Japanese Beginners 2016 HSC exam pack

Characteristics of better responses:

• language was manipulated effectively
• candidates responded to the questions asked with elaboration
• conjunctions such as soshite, demo, dakara, sorekara were used to link ideas
• a wide range of vocabulary and sentence structures were 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, ikimasu/kimasu,otousan/otoutosan, eigo/eiga, nihongo/nihon, jouzu/tokui and nigate/heta were confused
• plain and masu forms, tari form, joining of adjectives or particles were incorrectly used.

Listening

Characteristics of better responses:

• time, the negative of ‘want to’ and more complex vocabulary were understood
• comparison and justification of opinions were supported with relevant textual information.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• unnecessary translation of the text was given (Q1 and Q10)
• tonari was not understood
• only the month was given for the date (Q2)
• bijutsukan was confused as ‘beach’ or simply understood to be the subject ‘Art’
• takunai was misunderstood (Q5)
• a descriptive answer rather than an explanation was given (Q5)
• eiga and eigo were confused (Q7).

Reading

Characteristics of better responses:

• depaato was translated correctly (Q11)
• expressions such as ‘in contrast to restaurant 1’ or ‘unlike restaurant 2’ were used to make the comparison clear (Q13)
• opinions, consequences and conclusions were explained or justified with reference to the text when required
• a holistic understanding of the texts was demonstrated.

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• gairaigo was not correctly translated into comprehensible English (Q11a)
• mae was misunderstood as ‘before’ rather than ‘in front of’ (Q11b)
• the response was simply a translation of the text (Q13)
• washoku, yasai and yasui were misunderstood (Q13)
• the date was not read and the timing of the plan was misunderstood (Q14)
• the Katakana for words such as Rio, Brisbane and ‘theme park’ were not understood (Q14 and Q15)
• the kanji for Hokkaido was not recognised (Q15)
• Western restaurants were confused with Japanese restaurants (Q15).

Writing in Japanese

Characteristics of better responses:

• the context, audience and purpose were correctly identified
• relevant ideas were communicated with a high degree of accuracy
• a wide range of vocabulary, language structures and kanji were used effectively
• appropriate conventions of the text type were used
• content was well structured
• information was effectively sequenced through paragraphing and the use of conjunctions (Part B).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• the context and the purpose of the task were not understood, for example, a description of a holiday as opposed to a description of a neighbourhood was presented (Q16)
• vocabulary or phrases from the dictionary were not used in the correct context
• sundeimasu (living) was used instead of tomatteimasu (staying) (Q16)
• grammar and sentence structures were overly repetitious, for example, desu, tari tari, ga arimasu
• irrelevant ideas were included
• kanji was not well understood, for example, the kanji ima was used instead of kyoo, Chinese simplified characters were used instead of kanji, and the kanji sundeimasu was poorly written
• tense (past/non-past) and register (plain/polite form) were not used consistently
• plain form was not used before to omoimasu
• te form was not used correctly
• the word limit was not reached
• appropriate conventions of the text type were not used
• Australian place names were poorly rendered in katakana, for example, osuraria, shitoni, shini, haruhaburiji, ofurahaasu (Q19)
• the difference between kuru and iku was not understood (Q19)

Common errors included:

• particle errors, for example, using ga instead of w(o), ni instead of de and ni for positions
• hiragana errors, for example ru and roin iroirona, hirogohan
• adjectives combined incorrectly, for example, kireikute, tanoshiide
• incorrect spelling of totemo, kouen, iroiro, ishoni, hajimimashite, toshoukan, minnasan, konichiwa, koen, shuukadai
• forgetting da after adjective benri to omoimasu
• use of san after own name.