Japanese Beginners 2017 HSC exam pack

General Feedback

Students should:

• respond directly to the question and demonstrate the capacity to extend their answers, manipulating language effectively across a range of topics
• remember that there will be questions that they cannot specifically predict. Students who memorise responses on topics and recite them, regardless of the actual questions being asked or the flow of the conversation, will disadvantage themselves
• avoid attempting to expand on their responses with irrelevant information
• avoid errors with tense, dates, family members and particles
• use complete sentences
• ensure an understanding of question words, such as dare, itsu, doushite, dochira, doko
• avoid confusing: imasu/arimasu, ikimasu/kimasu, otousan/otoutosan, eigo/eiga, nihongo/nihon, ani/oni, jouzu/tokui and nigate/heta
• ensure an understanding of plain and masu form; te form; tari form; joining of adjectives; conjugation of negative adjectives kunai/janai; nominalising the verb with hobbies, for example, shumi wa ongaku o kiku koto desu.

Student Strengths

In better responses, students were able to:

• manipulate language effectively
• respond to the questions directly and elaborate their response
• use conjunctions such as soshite, demo, dakara, sorekara to link ideas
• use a wide range of vocabulary and sentence structures
• use tense correctly
• give clear, confident and fluent responses, with effective pronunciation and intonation.

Students should:

• ensure they have a good understanding of basic vocabulary, for example, time words, locations and place names
• justify their responses with reference to the text to fully support their responses
• demonstrate a clear understanding of the context in texts
• ensure they are able to identify a range of sophisticated grammar patterns in listening skills
• develop responses that provide a holistic understanding of texts without relying solely on direct translations
• pay careful attention to linguistic techniques in order to develop a deeper understanding of the nuance embedded within texts
• pay close attention to the purpose, context and audience they are being asked to consider and should structure their responses accordingly
• read both the English and Japanese instructions carefully
• ensure they address text type conventions correctly (for example, an email (Q16), diary entry (Q17) and article (Q18 and Q19))
• write with consistent register and pay attention to the tense required in the question
• pay particular attention to observing correct grammar rules to ensure sophisticated structures are used accurately, for example, the use of te form rules, the use of correct forms of adjectives, nouns and verbs before to omoimasu
• write using a wide variety of sentence structures and avoid repeating the same sentence structures throughout a text
• avoid relying on dictionaries to provide phrases and translations, and cross-reference any vocabulary found in dictionaries
• ensure responses are legible.

Students should expect:

• questions to be of varying difficulty and for that difficulty to increase across the paper
• to identify context, purpose and audience in their responses
• to respond to questions that require them to describe, explain, and justify an opinion about the texts, and not just translate the text word for word
• to synthesise the information in texts to demonstrate a complete and accurate understanding of the texts
• to provide opinions and draw conclusions based on their understanding of the text, which requires candidates to be able to infer meaning from the texts
• write for context, purpose and audience using a variety of types of texts
• questions about a variety of topics from across the syllabus.

Students can prepare for this section of the examination by:

• frequently listening to and reading Japanese texts, for example, using study specific websites and news podcasts
• developing a solid knowledge of vocabulary, syllabus grammar and syllabus kanji
• reviewing past HSC examination papers to practise answering questions that require explanations and justifications, rather than simply relying on translations.

 Listening

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of the context within each text, for example, that the train to Sapporo was delayed due to the snow (Q2); that the girl couldn’t study for tomorrow’s exam because she had left her exercise book at the library which was now closed (Q6); that John was speaking to his mother (Q10)
• understand the Katakana words such as meruborun, purattohoomu, and nooto
• identify structures such as the conditional if form and be able to use them in their response to fully explain the finer details of the text
• use the information they understand to answer the questions directly, providing clear detail from the text without relying on simply translating.

Reading

In better responses, students were able to:

• provide opinions and draw conclusions based on evidence they read in the texts
• provide an analysis of language structures and features included in the texts to support their conclusions and opinions
• demonstrate a good understanding of the details within texts, whilst also demonstrating a holistic understanding of the texts, showing a clear understanding of context, purpose and audience
• display an excellent understanding of a broad range of vocabulary and sentence structures, for example, demonstrating an understanding of the multiple ways to use the word kara
• refer to both positive and negative points provided in texts to develop well-rounded and balanced responses.

Writing in Japanese

In better responses, students were able to:

• address context, purpose and audience correctly and clearly
• write with consistent register and tense
• write hiragana, katakana and kanji effectively
• structure their content in a logical and coherent manner, making appropriate use of paragraphs and conjunctions
• construct creative texts that meet the required length of the task
• manipulate language effectively and accurately, especially when linking adjectives and verbs, and when conjugating verbs
• write accurately in plain past form
• utilise sophisticated sentence structures beyond te form linking of adjectives and verbs to express their ideas with a high degree of accuracy.