French Beginners 2022 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• be prepared to communicate about a variety of topics relating to their personal world
• elaborate and provide relevant details to address the questions in a way that engages with the examiner
• use a range of vocabulary, expressions and language structures to respond appropriately to the questions
• provide information, express ideas and comment on their personal world
• be prepared to respond to questions from a different perspective
• be prepared to respond to questions that relate to past, present and future aspects of their personal world
• avoid repetition of the same vocabulary, phrases and expressions
• manipulate the language to fulfil the requirements of the question
• be prepared to be interrupted by the examiner
• use French to ask for repetition and/or clarification of the question.

In better responses, students were able to:

• answer the question and then provide some expansion with detail and justifications without needing to be asked
• respond confidently to questions with minimal hesitation
• respond using a variety of correctly formed tenses
• respond to questions in a specific way rather than giving a rehearsed answer
• use opinion expressions such as, je trouve que, je pense que, à mon avis, selon moi
• respond using some different vocabulary, for example, ma sœur est têtue et agaçante rather than ma sœur est difficile
• use expressions such as, cependant, par contre, malheureusement, à cause de
• use time markers and adverbs to add complexity to answers,  for example, de temps en temps, souvent, hier, l’année dernière, la semaine prochaine, vraiment, chaque weekend, d’habitude.

Areas for students to improve include:

• revising the pronunciation of sœur, parents, et, beaucoup, ennuyeux, famille, je préfère, temps, aussi, j’ai
• using the correct verb to state an age, j’ai 18 ans, mon frère a 12 ans
• revising the conjugations of common regular and irregular verbs, such as, j’étudie, je fais, je vais
• revising the formation of tenses, such as, je vais aller, je suis allé
• avoiding giving one-word answers, for example, oui, non – and instead using full sentences
• avoiding the use of English in answers
• providing sentences with justifications, opinions or examples
• revising the correct use of pronouns, ma soeur, elle est timide, not il est timide
• using the word voyager not travailler when referring to travel
• preparing full answers to possible open-ended questions about the syllabus topics of family, friends, school, free time, future plans and so on
• mastering the use of the verb préférer in a sentence, such as, je préfère les maths, not je préférer les maths
• revising the use of negatives and particularly their placement in the passé composé, for example, je n’ai pas vu.

Students should:

• read each question carefully
• make notes in the Candidate’s Notes column on the right-hand side of the page
• transcribe their response onto the lines, using the space provided for each question
• use the lines provided as a guide to the length of the response required
• ensure that their responses are clear and address all parts of the question
• use their own words and respond in English
• avoid translating text as part of their response.

In better responses, students were able to:

• clearly address the question, providing evidence from the text to support their answers
• recognise negation ‘ne … pas’ (not), ‘ne … jamais’ (never)
• distinguish between words of similar meaning, for example, ‘boy’ versus ‘son’ (Q1)
• clearly articulate reasons for leaving a message (Q1)
• recognise that they needed to compare the service from Bel Rosso and Speedza (Q3)
• correctly determine that Angelique was unlikely to attend (Q4)
• identify the attitudes held by the speakers and provide supporting evidence from the text (Q5)
• clearly select only the box that corresponded to the correct response (Q6).

Areas for students to improve include:

• providing evidence to support their answers
• developing a broad vocabulary
• use the dictionary correctly so that translation is accurate, for example, recognising that lancer la carrière (to launch a career) is not ‘to throw a career’
• recognising tenses and moods, for example, ‘she met a boy’ instead of ‘she would like to meet a boy’ (Q1) or ‘he could become a famous photographer’ instead of ‘he is a famous photographer’ (Q10)
• being specific in the response, for example, ‘motivated students’ instead of ‘students’ (Q2)
• understanding false cognates, for example, menage (household) was mistranslated as ‘eating’ or ‘manager’ (Q5).

Students should:

• read the whole text(s)
• address all parts of each question
• use the lines, table, chart  provided for their response
• respond fully to the question by including details as required
• support their responses with evidence from the text where required
• use their own words rather than giving a literal translation
• use their dictionary appropriately to find the correct meaning of the word(s) in context.

In better responses, students were able to:

• understand the essence and supporting detail in the text, for example, identifying that the truck was created for swimming lessons, not swimming generally (Q11)
• identify specific, detailed information with accuracy (Q12a, Q14)
• summarise (Q12b) by selecting relevant information from the text and avoid direct translations of the text
• formulate responses that address key words in the question, for example, ‘why’ (Q11b) or ‘describe’ (Q13a, Q14)
• differentiate between and state the purposes of different examples used in the text without just translating the examples (Q13b)
• refer to key words when writing the response, for example, comparing the experiences in terms of negatives and positives rather than just listing them (Q15b) and justifying ‘how likely’ by providing examples from the text (Q15c).

Areas for students to improve include:

• reading over their answers to ensure that they are cohesive and their expressions in English make sense
• attempting every question
• paraphrasing the text in English instead of quoting it in French
• avoiding duplicating information from the text in response to more than one question (Q12)
• understanding false cognates, for example, terminale (last year of school) was mistranslated as ‘airport’ (Q13)
• including enough detail in their answers to avoid ambiguity (Q11a, Q12a)
• using the names rather than just pronouns when referring to writers of the blog (Q15).

Students should:

• write to the word length required
• address the audience, purpose and context required by the question
• apply the conventions of the type of text indicated in the question
• use the appropriate register throughout the response
• use a range of tenses and sentence structures and a variety of vocabulary
• avoid repeating the same expressions throughout the response
• use the dictionary correctly to access vocabulary and expressions that are meaningful in the context of their response
• avoid listing
• edit their work
• plan their composition prior to writing.

In better responses, students were able to:

• narrate from different perspectives, for example, switch between je (I), il/elle (he/she), nous (we) or on (we)
• correctly use object pronouns, for example, j’ai vu un film qui s’appelle … (I saw a film called …)
• write consistently with the appropriate register, for example, addressing a friend with tu not vous (Q16, Q18, Q19)
• answer all parts of the question, for example, acknowledge the absence from class and provide clear details of the excursion, such as, the time, the location and what to bring (Q16)
• elaborate on the required context, for example, describing how they feel about their brother rather than just stating what the brother is like or what he likes (Q17)
• use le passé composé and l’imparfait appropriately to provide examples in the past tense about the relationship with the brother (Q17)
• use the pronouns y (there)and le/la/les (him/her/it/them) accurately, for example, j’y suis allé (I went there), je l’ai vu (I have seen him/her/it), je les trouve délicieux (I find them delicious) (Q18)
• expand on the main idea to demonstrate the use of a variety of tenses, for example, making plans for the following New Year’s Eve (Q18) and describing what they will do after the HSC (Q19).

Areas for students to improve include:

• conjugating verbs in a variety of tenses
• conjugating the passé composé with the correct auxiliary verb, that is, avoir or être – and making the correct agreements
• spelling words with the correct accents, for example, past participles regardé, donné
• using prepositions and gender appropriately, for example, au musée (to the museum) rather than à la musée (Q16)
• using possessive adjectives, that is, ton/ta, for example, de ton sœur should be de ta sœur (Q17)
• using their dictionary correctly to find the correct translation for the word(s) in context, for example, ‘two weeks left’ was translated incorrectly as 2 semaines gauche (Q19)
• using paragraphs and appropriate expressions to structure the narrative, for example, d’abord, en plus (Q18, Q19) – and then expanding on each idea.