Korean Beginners 2017 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• communicate effectively in Korean and be prepared to talk about a variety of ideas and opinions related to their personal world
• answer the examiner’s questions only with relevant information
• remember that neither the number of questions nor the number of topics are predetermined
• not dominate the conversation with long, pre-learned material. 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.

Students should expect to:

• be asked a range of questions sampling the content of the Beginners course
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of structures and vocabulary related to topics from the Korean Beginners Syllabus
• establish and maintain communication through the manipulation of linguistic structures to exchange relevant information, ideas and opinions effectively in Korean during the five minute conversation.

In the better responses, students were able to:

• converse effectively by using a wide range of vocabulary and grammar structures
• provide responses that include opinions and comments
• correctly use connectives and conjunctive structures to link ideas and information
• use a variety of verb tenses.

Students should:

• listen to and read carefully the entire text to understand the general meaning and specific details
• read each question carefully and make sure that they understand what is required
• provide responses with detailed evidence from the text if required
• demonstrate a knowledge of a range of vocabulary and sentence structures
• write responses that are based on the texts only
• provide responses in English or Korean as required by the question
• use the Candidates’ Notes column to make notes and ensure all relevant information is incorporated into the final response.

Students should expect:

• a variety of question types with varying difficulty
• a variety of listening texts such as a conversation, an announcement and/or a speech
• questions that require responses to be more than translations of text
• questions that require students to interpret justify, summarise and draw conclusions
• questions about the purpose, context or audience of a text.

Students can prepare for this examination by:

• learning a variety of vocabulary and expressions
• learning to use a range of sentence structures
• familiarising themselves with Korean pronunciation for English words
• learning how to use a dictionary effectively
• reading a variety of authentic texts in Korean such as narratives, letters, emails, blogs, diaries, articles and advertisements
• learning to deduce meaning of difficult vocabulary from the context of the text
• reviewing and practising past HSC examination papers within a time limit
• practising a variety of questions types including questions that require summarising, justifying opinions and drawing conclusions from texts
• practising writing a variety of texts types
• being aware of the accurate use of particles, verb endings and verb tenses.

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of various details of the text as well as the general meaning
• demonstrate ability to interpret and draw conclusions rather than simply translating segments from the texts
• justify an opinion or make a judgment, and support their ideas/point of view with relevant and specific references to the texts.

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of various details of the text as well as the general meaning or most important piece of information
• demonstrate the ability to and interpret ideas rather than merely translating segments form the texts
• provide detailed textual references to support their responses.

In better responses, students were able to:

• write their response within the required number of Ja
• write appropriately for a specific audience, purpose and context
• use a variety of relevant ideas to convey meaning
• structure their responses in a coherent manner
• logically sequence ideas and information to meet the requirements of the task
• use the correct text types in responses (for example, a note (Q17), an email (Q18), a letter (Q19 and Q20))
• use a variety of language structures and vocabulary correctly
• use particles and conjunctions where necessary.