communicate in various ways and for various purposes how you use English to communicate, again for various purposes and in various styles and genres

Transkript

1 Answering Exam Tasks The Norwegian Directorate of Education is responsible for exams and this institution offers documents to help you understand the grading system. As in all examinations, the basis for the English exam for this course is the subject curriculum ( læreplan ). All the questions will be based on the goals in the subject curriculum for this program subject. Therefore, this is the first document that you should read carefully and your teacher will of course base the teaching on satisfying these goals. The other document that is important for helping you to understand what is expected of you on the examination is now called the Examination Guide ( Eksamensveiledning ). Subject curriculum It is important to note that the subject curriculum is based on competence goals. In other words, on the examination you are expected to show competence or skills in certain areas of language and content which are defined by the goals. The curriculum is divided into three parts and you will be graded according to your skills in all three areas: Language and learning the language Communication Culture, society and literature showing your ability to understand how language is used to communicate in various ways and for various purposes how you use English to communicate, again for various purposes and in various styles and genres the content aspect It is important to remember, and we repeat here, that the questions on the exam and the assessment of your performance on the examination will be based on all three areas of the curriculum. Examination guide This document includes a table of grade descriptors ( Kjennetegn på måloppnåelse ved sluttvurdering ) that show you what is expected of you at each grade level. The examiners will also use this document when assessing your grade. If you are wondering what you can do to raise your grade in this course, this table will show you what the examiners use in their considerations of the grade level. On the next page is the table from the Spring 2014 examination [it is in Norwegian here]:

2 Lavere kompetanse enn karakteren 2 Lavere kompetanse enn karakteren 2 Kjennetegn på måloppnåelse ved sluttvurdering i SPR3010 gjelder for sentralt gitt skriftlig eksamen 2014 Nivå 1 2 Eksamenssvaret Innhold - inneholder enkle og overflatiske svar på oppgavene, og deler av eksamenssvaret kan være noe på siden av oppgaveinstruksjonen - viser at eventuelle kilder er brukt på en uselvstendig måte, og tekster mangler kildehenvisninger - viser lite faglig innsikt eller oversikt - viser liten eller ingen kjennskap til språklige virkemidler og effekten av dem - gjør i liten grad rede for forholdet mellom form, innhold og stil der det kreves 3-4 Eksamenssvaret - inneholder relevante svar på oppgavene i samsvar med oppgaveinstruksjonen og viser en viss grad av selvstendighet - viser at eventuelle kilder er brukt på en redelig måte med henvisning - viser rimelig god faglig innsikt og oversikt - viser noe kjennskap til språklige virkemidler og effekten av dem - gjør til en viss grad rede for forholdet mellom form, innhold og stil i samfunnsfaglige tekster der det kreves 5-6 Eksamenssvaret - inneholder presise, fyldige og relevante svar på oppgavene i samsvar med oppgaveinstruksjonen og viser modenhet og selvstendighet - viser at eventuelle kilder er brukt på en redelig måte med hensiktsmessig kildehenvisning - viser meget god faglig innsikt og oversikt - inneholder analyse av språklige virkemidler og effekten av dem der det er relevant - viser god forståelse av og gjør tydelig rede for forholdet mellom form, innhold og stil i samfunnsfaglige tekster der det kreves Tekststruktur - består av tekster som har svak og tilfeldig struktur og enkle setninger, og som preges av gjentakelser og oppramsing - viser liten bruk av tekstbinding - viser begrenset forståelse av informasjon basert på tallmateriell og statistikk - viser liten eller ingen sjangerbevissthet - består av tekster med forholdsvis logisk struktur, god indre sammenheng og noe variasjon i setningsbygning - har de mest vanlige former for tekstbinding - viser forståelse av informasjon basert på tallmateriell og statistikk, og formidler formålet med slik informasjon på en forståelig måte - viser forståelse for noen typiske sjangertrekk - består av tekster med klar og logisk struktur, god indre sammenheng, god flyt og variert setningsbygning - har variert og hensiktsmessig tekstbinding, - viser god forståelse av informasjon basert på tall-materiell og statistikk, og formidler formålet med slik informasjon på en reflektert og logisk måte - viser god sjangerforståelse

3 Lavere kompetanse enn 2 Språk - viser et begrenset ordforråd for å kommunisere om samfunnsfaglige emner - viser et tilstrekkelig ordforråd for å kommunisere om samfunnsfaglige emner - viser ordforråd som er variert, nyansert og situasjonstilpasset og behersker et relevant ordforråd for å kommunisere om samfunnsfaglige emner - er preget av språklige, formelle svakheter, men er i stor grad forståelig - formidler formålet med teksten stort sett godt, selv om en del språkfeil kan forekomme - har ingen kommunikasjonsforstyrrende språkfeil Karakteren 1 uttrykker at eleven viser lavere måloppnåelse enn det som det er gjort rede for ovenfor. The exam Currently the exam for this course has three tasks. Tasks 1 and 2 are referred to as the short tasks and task 3 is referred to as the long task. All three answers contribute to the grade which is assessed holistically (that is: the overall impression you give). When you write a test or mock exam in school, look at the table above and judge your answers on the paper according to the levels. Ask yourself the question: Have you I shown the examiner that I am up to this level? What is a good exam answer? The Norwegian Directorate of Education makes the exams and chooses the format and types of questions. Task 1 has been focused on the first two parts of the curriculum (language and communication), while task 2 has covered both communication and content. Task 3 specifically touches on some of the content goals in the third part of the curriculum but of course language and communication are important here as well. The questions often ask the exam candidate to point out language features and to show their effects. Task 1 Language features means aspects of style, grammar and structure. The problem many exam candidates have is that when they look at the text they are to analyse and write about, they find examples that refer more to interesting features that are really content features rather than language features. It is important to read the question carefully and to do what it asks you to do, and this will normally mean finding interesting things to say about the effect of language and style. Perhaps the question asks you for genre features. Then you have to find special language features in the text that place it in a genre. Again you will have problems if your focus is too much on content rather than language and genre features.

4 Another problem when working on questions about language features is that students do not use enough grammar terminology in their answers. For example, don t say the text uses elaborate words, or the text uses descriptive words, say instead something like the message of the text is enhanced by a heavy uses of adjectives. Examiners will be looking for your use of terminology, meaning terms such as adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs, prepositions and so on. For this type of task you can assess your progress using the table below: Skill Response What can I do to improve? Have I done what the question asked me to do? Have I paid particular attention to language features? Have I used terminology? What examples of language features have I found? After reviewing the question in class, what features did I miss? Did I write effectively about the language features? Task 2 This task has taken many forms over recent years. Sometimes it may ask for a response to a text that has social-studies content. This might be a poem, speech, personal text, article, picture and so on. What is important to remember here is once again to do exactly what the question asks you to do. If it asks you to respond to the provided material within a social-studies context it is important to remember to 1) respond to the provided material and 2) your response must be connected to the social-studies aspect that has been given in the question. As this is a short answer it is important to keep your answer strictly within the frame of what you have been asked to do. Both the task 1 and task 2 questions often ask that you refer to the effect of the features and to provide examples of features. A text may say: The man spoke in a raspy, phlegmy voice and he interrupted what he was saying with a vile hacking cough. There are four adjectives in this sentence, but it is not

5 enough to point them out or to identify them as adjectives if the question asks for the effect of these adjectives. Here you can ask the question, what kind of impression of the man who is talking do I get from the description and the use of all the adjectives? When you answer this question, you are talking about effect. Task 3 Under task 3 students are usually asked to choose one question from four alternatives. The first tip is simply to take time and choose your question carefully. When you think you have found the right question, stop and think. Are you sure you have enough to say for a good full text? Do you understand what the question is asking you to do? Do you understand all parts of the question? Is it is asking you to do more than one thing? Too many students start with a question that seems right at first glance but half way into their answer they run out of things to say and either go general (that is try to write about general things not directly related to the question), or just write what they want with no real focus on the question. If you do the latter, your grade will drop because you have not directly answered the question. Some examination candidates even go so far as to disregard the question and write what they want, or perhaps try to use something they have worked on before and have on their computer, but this will not make the grade as examiners will be looking for on-target answers to the specific questions. If, for example, the question asks you to respond to some specific and current pro and con statements about the British welfare state, you must respond to the statements. Using an essay on the history of the welfare state is not answering the question. If the statements are from recent debates, for example, then the aim is probably to look at the effects of the Cameron cuts to welfare programmes, the question obviously has a contemporary angle, what is happening to the welfare state now, so the prepared essay on the history of the welfare state is not on-topic. Perhaps small parts of that essay could be used for background, but using most or all of it would not be answering the question. Another important thing to remember is that the exams often ask comparison questions. For example, a question might ask you to compare some aspect of the UK and the USA, for example their political systems. If the question has a comparison aspect, it is important to make the comparison a primary factor in your entire essay. For example, don t simply talk about the UK in one block of text, then the US and then tack on a one I think that paragraph at the end and call it your comparison. Rather compare different points one by one, for example elections in the UK and elections in the US, parliamentarianism versus republicanism, election campaigns in the UK and US etc. throughout the essay. It might be a good idea to go through your essay point by point: Point 1 UK (e.g. UK election campaigns short and intense, control on how much money is used), Point 1 US (elections are long drawn out affairs, hugely expensive), Point 2 UK (e.g. minority government is possible), Point 2 US (it s one party or the other, but President may not control both house and senate, or either for that matter) etc. But you could also block your texts UK first and US second, but introduce the comparative aspect on each point in the UK section, for example: But as we shall see below, this is quite a different way of doing things than in the US The choice is of course yours, but the point is that the comparison aspect must be present throughout your essay, not just in a final summary (and often very short) paragraph. The exam questions are often supported by some text, pictures, graphs, statistics etc. placed either in the appendix or in a box together with the question. If the question asks you to respond to the text, pictures, graphs etc. that are given, or to use them as a point of departure, or starting point for a text, it is important to make use of the material in a coherent and well-developed way. It is not good to

6 only give this material passing reference, and your grade will suffer if you ignore the material completely if the question has instructed you to use it. According the Directorate, you can choose the genre for your answer to task 3. Whatever the case, as this will be your longest answer, this task will have the most language. It is important that you show your language skills in whatever type of text that you write. If you are writing an essay style, for example, show coherence, use linking words, vary your sentence style, develop your arguments, have good progress and stay focused on the task. For task 3 questions you can assess your progress using the table below: Have I answered the question from start to finish? How can I improve? Have I answered all parts of the question? Have I used the material supplied with the question if the question instructs me to do so in any way? Is my essay coherent? Have I used linking words and varied my language so the text has a good flow? Do I have a consistent approach (thread) through my essay?

7 Have I checked spelling, grammar and style?