9. S: いいえ、でも、HSC がおわったあとで、友だちと行くつもり
です。
T: そうですか。日本で、何をしたいですか。
S: 東京で、買い物をしたり、京都に行ったりしたいです。
T: どんな、おみやげを買いたいですか。
S: ああ、すみません、わかりません。
T: どんな、プレゼントを買いたいですか。
S: ああ、プレゼントは、日本のおかしや、T シャツを買うつも
りです。
T: いいですね、でも、りょこうは、お金がかかりますね。アル
バイトをしていますか。
S: はい、スーパーで、毎週土よう日にアルバイトをしています。
アルバイトのお金で、日本に行きます。T: そうですか。じゃ、がんばってくださいね。ありがとう
ござ
いました。
* This conversation should take approximately 5 minutes at moderate speed.
10. How to approach the exam: the Oral Examination
From: HSC Online – Charles Sturt University
Examination specifications
The new Japanese Beginners syllabus was examined for the first time in 2008.
The oral examination takes approximately five minutes and is worth 20 marks.
The oral examination assesses your knowledge and skills in interacting in Japanese. It relates
toObjective 1 – Interacting, and the following outcomes, where you:
1.1 establish and maintain communication in Japanese
1.2 manipulate linguistic structures to express ideas effectively in Japanese
1.3 sequence ideas and information.
The oral examination is held on a date in Term 3, earlier than the HSC written examinations. The
Board of Studies publishes a Languages Oral Examinations Timetable each year at
(http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/events/ ). You should be familiar with the practical advice
supplied with the timetable. You will be advised of the examination date, time and venue at least
three weeks prior to the examination. Make sure that your school and the Board of Studies have your
correct contact details.
The examination will consist of a general conversation between you and an examiner. In the
conversation, you and the examiner will discuss your personal world, as it relates to the prescribed
topics in the syllabus.
You are not permitted to use dictionaries or refer to written notes during the oral examination.Other
useful and related documents provided by the Board of Studies are included at the end of this section.
Preparing for the examination
You should aim to establish effective communication and to maintain the flow of the conversation to
create the best overall impression. You should demonstrate how well you can:
exchange relevant information (i.e. give relevant answers to the questions asked)
exchange opinions and make comments (e.g. say why you like something, why you don’t
want to do something, etc.)
use appropriate intonation and pronunciation
demonstrate a variety of vocabulary and Japanese structures.
This is an examination for which you can be well prepared. You may be asked about aspects of
everyday life (see the topics listed below), from the perspective of your personal world. This is your
opportunity to talk about yourself, your friends, your family, etc.
You are advised to:
familiarise yourself with the topics prescribed in the syllabus. These are:
o Family life, home and neighbourhood
o People, places and communities
o Education and work
o Friends, recreation and pastimes
o Holidays, travel and tourism
o Future plans and aspirations
learn as much useful vocabulary and expressions as you can. This will enable you to speak
across the range of topics.
11. practise your pronunciation. There are a number of resources available to help you do this,
e.g. the audio material which comes with textbook courses, commercially available material
which focuses specifically on pronunciation, etc. Some of these are available electronically.
Listen carefully and try to model your pronunciation on what you hear.
practise responding to a wide range of sample questions.
practise speaking with classmates, with other Japanese teachers, etc.
record your answers and, if possible, ask your teacher for feedback. This will give you practice
in recording your responses and will also help you to assess areas on which you may need to
focus, e.g. pronunciation, intonation, variety of vocabulary, sentence structure, etc.
practise speaking in full sentences and extending your responses where possible. This will
enable you to show a greater facility with Japanese than if you consistently answer with
simple phrases or single words. Practise making a number of relevant comments in your
response. E.g.
Examiner: あなたのご家ぞくは、何人ですか。
Student: 4人です。父と母とあねが一人います。
Examiner: おねえさんは、どんな人ですか。
Student: あねは、23さいで、大学生です。大学で、けいざ
いを べんきょうしています。やさしくて、おもし
ろい人です。
Examiner: そうですか。あなたは、今、どこに住んでいます
か。
Student: シドニーのマンリーに住んでいます。海がちかく
て、きれいな町です。しゅうまつによく海に行って
サーフィンをしたり、水えいをしたりします。
practise giving a range of information in your answers. You may be asked a range of
questions from the perspective of your own personal world and you should not limit yourself
to extremely brief answers. Conversing well, across a range of topics, will create a good
impression. It is up to you to maximise this opportunity during the five minutes of the
examination. You should remain consistent throughout the conversation, e.g. it is inadvisable
to say you have three brothers at the beginning of the examination and then claim to be an
only child at the end.
practise speaking in the past tense, as you may be asked about things that have happened in
the past. In Japanese you must be particularly careful of the past tense of adjectives.
practise speaking using です/ます verb forms as you will be speaking to an examiner so should
not use plain forms
practise using aizuchi such as そうですね to make your conversation sound more natural.
12. During the examination
You should:
remain calm and speak confidently and clearly.
avoid the temptation to rush into a response. If you need a moment to think about your
answer, then take this – just as you might in a normal conversation. On the other hand, long
pauses would not be natural, and should be avoided, especially as this examination only lasts
for five minutes. Aizuchi such as あのう… or そうですね are good ‘fillers’.
listen carefully to the question. If you have not understood, or are uncertain, then ask the
examiner in Japanese for clarification, or to repeat it, e.g. すみません、わかりません or すみませ
ん、もういちどおねがいします.
be aware that the questions asked may follow on from the answers you have already given.
However, a number of different topics may be covered in the exam. So there may be a switch
to other topics during the course of the conversation. You should be prepared for this to
happen.
be prepared to expand your answers. This does not mean giving a prepared monologue and
attempting to dominate the conversation. However, you should attempt to expand your
responses by making a number of relevant comments to demonstrate the range of vocabulary
and Japanese structures you have at your disposal. You may find that aiming for roughly
three comments in an extended response will assist you in this.
try to treat every question as a springboard to show what you know. Avoid the temptation to
restrict your response to はい or いいえ, or to simply repeat the question. Consider the
following examples. Which response do you think would make the better impression?
Example 1 Examiner: スポーツがすきですか。
Student: はい。(すきです)
Example 2 Examiner: スポーツがすきですか。
Student: はい、テニスが大すきです。まいしゅ
う、土よう日のあさ、三時間ぐらい友だ
ちとテニスをしす。
be aware that this is not a normal ‘conversation’, but rather a one-way conversation, with a
series of questions provided for you to demonstrate your knowledge. It is therefore not
appropriate for you to ask the examiner questions, e.g. whether he/she has seen a film,
where he/she goes on holidays, etc.
remember that there is a wide range of possible questions that you could be asked. It is
impossible to accurately predict the questions in this type of examination. However, if you
have practised, you can be confident you will be able to handle any line of questioning that
develops.
answer as best you can, but do not worry if there is a question you cannot answer. A range of
questions may be asked across a range of topics.
be aware that you should not ask the examiner for assistance, other than to repeat or clarify
the question.
13. be prepared to answer a question(s) in the past tense.
avoid using English words if you don't know the correct word or expression in Japanese. You
should have a range of appropriate vocabulary at your disposal and should keep to what you
know to be correct. The examination is not a good time for experimentation.
always remember that the examiner’s role is to facilitate the examination. The aim is to
provide you with a positive experience, by giving you the opportunity to show your range of
ability in spoken Japanese.
Related Board of Studies Websites
At the Board of Studies website (http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ ), you can access the
following:
- Japanese Beginners syllabus
- HSC (Year 12) Examination Timetable
- 2008 HSC Specimen Examination Package
- Past examination papers
- Notes from the Examination Centre
- Equipment Checklist for Higher School Certificate Examinations and School Certificate Tests
- Rules and Procedures for Higher School Certificate Candidates.
PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT
Very useful!!!!!!!!!
Board of Studies Standards Packages
http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/hsc/std-packs/#j
To listening to sample answers for each band of the speaking exam
http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/standards-packs/SP09_15820/
14. HSC Languages Oral examinations – advice to students
From : Board of Studies Website
This document provides general advice about the nature and conduct of the Higher School Certificate
Languages oral examinations.
In preparing for the examination the following documents available on the Board’s website
at www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/languages.html will assist you:
Stage 6 syllabuses
Assessment and Reporting in Stage 6 documents
past HSC examinations and rubrics (Extension courses only)
marking guidelines
past Notes from the Marking Centre
In addition to these documents, the Board has developed a short video with information, advice and tips for
students who are sitting a Languages oral examination. The video is available to students by logging
ontoStudents Online, and to teachers through Schools Online.
General information about dates and times
The oral examinations are held on Saturdays in August and September.
The Languages Oral Examination Timetable is available at www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/events/. Specific
information about your examination will be made available to you approximately three weeks before your
examination.
General information for all courses
Examiners will not correct you or assist you with sentence construction or vocabulary. You should not ask the
examiner to translate words or questions. The examiner will not give you any feedback about your
performance after the examination.
It is important that you do not identify yourself, so be careful not to mention the name of your school or the
names of any teachers during the examination. For this reason you are also asked not to wear your school
uniform on the day of the examination.
Except for the examination paper in the Extension courses, you may not bring any pictorial, print-based or
handwritten materials into your examination.
Beginners Courses
If you are doing a Beginners course, the examiner will ask you questions about the topics you have been
studying from the syllabus, as they relate to your personal world. Neither the number of questions nor the
number of topics covered by the examination is predetermined. However, you can expect to be asked a
range of questions sampling the content of the course. The questions the examiner asks may relate to
something you have just said, or they may introduce a new topic.
You should be careful to answer each question only with relevant information. You should respond in such a
way that you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of a range of structures and vocabulary, but
not through the inclusion of material irrelevant to the question asked. Attempting to dominate the
conversation with long, pre-learned monologues is not a good idea and will not enable you to achieve better
marks. It is in your interest that the examiner interrupts such monologues because the examiner understands
that only relevant material will be considered by the markers. If you do not understand a question, you may
ask for it to be repeated, clarified or rephrased, but you should do this in the language being examined.
Once the allocated time for the examination has elapsed, you will be asked no further questions. You will be
given enough time to respond to the last question, but if you draw out this last response past the allocated
time for the examination, you will be asked to bring your response to a conclusion.
The duration of the Beginners oral examination is approximately 5 minutes.
15. Marking Guidelines – Oral examination
HELPFUL TIP!!!!!!!
Prepare answers for the oral exam surrounding your personal world, you can use the
questions in this booklet as a guide and even create your own, or use a friends.
The answers you give do not have to be truthful answers! Be creative if you need to, just so
long as you can keep speaking in your best Japanese on a topic.
Find a partner, even a different partner each week and practice speaking for 5 minutes like
in the exam, two to three times a week.
Arrange times with your teacher to practice, the more practice you have the more
comfortable you will feel.