Today’s Leaving Cert higher-level Spanish paper contained topics and themes that students would recognise, teachers have said.
Daire Kelly, ASTI subject representative for Spanish, said there was lots of choice on the paper, but that the listening comprehension posed some challenges.
“Overall, it was a fair paper, and students who put time in their past papers won’t have been surprised,” Mr Kelly said.
“The topics of tourism and technology were quite standard, and the essay titles provided plenty of choice.”
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Maria Fenton, Spanish teacher at The Institute of Education, also said that overall students will have found lots of themes that they recognised.
She said section A contained a choice between two texts including Relato de un náufrago, a prescribed novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez or a journalistic text.
“Students tend to favour the latter and so most will start their exam by jumping to page eight,” said Ms Fenton.
“This year’s piece was a lovely text on the distinct culture of Spain and how it causes a bit of culture shock on first arrival. Little details like kissing on both cheeks, later mealtimes and the late-night clubs were a nice reflection of the Spanish lifestyle and will be familiar to those who have had the chance to visit Spain.
“The most challenging part of this section was the synonym tasks which really required students to grasp the whole phrase in order to understand some of the necessary nuances.”
Section B
While section A looked at more traditional takes on Spanish culture, section B was very modern, said Ms Fenton.
“The long text was on an artificial intelligence generated influencer which overlaps two areas that teachers will have likely prepared in class: AI and social media,” she said.
Ms Fenton said section C had lots of choice.
“All were really viable this year, but the letter was a great option. It asked about the very topical issue of tourism in Spain,” she said.
While this issue contains lots of important ideas, the prompts for the question allow students to talk about really familiar themes like food, weather, festivals or learning the language.
“More capable students could choose to push into the critical issue of housing supply, but this is something they would have encountered previously,” said Ms Fenton.
“The range of choice in the letter question allowed for the housing topic to be avoided completely. The exam closes with students either writing a diary or a note, both of which were a nice conclusion to this paper.”
The trend of mixing cultural background with contemporary topics continued into the aural, which students should have found “very manageable”, Ms Fenton said.
“Overall, this was a good paper with lots of chances for everyone to get their marks. However, some of the more nuanced elements of the language will really test the students’ alertness of cultural nuances.”
Ordinary
On the ordinary-level paper, Mr Kelly said that it was standard and would not have troubled prepared students, with comprehensions on familiar topics and useful prompts.
“Again, the ordinary-level students found the listening more difficult,” he said.
Try this one at home:
Leaving Cert Spanish, higher level::
- Write in ENGLISH the meaning (in the context) of the following phrases:
a) Es guapísima, elegante y muy maja.
b) Alba parece salida de una película de ciencia ficción.
c) … cobran unos ocho mil euros por publicación.
