Portuguese Continuers 2020 HSC exam pack (archive)

Conversation

Students should:

• be prepared to communicate on a variety of topics relating to their personal world
• answer the question asked rather than presenting pre-prepared responses
• express their ideas and opinions and justify their point of view
• elaborate using a variety of vocabulary, phrases and expressions suitable to the question asked
• use a range of tenses and be prepared to reflect on the past, present and future
• manipulate the language to fulfil the requirements of the question
• avoid the repetition of the same vocabulary, phrases, expressions and grammatical structures
• be prepared to be interrupted by the examiner
• use Portuguese to ask for repetition and/or clarification of the question.

In better responses, students were able to:

• use an excellent range of vocabulary and sentence structures suitable to respond to the question asked
• manipulate the language appropriately to respond to the question asked
• elaborate and provide information, comments, ideas and opinions about their personal world.

Areas for students to improve include:

• avoiding using anglicisms and vocabulary and expressions that are false friends
• avoiding monosyllabic responses
• using more complete phrases, clauses and sentences
• using authentic pronunciation and intonation.

Discussion

In preparation for the Discussion

Students should:

• choose a topic that has good quality reference texts and sources available
• prepare for the discussion by referring to at least three texts in their research
• ensure that one of the texts used in their research is a literary source.

During the Discussion examination

Students should:

• support their discussion with evidence from the texts that they have sourced
• express and justify opinions and points of view on the in-depth study topic
• reflect on their research findings to help them express opinions or develop new perceptions about their in-depth topic
• manipulate language to respond in a coherent and logical way to the questions asked
• use a variety of relevant vocabulary, grammar, sentence structures and expressions
• avoid responding with pre-prepared responses that do not address the question asked
• avoid relying on general knowledge about the topic of in-depth topic.

In better responses, students were able to:

• justify their responses and opinions by providing evidence from their sources
• provide specific information about their topic of in-depth study using appropriate vocabulary, expressions and idiomatic structures
• provide responses of substance that went beyond superficial general knowledge.

Areas for students to improve include:

• answering the examiner’s question, rather than just presenting information that does not address the question  
• avoiding preparing a speech to present as a monologue
• referring to the issues raised in their research on the in-depth topic
• avoiding anglicisms and false friends.