Dutch Continuers 2020 HSC exam pack (archive)

Students should:

• be prepared to communicate on a variety of topics relating to their personal world
• answer the question asked rather than presenting pre-prepared responses
• express their ideas and opinions and justify their point of view
• elaborate using a variety of vocabulary, phrases and expressions suitable to the question asked
• use a range of tenses and be prepared to reflect on the past, present and future
• manipulate the language to fulfil the requirements of the question
• avoid the repetition of the same vocabulary, phrases, expressions and grammatical structures
• be prepared to be interrupted by the examiner
• use Dutch to ask for repetition and/or clarification of the question.

In better responses, students were able to:

• answer all questions in depth demonstrating fluency and grammatical accuracy
• use a variety of structures and vocabulary.

Areas for students to improve include:

• elaborating responses and avoiding simple, single sentence responses
• avoiding using English syntax
• using correct gender and auxiliaries
• avoiding errors such as, ik was geboren; ik heb gegaan; die leuke boek; ik denke ik wil in Nederland studeren; morgen ik ga mijn riend.

In preparation for the Discussion

Students should:

• choose a topic that has good quality reference texts and sources available
• prepare for the discussion by referring to at least three texts in their research
• ensure that one of the texts used in their research is a literary source.

During the Discussion examination

Students should:

• support their discussion with evidence from the texts that they have sourced
• express and justify opinions and points of view on the in-depth study topic
• reflect on their research findings to help them express opinions or develop new perceptions about their in-depth topic
• manipulate language to respond in a coherent and logical way to the questions asked
• use a variety of relevant vocabulary, grammar, sentence structures and expressions
• avoid responding with pre-prepared responses that do not address the question asked
• avoid relying on general knowledge about the topic of in-depth topic.

In better responses, students were able to:

• refer to their sources to support a point of view or opinion
• demonstrated a thorough and sophisticated understanding of their topic
• make detailed references to their various sources.

Areas for students to improve include:

• ensuring they have used at least three texts in their research
• considering the availability of good quality texts when choosing a topic for in-depth study
• avoiding retelling information without expressing their opinion.