Japanese Beginners exam papers
Japanese Beginners 2023 HSC exam pack
2023 Japanese Beginners HSC exam papers
Japanese Beginners HSC Exam paper - transcript - audio 2023
Marking guidelines
Marking guidelines are developed with the examination paper and are used by markers to guide their marking of a student's response. The table shows each question and the criteria with each mark or mark range.
Sample answers may also be developed and included in the guidelines to make sure questions assess a student's knowledge and skills, and guide the Supervisor of Marking on the expected nature and scope of a student's response. They are not intended to be exemplary or even complete answers or responses.
Marking feedback
Select from the link(s) below to view feedback about how students performed in this year’s examination.
Use the feedback to guide preparation for future examinations. Feedback includes an overview of the qualities of better responses. Feedback may not be provided for every question.
Feedback on practical examination
Oral examination
Conversation
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 the 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 Japanese to ask for repetition and/or clarification of the question.
In better responses, students were able to:
- use a wide range of language accurately and authentically
- provide clear responses to questions with minimal hesitation
- provide relevant answers to unexpected questions rather than giving a rehearsed answer
- respond appropriately with correct pronunciation and intonation, including for English cognates
- use correct tenses in line with the intent of the question
- conjugate and use a variety of verbs across past, present, future tense and conditional forms
- elaborate and justify ideas and opinions using authentic and personalised examples relating to past, present and future aspects of their personal world
- provide a variety of adjectives
- demonstrate a good understanding of various grammatical points including case endings, adjectival endings, and use of modal verbs
- develop ideas by using connectives, adverbs of frequency and contrasting connectors, for example, sore kara, dakara, yoku, tokidoki
- expand responses with relevant details, without providing monologues.
Areas for students to improve include:
- delivering responses confidently and ensuring sentences are completed and articulated clearly
- conjugating verbs, adjectives and nouns in the correct register
- including a range of grammar structures in responses
- ensuring affirmative and negative parts of speech are conjugated correctly
- ensuring foreign words are pronounced authentically
- ensuring the correct form of the verb/adjective is used before particular grammar patterns, for example, plain form affirmative before mae ni; past plain form before ato de
- understanding question words, such as, dare, itsu, doushite, dochira, doko, douyatte, donogurai and donna
- being consistent with tense and using the correct particles.
Feedback on written examination
Section I
Listening
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 on to the lines, using the space provided for each question
- use the lines provided as a guide to the length of the response required
- ensure 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:
- provide relevant supporting details
- address questions such as ‘What is the purpose?’ by using language such as ‘to inform’, ‘to tell’ and ‘to announce’
- accurately identify the times in the announcement (Q8)
- accurately identify the location and the time of the meeting place (Q8)
- show an understanding that Yumiko changed her mind due to the conversation she had with the male speaker, instead of just translating the conversation (Q9)
- provide more than a translation and answer the question with insight into their character, motivations and attitudes (Q10).
Areas for students to improve include:
- paying closer attention to the requirements of the question
- understanding time words, for example, days of the week, dates and times
- understanding prepositions, for example, the word ushiro was not understood by many students (Q8)
- understanding sentences which contain a relative clause (Q8)
- developing effective dictionary skills to check the meaning of unfamiliar words. For example, students thought that kondo was a Condo apartment (Q10)
- listening to announcements and understanding the information provided (Q8)
- inferring meaning from the listening text (Q9, Q10)
- using a wider range of vocabulary.
Section II
Reading
Students should:
- read the whole text(s)
- address all parts of each question
- use the lines, table and/or chart allocated for the response
- provide all necessary details to respond to the question fully
- support their responses with evidence from the text where required
- use their own words rather than giving a literal translation.
In better responses, students were able to:
- respond to the key words in the question, such as ‘summarise’ (Q12), ‘what’ (not when) (Q11a)
- recognise katakana words correctly (Q12)
- summarise correctly (Q12) and identify the two overarching ideas – convenient location and lower cost of living without listing a lot of examples
- understand that otoshiyori means ‘elderly people’ and that soba means ‘beside’ (Q13)
- justify/evaluate effectively, rather than only translating the text (Q14, Q15)
- provide detail in their response (Q14, Q15)
- refer to the whole text in their response, using appropriate and concise English phrasing (Q14)
- understand the context of the text (Q15)
- use the information from the text and evaluate it, rather than making up their own information (Q14).
Areas for students to improve include:
- summarising instead of simply translating the text (Q12)
- using katakana scripts, for example, students misread suupaa as ‘spa’ not ‘supermarket’ (Q12).
- using correct vocabulary, for example, a number of candidates confused okashi (sweets) with okashii (funny) and soba (beside) with sobo (grandmother)
- reading for detail, rather than focusing on isolated words and making assumptions (Q14, Q15)
- reading kanji accurately (Q14)
- using specific language and accurate details in their response (Q15)
- understanding that an evaluation of effectiveness is not the same as an evaluation of the contents of the text (Q15).
Section III
Writing in Japanese
Students should:
- write to the word length required
- address audience, purpose and context required by the question
- apply the conventions of the type of text indicated in the question
- use correct register throughout the response
- use a range of tenses, sentence structures and a variety of vocabulary
- avoid repeating the same expressions throughout the response
- use the dictionary carefully to access vocabulary and expressions that are meaningful in the context of their response
- avoid listing
- edit their work.
In better responses, students were able to:
- include text type conventions. For example, message (sender/ recipient) (Q16), diary entry (dates, day of the week and weather) (Q17), article (heading, opening paragraph, body paragraphs, closing paragraph) (Q18, Q19)
- structure the response with conjunctions, such as, sorekara, soshite, sono atode, dakara, demo
- elaborate the core ideas, for example, give detailed information about homework (Q16), give a more detailed description about the person and the workplace (Q17), give a description of leisure activities experienced in Japan (Q18), give a description of the tourist destination in Japan (Q19)
- use a range of past and present tenses (Q18, Q19)
- demonstrate knowledge of registers appropriate to the task, for example, using the plain form consistently (Q17)
- use personal message and feelings, for example, daijoubu desuka? (Q16), kyou wa omoshiroi ichinichi datta (Q17), various feelings about the activities experienced (Q18, Q19)
- use a wide range of the prescribed kanji, advanced grammatical structures and vocabulary accurately.
Areas for students to improve include:
- writing concisely and succinctly
- paraphrasing the words in the questions rather than depending on the dictionary
- ensuring the written messages are clear and the conjugations of adjectives and verbs are accurate
- using prescribed kanji in their writing.
HSC exam resources
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Japanese Beginners Syllabus
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