Indonesian Beginners 2017 HSC exam pack

General feedbnack

Students should:

• listen to the whole question and answer with relevant information, rather than listening to only 1 or 2 cue words and answering with a prepared response that is not directly relevant
• refrain from using English syntax, by focusing on word order, particularly the correct position of adjectives and possessives
• respond to questions in full sentences, rather than phrases
• avoid identifying themselves, their school or local area.

Students can prepare for this examination by:

• imitating good models of pronunciation (for example, mengunjungi and coklat are frequently mispronounced)
• knowing how to use affixes correctly for commonly used vocabulary items, for example bekerja vs pekerjaan.

Student strengths

In better responses, students were able to:

• engage naturally with the examiner’s questions
• answer follow-up questions to their responses, for example, why, when, with whom?
• use interesting vocabulary, more personalised to their own context, rather than repeating vocabulary from the question and using predictable vocabulary
• directly answer the question asked, and include elaborations such as time phrases, justifications and preferences
• use a variety of connectives, which enables them to demonstrate variety of vocabulary and control of language structures (for example, sebenarnya, di satu pihak).

General feedback

Students should:

• answer the specific questions asked in the Listening and Reading sections, and not just translate all the information in a text as their response
• address key words in questions, such as ‘explain’ or ‘compare’ and then use the details and information in the text to address the specific question, for example, Question 9 specifically asks for a summary, hence the response needs to provide a concise dot point summary that does not include numerous examples and explanations to support each dot point
• use the Candidates’ Notes column to make notes and ensure all relevant information is incorporated into the final response
• plan their response, ensuring all of the requirements are addressed, to produce an organised and sequenced response
• write in paragraphs and take time to review and edit each writing task, checking for correct word order and consistency of register
• use a dictionary to locate the meaning of a specific word.

Student strengths

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate their wide knowledge of the vocabulary across the range of Beginners syllabus topics
• include all or most of the relevant details form text to support their, especially in Section I – Listening (Q3, Q8 and Q10) and Section II – Reading (Q13, Q15(b) and Q16(c))
• use the correct text type specified in Section III – Writing, for example a message (Q17), diary entry (Q18) and article (Q19 and Q20)
• adhere to the word limit in Section III – Writing
• use correct Indonesian word order.