Leaving Cert Mandarin Chinese: ‘A harder paper than previous years’

Today’s Leaving Cert Mandarin Chinese exam was “a harder paper than previous years” with more advanced vocabulary and language sklls.

Yun Wu, Chinese teacher at The Institute of Education, said the goal of curriculum is to train students how to use the language in the real world.

“This paper reflected that more than previous years but as a result the amount of challenge posed by the paper increased also,” she sad.

“Students needed to have a broader sense of intercultural context, a more advanced vocabulary, and a greater awareness of the applications of the language in various contexts.”

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Ms Yun said this will be welcomed by those who had already adopted this approach to covering the material but is also a clear sign to all that this is a trend for future papers.

Comprehension

The comprehension pieces of Section A were approachable, she said but the questions needed much more understanding and context to answer.

“Previous papers had ‘true or false’ questions but these were gone and replaced with questions that students couldn’t just guess,” she said.

“However, many of the texts were simple and straightforward (eg a nursery rhyme on the seasons), so students should not have struggled here.”

While previous papers might have focused on traditional Chinese culture through food and festivals, this paper was very modern in its topics.

For example, the true cultural connection to “night market” might have been lost on students less familiar with the life in modern China.

“This is also found in the broadening on the necessary vocabulary away from the basic names for objects in a way the reflects the energetic combination of parts in the Chinese language,” she said.

“The level of language skill necessary is definitely not what is typical for students only taking up the language in senior cycle. This exam was less focused on the theoretical elements of the language than practical analytic skills of the speaker.”

Writing questions

This increase in challenge is clearest in Section B’s writing questions, said Ms Yun.

“Normally students would write one short essay and a more practical piece. However, the standard short essay didn’t appear, and nearly all the tasks were practical in their nature,” she said.

“Students who had memorised essays on themes like family or hobbies would not have had the chance to use that here. Instead, the emphasis was clearly on using the language to reflect real personal experiences.”

Students who had practised lots of different scenarios and styles will have been broadly happy with the options: thank you notes, invitations, information requests, etc.

Question five offered useful tips on which style to use but question six was much “more subtle”.

All three prompts required the email layout but did not directly say that – students would need to know from context.

As a result, students who rushed their reading of the question or wanted to write a short essay will lose marks.

Aural

The aural’s questions and contents weren’t particularly difficult with standard questions around food, times and locations.

The final sections focused on the theme of travel through taxi and travelogues.

However, the speed of the delivery was noticeably quicker than before.

“While not as fast as native speakers, it is still quick by the standards of students who are learning the language and so will be a challenge for some,” Ms Yun said.

Overall, she sad both aspects of the exam focused on real life scenarios and a contemporary context, but the challenge will be to have the broad cultural understanding to pick up on the nuances.