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5. 2012 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre — Ukrainian Continuers

2012 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre – Ukrainian Continuers

Contents

• Introduction
• Oral examination
• Written examination
  • Listening and Responding
  • Reading and Responding
  • Writing

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 course in Ukrainian Continuers. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2012 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 2012 Higher School Certificate examination, the marking guidelines and other support documents which have been developed by the Board of Studies to assist in the teaching and learning of Ukrainian.

NOTE: Teachers and students are reminded that in 2013, the revised Ukrainian Continuers syllabus and examination specifications will be examined for the first time.

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 that are not included in the glossary may be used, such as ‘design’, ‘translate’ or ‘list’.

Oral examination

General comments

The oral examination for Ukrainian Continuers consists of two sections: the Conversation and the Discussion. The duration of the oral examination is approximately 7 minutes for Conversation and approximately 8 minutes for Discussion.

In the Conversation, the examiner will ask the candidate questions about his or her personal world (for example his/her life, family and friends, interests and aspirations) as it relates to the prescribed topics in the syllabus. Neither the number of questions nor the number of topics covered by the examination is predetermined. The questions the examiner asks may relate to a previous response made by the student or introduce a new topic. Candidates should answer each question only with information related specifically to the question asked. Candidates are encouraged to respond in such a way that they demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of structures and vocabulary, but not through the inclusion of material irrelevant to the question asked. If they do not understand a question, candidates may ask for the question to be repeated, clarified or rephrased in the language being examined.

In the Discussion, the examiner will ask the candidate a series of questions relating to the student’s in-depth study. The subject of the study will relate to one or more of the prescribed themes or topics and involve the in-depth study of at least three texts, one of which will be a literary text, such as a novel, play, film or poem. Students should be prepared to discuss issues related to the study as well as the texts/resources studied. Students must not bring objects such as photographs, posters or pictures to the examination.

Conversation

In the better responses, candidates were fluent and engaging, answering questions in depth. They were willing to expand on topics generated by the questions and engage in relaying information, ideas and opinions on these. They used extensive vocabulary, appropriate grammatical structures with excellent pronunciation and intonation.

While all candidates showed an ability to maintain a conversation, some were hesitant and their conversations were characterised by grammatical inaccuracies and limited vocabulary.

Discussion

In better discussions, candidates had researched well and supported their discussions with a range of appropriate resources. Candidates are reminded that the resources must support a particular chosen topic for research; they are not a topic for discussion in themselves but provide depth and sophistication to a topic. What differentiated candidates tended to be differences in language, particularly fluency, accuracy and variety.

Written examination

Listening and Responding

Part A

Question 1

Candidates needed to identify the issues revealed in the conversation. Some simply retold the content of the conversation.

Question 2

Some candidates misunderstood the requirements of the task. It was a message from Marusia for Adam, not for the person answering the phone, Mrs Olia.

Question 4

In better responses, candidates recognised the opinions that were shaped by the speakers’ experiences and revealed in the conversation, and showed an understanding of the contrast of opinions: one subjective, the other objective. Weaker candidates only translated the content without any understanding of the contrasting opinions demonstrated.

Question 5

In better responses, candidates focused on positive and negative experiences that shaped the speakers’ views, using appropriate references to or excerpts from the text in support.

Part B

Question 6

In better responses, candidates clearly and accurately distinguished the problems from the solutions.

Question 7

In better responses, candidates demonstrated a thorough understanding of the speaker’s own experiences and advice, supported by appropriate textual references.

Reading and Responding

Part A

Question 8

1. The question asked candidates to indicate who would identify with the feelings expressed in the text. Some candidates referred to what the feelings were.
2. Some candidates did not identify the tone, or did not know what tone meant in the context of analysing poetry.
3. In determining how effective the language techniques were in the poem, candidates needed to assess the extent to which the poem succeeds in using language techniques to convey the theme. Supporting examples from the text were essential for a complete answer. The marks and the number of lines allocated indicate that candidates are expected to answer in some detail.

Question 9

This question was generally answered well. Candidates are advised to look at the mark value as an indication of the extent of the answer required. In part (d), candidates were required to talk about the relationship between the author of the text and his brother and they needed to interpret the information, rather than reporting of the content of the invitation.

Part B

Question 10

The task required candidates to read and respond to both the advertisement and the email response. They were generally well understood, and answers were appropriate with well-substantiated and suitably detailed inquiries. In better responses, candidates paid close attention to the text type required – a formal letter – and their responses had the structure, paragraphing, language and tone of a piece of formal correspondence.

Writing

General comments

Candidates showed a good variety of vocabulary, especially in relation to collocations relating to communication technology and practical everyday topics such as prykliuchenyj internet. Candidates should be clear on areas of grammar such as locative adjective and noun agreements, adjective and noun case, and punctuation including commas, sentence length and apostrophes after certain vowels. Candidates should pay particular attention to the structure of the text type specified in the question. Paragraphing needs to reflect a coherent structure.

Questions 11 and 12

Most responses for Question 11 were extensive and included good supporting information. Lack of paragraphing often affected cohesion and fluency.

Question 12 required candidates to think through an appropriate position to hold for this event and substantiate it with a personal profile. Some candidates clearly were unsure of the requirements of the genre in terms of structure and content.