Japanese Beginners 2015 HSC exam pack

Characteristics of better responses:

• language was manipulated effectively
• candidates responded to the questions asked
• conjunctions such as soshite, demo, dakara, sorekara were used to link ideas
• a wide range of vocabulary and sentence structures was used
• tense was used correctly
• responses were clear, confident and fluent, with effective pronunciation and intonation.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• there were errors which included: tense, time periods and frequency, counters and dates
• incomplete sentences were often used
• question words such as dare, itsu, doushite/naze and doko were misunderstood
• responses were rote-learned and not relevant to the question asked
• imasu/arimasu, otousan/otoutosan, eigo/eiga, nihongo/nihon, jouzu/tokui and nigate/heta were confused.

Listening

Characteristics of better responses:

• answers were concise and not repetitive
• opinions, consequences and conclusions were explained or justified with reference to the texts when required.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• responses were simply a translation of the text
• time expressions were confused, for example, 30 minutes/3 minutes/3 and a half hours (Q2)
• sara was translated as salad or the girl’s name Sara (Q6)
• vocabulary and expressions such as yasai, kudamono, osoku naru, isoide and bijutsu were not understood
• relative clauses were not well understood (Q8)
• paatii o shimasu/paatii ni ikimasu, eigo/eiga and sakura/sakana were confused
• tense was missed, leading to a misunderstanding of the context (Q9).

Writing in Japanese

Characteristics of better responses:

• relevant ideas were communicated with a high degree of accuracy
• a wide range of vocabulary, language structures and kanji was used
• appropriate conventions of the text type were used
• content was structured and sequenced logically.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• irrelevant ideas were included or a pre-learned response was used
• riyuu (Q17) was misunderstood and so a reason for wanting to go to Japan was not provided
• the audience for the text was not identified correctly
• register (polite/plain form) and tense were not used consistently
• katakana and kanji were incorrectly used and Chinese simplified characters were sometimes used
• appropriate text type conventions were not used
• vocabulary from the dictionary was used in the wrong context, for example, kyoosoo, shinden, katsu, kyooyoo
• Other common errors included:
  • particle errors, for example, using ga instead of o and ni instead of de
  • incorrect spelling of  isshoni, iroiro, ikanakereba narimasen, and Japanese city names, for example, tookyoo, kyooto
  • the kanji ima was used instead of kyoo
  • incorrect verb forms were used before some language structures for example, ta ato de, i adjective with narimasu
  • when providing reasons with kara, candidates often mixed up the reason and consequence/result.