French Beginners 2017 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• correctly use past, present and future tense
• use appropriate grammatical structures such as possessives, verbs, pronouns, connectives, modal verbs and adjectives to construct complete sentences
• establish and maintain effective communication, minimising the frequency of pauses
• demonstrate proficiency with correct pronunciation to improve communication
• use appropriate vocabulary and avoid formulaic expressions to articulate ideas.

In better responses, students were able to:

• use tense effectively to refer to past, present and future events including the conditional and imperfect tense
• manipulate language features such as adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, comparatives, and negative structures to express ideas and opinions successfully across a range of topics
• engage authentically in the conversation using a variety of vocabulary and expressions
• establish and maintain communication with good pronunciation
• organise information coherently.

Students should:

• read the question carefully
• plan their response on the topic
• ensure their responses address all aspects of the question with relevant detail
• give responses that are clear and relevant to the question
• provide all relevant details required in the response
• use the Candidates’ Notes column to make notes and ensure all relevant information is incorporated into the final response
• demonstrate understanding of past and imperative tense
• use the correct text types as required by the questions
• follow the word limit as specified in the question
• make an attempt to incorporate authentic phrases into their responses
• allocate time in order to be able to attempt all questions
• be guided by the marks for when they must provide more than one idea
• structure their work into paragraphs and use connecting words to link ideas
• know the difference between he (il) and she (elle)
• choose the correct register for the tasks and don’t mix the tu and vous forms
• pay attention to accuracy of verb conjugations and adjective agreements.

Students should expect:

• to develop their ideas throughout the response
• to focus on key information from the text and reflect this accurately in their responses
• use a variety of vocabulary and language structures, including tenses, to demonstrate knowledge
• to respond to questions that require them to summarise, describe, explain, justify an opinion/decision, make suggestions or arrangements, to invite or convince
• higher order questions that require more complex responses
• identify both the main ideas and supporting details in a text
• culturally specific information.

Students can prepare for this examination by:

• practising writing in a variety of text types
• reading authentic French texts
• developing a diverse knowledge of vocabulary
• learning how to use a dictionary accurately and effectively, ensuring translations are appropriate to context
• structuring their work into paragraphs and use connecting words to link ideas
• regularly studying main grammar points such as adjective placement, verb tenses, gender pronouns
• familiarising themselves with the questions during the allocated reading time
• practising past HSC examination papers with transcripts to get familiar with the connection of sounds they hear with written words
• mastering basic vocabulary such as days and numbers
• be careful with faux amis, such as travailler, projet and notes
• mastering their tenses
• revising past, present and future tense verb conjugation
• revising prepositions
• ensuring that practice responses include a variety of vocabulary and language structures
• learning to adapt known phrases for a different context.

In better responses, students were able to:

• understand the placement of adjectives (after the noun most of the time), for example spécialités regionales – adjective regionales goes with spécialités
• understand the difference between le marché (noun) with marcher (verb); they should check the context
• summarise ideas in a logical manner
• clearly state and link their responses to the question
• demonstrate a perceptive awareness of the use of tenses.

In better responses, students were able:

• construct clear and concise responses that showed perceptive understanding of both the text and the requirements of the questions
• give accurate translations of details from the text
• demonstrate a thorough knowledge of vocabulary and language structures.

In better responses, students were able to:

• remain consistent with tu and vous
• demonstrate knowledge of present and future tenses with accuracy
• use past tenses accurately and appropriately, even though they are not specifically called for in the question
• accurately manage grammatical features such as pronouns, articles and adjectives
• structure a creative response that remains on topic
• demonstrate their knowledge through the use of a range of vocabulary and language structures
• make reference to all the images and elaborate on each one (Q17)
• use diverse language structures to convince their friend that the camping site was ideal (Q17)
• develop detailed reasons for deciding to get a part-time job (Q19).