: Writing in Swedish

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Swedish Continuers course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2011 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 relevant syllabus, the 2011 Higher School Certificate examination, the marking guidelines and other support documents developed by the Board of Studies to assist in the teaching and learning of Swedish.

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 marks allocated to the question and the answer space (where this is provided on the examination paper) are guides 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 that are not included in the glossary, such as ‘design’, ‘translate’ or ‘list’.

Oral examination

Conversation

In the best responses, candidates responded fluently and accurately to the questions and manipulated language effectively across a range of syllabus topics. These responses demonstrated depth of treatment by expanding on ideas and opinions. For the highest marks, candidates needed to go beyond a minimal response and provide detail, expand on ideas, and give and justify points of view.

In weaker responses, candidates, although they responded to the questions, were reticent to expand on ideas and did not go beyond a minimal response. In addition, these responses contained weaknesses in language, particularly in word order and the use of prepositions, verb forms and gender agreements. These candidates tended to have a limited vocabulary.

Discussion

While candidates generally performed well in the Conversation, the responses to the Discussion showed some lack of maturity in their approach. Some responses were well researched with appropriate and detailed references to resources, so that candidates engaged in a discussion that included multiple perspectives and points of view. Others were dependent on facts, rather than presenting points of view on the topic or offering and justifying opinions. References to resources were vague rather than perceptive. Candidates spoke well but often did not to take part in a discussion.

Candidates had used a range of resources, but few referred to literary resources. Candidates are reminded that they must refer to ‘at least three texts, one of which is a literary text, such as a novel, play, film or poem’ (BOS update to Swedish syllabus). A literary text enables them to bring different perspectives to the study and provides a better platform for a discussion than Webpages, conversations with family members, travel brochures and personal experiences, some of which cannot really be considered appropriate as texts for a discussion.

Candidates are advised that, in choosing the topic for the in-depth study, they consider the aspect of the topic that will enable them to take part in a discussion. Therefore, topics such as a town or historical figure need to be researched from the point of view of their strategic significance, for example, or how the person or place may have been presented in films, novels or poems, rather than a simple presentation of a town’s historical landmarks or the personal profile of an artist.

Written examination

Section 1: Listening and Responding

Part A

Question 2

While most candidates answered the question correctly, a few struggled to include a range of reasons for the passengers being upset.

Question 4

Better responses were those that commented perceptively on both content and language, and used appropriate examples from the text. Weaker responses tended to focus on content and to translate what was said.

Question 5

1. Most candidates answered this question satisfactorily, but in weaker responses they did not provide enough examples to demonstrate a perceptive understanding of the text.
   
   
2. Stronger responses were those that showed an understanding of Hannah’s ambivalence. In weaker responses, candidates focused on her negative attitude and provided translations rather than interpretations.

Part B

Question 6

Stronger responses were those that included both the holistic message and some detail. In weaker responses, candidates answered with reference to certain bits of the announcement and missed the overall purpose of it.

Question 7

While most responses were written using the correct tone, in the weaker responses candidates showed an inability to manipulate language and/or include all the relevant detail.

Section 2: Reading and Responding

Part A

Question 8

2. Weaker responses to this question were those that did not include enough detail.
   
   
3. The best responses were those that included a range of differences in the the girls’ use of language with close reference to the text, whereas the weaker responses tended to focus on content.

Question 9

2. Weaker responses were those that tended to translate the text and describe Daniel’s life without showing a perceptive understanding of his feelings.
   
   
3. In the best responses, candidates evaluated both titles effectively with support from the text, but weaker responses were those that did not link the title to the content of the article.

Part B

Question 10

Many candidates provided appropriate and creative responses to the text. Weaker responses were those that relied too heavily on the provided stimulus without sufficient depth in the treatment of the task. These candidates also struggled to manipulate language authentically, having a limited vocabulary and using often awkward sentence structure.

Section 3: Writing in Swedish

The best responses were those that used the conventions of the required text type and demonstrated both breadth and depth in the treatment of ideas and information. In weaker responses, candidates struggled to comply with the requirements of the question and showed a limited ability to manipulate language in an authentic manner.