GCE German Examiners` Report Summer 2015 pdf

GCE EXAMINERS' REPORTS
GERMAN
AS/Advanced
SUMMER 2015
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Annual Statistical Report
The annual Statistical Report (issued in the second half of the Autumn Term) gives overall
outcomes of all examinations administered by WJEC.
Unit
Page
GN1
1
GN2
4
GN3
8
GN4
10
© WJEC CBAC Ltd.
GERMAN
General Certificate of Education
Summer 2015
Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced
GN1: ORAL EXAMINATION
Principal Examiner:
J Desch
Communication with centres was efficient as always, except for one or two centres where
Examinations Officers needed to be persuaded that it was not their prerogative to dictate the
dates of the orals. Colleagues in MFL departments appreciate that arranging those dates is
a complicated exercise, especially where there are few candidates and examiners have to
visit two centres in one day. Occasionally however, a school’s managerial hierarchy gets in
the way of efficient correspondence and, prior to their visit, examiners sometimes had no
contact with the German teacher who is ultimately responsible for his or her candidates and
would often like to arrange a timetable for the day’s exams in consultation with the examiner.
However, most centres communicated efficiently with the examiner in advance so that the
suggested timetables could function smoothly. Some centres even provided a map or
instructions for travel to the school beforehand and reserved a parking space, which makes
all the difference when time is short.
This year there were additional problems when an examiner had to withdraw for health
reasons at very short notice and a number of centres had to be reallocated at a time when
most examiners’ schedules had been completed. That then necessitated quite a few other
centres having to change their already agreed dates. To them my particular thanks for being
so understanding and cooperative under the circumstances.
The accommodation provided was nearly always appropriate, away from noise as much as
possible, with no disturbances outside the examination rooms, and preparation areas and
toilets close by. Refreshments were kindly offered in nearly all centres. In one case,
however, the preparation room was two flights of stairs and a corridor away from the
examination room, thus obliging the examiner to lock the room and go and find the next
candidate. That is not acceptable and must be avoided.
In most centres, examiners were able to meet the candidates for short briefing sessions prior
to the day’s exams, in larger centres and depending on the size of the groups there would be
daily briefings. These meetings are particularly useful for ‘breaking the ice’, as it were,
putting candidates at their ease and reminding them that examiners will always try to make
this as relaxed, informal and, if at all possible, even as enjoyable as possible. Examiners
generally succeed in this.
GN1(a) Tests conducted by visiting examiners
The aim is for students to demonstrate spontaneity and fluency in expressing views and
opinions while handling with reasonable ease the structural framework. That and a
conscious management of tenses and sub-clauses require more regular practice than
learning (by heart) standard idiomatic phrases and a broad range of vocabulary. But the
latter seems to be increasingly the focus of classroom teaching, to the disadvantage of
fluency and responsiveness that can only be gained through regular classroom discussion in
German.
© WJEC CBAC Ltd.
1
More than in previous years, candidates tended to use set phrases (in meiner Meinung, ich
behaupte, wenn man es genau betrachtet, ich muss zugeben, dass…), often indiscriminately
and quite out of place. Therefore, comments such as in meine [sic!] Meinung ich behaupte,
dass die erste Bild ist ein Ärztin (where the legend under the picture stated Ärztin) fail to
impress the examiner. Other examples included: Alles in allem gibt es keine Frage, dass im
ersten Bild es ist kalt, or Von mir aus im Ausland ist es heißer, or Im Großen und Ganzen bin
ich davon überzeugt, dass ich seit sieben Jahren Gitarre spiele, or, in answer to the question
whether the candidate preferred other forms of transport to air travel and queuing at airports:
Persönlich finde ich dass die Reisen im Ausland sehr gut sind. Even in the General
Conversation there was a much higher incidence than in the past of prepared answers that
did not fit the question asked: Ich möchte in xyz studieren, weil es viel zu tun gibt. Man kann
schwimmen… Oh for the joys of academe! Replace the verb with wohnen, reisen, erholen,
leben, arbeiten and the prelearnt phrase fits just about any context. Fluency, yes; but such
standard building blocks are not conducive to lively, informal, let alone interesting interaction
– even though the candidate may state emphatically: Ich finde das interessant.
There was more evidence this year of the widening gap between those schools where
German is used actively on a daily basis and those where the language is ‘taught’ but not
practiced quite as much. On average, there may have been little difference in terms of
range, grammar and syntax; but the linguistic agility and, indeed, confidence of candidates
varied widely and gave a clear indication where they had had the opportunity to use German
in the classroom every day and where not. It is those characteristics that translate directly
into higher marks for spontaneity, fluency and interaction that account for two thirds of the
oral marks, as a brief glance at the marking scheme will show. No amount of teaching and of
learning standard conversational phrases can achieve that.
It is difficult to analyse what has contributed to that shift in oral performance, but managerial
and budgetary changes may play a part. In this context, several teachers mentioned that
they had lost or were about to lose their German assistant. That is most regrettable and
short-sighted. These young people in academic training, closer to our students in age and
temperament, are an invaluable resource for our students’ oral expertise and, indeed, for
their enjoyment of learning and speaking the language. Their loss will add further to the
trend witnessed this year.
The cards all worked well as a starter for more general discussions on the respective topics,
and those discussions about the wider issues could easily be developed from them. Most
candidates seemed confident that they had understood the situations, and only a few asked
for ‘help’ because of a lack of vocabulary. However some discussions remained somewhat
limited for various reasons, for example:
B1 – quite a few candidates could not relate to the trade of Bäcker and had little idea about
working conditions, training, apprenticeships, or why they might be important. (Long live
sliced bread that grows in plastic bags!)
B3 – (Abitur) – most mentioned only ‘keine Uniform’ and ‘kleines Klassenzimmer’.
Discussions reflected little or no understanding of the different approaches to teaching and
examining in Germany and the UK, and very little beyond the number of subjects.
A4 – (Party ohne Alkohol) elicited comments limited to alcohol, health and healthy lifestyles,
but not about the social implications as intended by the questions. Indeed, even the
deliberately provocative comment about girls being more likely to get drunk than boys was
largely ignored.
Similarly in B5 where the ‘women’s lib’ aspect went largely unnoticed and did not lead to any
wider debate of the issue.
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2
Far too often candidates simply summarise the mini-conversations without assimilating the
wider context and without thinking about their own response to the views expressed, or they
describe the pictures GCSE fashion. They seem to concentrate more on writing lengthy
factual answers to the three questions which they then memorise or even read out in the
exam, and when challenged by the examiner they often cannot expand on their comments.
Yet the introduction to all these questions reads Überlege dir…, not Beantworte…! That
subtle advice seems to be generally ignored.
GN1(b) Tests conducted by teachers
This option continues to give cause for concern, and the incidence of using prepared
answers and set phrases is even higher here. Candidates seemed to have been ‘prepared’
to such an extent that in very many cases there was not even a semblance of realistic
interaction. Questions and answers ran so seamlessly that there was little evidence of
unexpected ad hoc responses. Conversations in one and the same centre tended to be fairly
uniform, reflecting the same themes and questioning strategies with very little to differentiate
one from the other, except by the number of errors. Yet a quick glance at the marking
scheme shows that errors play a far lesser part than the ability to interact.
Teachers must therefore be reminded yet again that the test is designed to be a
spontaneous, interactive conversation rather than an open invitation to re-run well practiced
classroom dialogues that the candidates try to recall, often imperfectly and with difficulty.
Where that was the case it led to hesitations and lack of fluency. Standard and sometimes
even identical answers often prevailed, and there were no follow-up questions that would
have obliged candidates to explain their answers further and to encourage them to formulate
ad hoc responses there and then. Even nonsensical responses, often caused by stress and
not necessarily characteristic of the student’s overall competence, were left unchallenged.
Yet a supplementary question or just a quick comment might have obliged and enabled the
candidate to correct the answer and lessen the formality of the situation, even see the funny
side of it. For example Die Kita ist teurer als zu Hause aufwaschen or one on equality: Ich
hoffe in der Zukunft können wir Gleichgültigkeit haben / Ich denke alle Mensch soll
gleichgültig sein or In die Medien sie veröffentlichen Bilder von schlimme Frauen – a
statement simply calling out for Was meinst du? In the absence of such clarifying questions
one must assume that in the teacher’s view the candidate would not have been able to cope
with such challenges. As a result, there was very little real interaction (cf. marking scheme)
that might have attracted higher marks, which straightforward question-and-answer
presentations do not permit. The criteria of the marking scheme are quite specific but, alas,
often overlooked.
Some learnt answers were long and complicated, and some candidates were allowed to give
a series of uninterrupted mini lectures on topics that had been studied as part of the course.
Teacher examiners seem to be reluctant to intercept such lengthy monologues and ask
supplementary questions, as external examiners invariably do in such cases in order to give
candidates the opportunity to formulate unprepared responses, interact naturally and thus
gain higher marks. Questions should also follow on from the candidate’s response, not be
unrelated prompts for learnt statements on rehearsed general topics, going well beyond the
scope of the question asked. Unfortunately, that was the model for quite a number of tests
this year. Only where teachers had prepared their students to readjust and think along with
the themes discussed could candidates be awarded high marks.
Overall, therefore, the performance level was below that of the corresponding GN1a cohort
where visiting examiners do not allow candidates to present long prepared statements but,
by intercepting them and asking supplementary questions give candidates the opportunity to
interact realistically and to demonstrate their linguistic agility by being obliged to readjust
their own observations to the examiner’s comments.
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3
GERMAN
General Certificate of Education
Summer 2015
Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced
GN2: LISTENING, READING AND WRITING
Principal Examiner:
R Jahn
The paper posed no major problems and a number of candidates achieved high marks in the
first part of the paper. Most marks were lost in Aufgabe 2, the translation section
Aufgabe 5, and in the essay.
In Aufgabe 1, a number of candidates stated particulars that did relate to the question in
some way but still failed to satisfy the demands of the question. For example: Sie liebt
Fleisch (question 1) simply states a fact but does not answer the question Was würde Sina
als Vegetarierin nicht gut finden? Other candidates mentioned that Sina’s dad was a
butcher, Ihr Vater ist Metzger, which might of course pose problems but does not answer the
question either. A precise answer was also required for question 2 (Was ist eine Folge,
wenn es … immer mehr Kühe gibt?) where a connection needed to be established between
the increased number of cows on the one hand and the resulting increase in planting, as
suggested by the text. Yet many answers could not be credited because they were drawn
from general knowledge and were unrelated to the specific information given in the text; for
example Es macht das Klima kaputt. Others did not make sense, were ambiguous or were
linguistically too inaccurate to convey the message clearly: …um mehr Pflanzen für Kühe zu
wachsen. Alas, there were no marks either for amusing responses, such as die Kühe geben
Gas or Mehr Planzen sind erwachsen.
Frequently, short, direct answers satisfy the demands of the question completely, as in
question 4 Wie plant ein Vegetarier seinen Fleischkonsum? … mit einem Wochenplan.
However, Wochenplan on its own does not satisfy the demands of the question. The same
goes for question 5 where eine Webseite is not specific enough when it comes to
establishing how Fred can obtain further information about the project.
Even though question 6 carries two marks, a high number of students restricted their
answers to one item only. A common mistake consisted in the candidates’ mixing up finden
and erfinden. Neue Mahlzeiten finden does not convey the correct meaning. For the majority
of the candidates, question 7 did not pose any problems. As concerns the plans Fred and
Sina had for the evening, one suggestion ran as follows: Sie wollen zusammen neue
Vegetarier schaffen.
Aufgabe 2
Generally, this question was not done well, with quite a few candidates scoring low marks.
Surprisingly, a number of candidates did not know the 3rd person singular present of freuen.
Most candidates struggled with the correct case in ihrer Meinung nach and with the dative
plural of Partner. Owing to a lack of structural awareness a number of candidates took sein
for a verb rather than a possessive pronoun and conjugated it: Sina erklärt ihm, wie er ist
halbvegetarische Woche planen kann – familiar echoes of the English present continuous
‘he is… planning’, a structure still misused in GN4.
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4
Aufgabe 3, Teil 1
On the whole this exercise was done well, but question 1 and question 7 caused problems
for a high number of students. Even though Plan in question 1 and soeben in question 7
may be grammatically correct they do not correspond to the meaning of the text and are
therefore wrong.
Aufgabe 3, Teil 2
As in previous years this exercise was generally done well, with a fair number of candidates
scoring high marks, probably because they analysed the text and checked their answers
carefully. Question a, however, carried a high error rate, since many candidates overlooked
the word immer.
Aufgabe 3, Teil 3
As in previous years a good proportion of students scored high marks on this task. Marks
were lost mainly in question 4 when candidates confused sich freuen auf with sich freuen
über and stated that the monks were pleased with the visit rather than looking forward to the
visit. The answer carried two marks, and a number of students lost both because they also
failed to mention the second idea, which was that the monks saw the visit as a welcome
change.
Aufgabe 4
Overall students scored high marks on this part of the exam with many achieving at least
one point for each sentence. Careful checking of answers, however, could have avoided
losing marks by overlooking words such as rote in the first and jetzt in the last sentence.
Meistens caused problems in the second sentence since some students regarded it as an
adjective rather than an adverb and wrote …zeigen die meistens Passanten großes
Interesse. A small number of candidates even ‘corrected’ the word by leaving the “s” off, i.e.
…zeigen die meisten Passanten großes Interesse. With that amendment the generated
sentence is, of course, grammatically correct but was still not credited because the
candidates did not correctly identify each of the words. This is a grammar test, and
candidates are expected to identify the grammatical forms of each word as given and
assemble the sentence accordingly, using all words. No changes will be accepted.
Aufgabe 5, Teil 1
As in previous years, a number of candidates struggled with this first translation task, partly
because of a lack of vocabulary. Words such as Prüfungsvorbereitungen, einfach,
Marmelade or stimmen were not translated correctly by a high number of students. Many
were not aware that, depending on the context, einfach can mean easy/easily or, as in this
case, simple/simply. Therefore I can easily learn here very well does not convey the
intended meaning. Some students were not sufficiently aware of the rubric which specifically
stressed the need for good English. Frequent renderings of Das Leben im Kloster ist alles
andere als luxuriös included Life in the monastery is everything but luxurious, which resulted
in a loss of marks.
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Aufgabe 5, Teil 2
Some lexical items caused problems in this exercise, too, even some quite basic vocabulary;
for example gemeinsam, stattdessen, Messe, besuchen, Pflicht, verschließen, Türen and
freuen. The English and the Welsh words for Messe were given on the folder pages.
Unfortunately a small number of English medium candidates used the Welsh word offeren
instead of the English word mass and therefore lost a mark. When students encounter
translation problems they tend to guess the meaning which this year resulted in some
bizarre sentences, e.g. but that is no escape for Aber das ist keine Pflicht, or At eight o’clock
the monks take off their robes for Um acht Uhr verschließen die Mönche die Türen. Türen
was frequently translated as towers or treated like a place name, e.g. ‘…the monks go to
Türen’.
Aufgabe 6
As in previous years it seems to be common for students to plan their essays in English,
which often leads to the candidates thinking in English and replicating English sentence
structures in German.
A fair number of essays always start with longwinded, meaningless introductions which do
not contribute anything to the quality of the response; e.g. Ich will mich bemühen, kurz zu
erklären, wie ein Urlaub mit Freunden oder mit der Familie stressig oder nicht ist. Dann, um
dem Titel gerecht zu werden, will ich meine Meinung dazu geben. Other essays contain a
high number of invented statistics which aim to impress. Instead of simply stating that the
numbers of vegetarians are on the increase students quote specific figures: e.g. über 10
Millionen Leute sind Vegetarier in England or Laut eines Berichts sind heute 34% der Leute
Vegetarier.
A fair number of candidates were, however, able to achieve high marks with well-reasoned
essays written in clear fluent language, showing sound command of the grammar. There
was a clear preference for essay titles a) and d), i.e. a) „Ein Urlaub mit Freunden oder mit
der Familie ist viel zu stressig. Nur wenn man alleine in den Urlaub fährt, kann man sich
richtig erholen und etwas erleben.“ Was ist Deine Meinung dazu? and d) „In der Zukunft
hoffe ich mein Hobby zum Beruf zu machen!“ Was ist deine Meinung dazu?
Essay a) The majority of the candidates were familiar with the topic of “holidays” but not all
of them managed to compare a holiday with family or friends to a holiday on their own. Some
essays simply recounted a past holiday, which of course does not fulfil the requirements of
the question. The better essays clearly explained the students’ choice of preferred holiday
and their reasons and opinions. A number of essays also pointed out the dangers of
holidaying on your own.
Essay b) was less popular but on the whole made interesting reading. The better essays
emphasised the role of the teacher in trying to balance the students’ individual pace of
learning with the need to get through the syllabus. Some essays stressed that learning
together at the same pace had a social dimension and helped students to work with others,
which was a vital skill for later life.
Essay c) „Ich möchte nicht zum Vegetarier werden, weil ich das langweilig und auch nicht
sehr gesund finde.Was ist deine Meinung dazu?” was frequently turned into an
„Umweltessay“, or the pros and cons of being a vegetarian were discussed without referring
to the keywords langweilig and gesund.
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Essay d) was the most popular choice by far, not least because much had been prepared
on the themes of Hobby and Beruf. Often, however, no direct link was established between
the two, and the essays sketched aspects of the two themes separately and mainly
descriptively. This meant there was little or no discussion of the advantages and
disadvantages of choosing one’s hobby as one’s career and of the interrelationship between
the two when, for example, the hobby was biking and the career that of a baker. Many
candidates, however, did produce a good discussion on various aspects of this essay topic.
As in previous years, word order mistakes, incorrect possessive pronouns, incorrect verb
endings and incomplete sentences were quite wide spread. As mentioned last year, students
frequently have no awareness of different word categories, and nouns are sometimes used
as adjectives or vice versa. That was the case in essays about vegetarianism, in particular
where the same word is used in English and the distinction between Vegetarier and
vegetarisch was often not made. In one case where a candidate was suggesting that
children should follow a mixed diet, his/her argument culminated in the following sentence:
Es ist nicht gut für Kinder Vegetarier zu essen.
Students’ handwriting poses problems as well and in some cases it is barely legible. Spelling
mistakes seem to be more prevalent this year with many students not using any capital
letters at all, which makes reading an essay very difficult. In some isolated cases the spelling
is rudimentary to an extent that individual words cannot be deciphered.
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7
GERMAN
General Certificate of Education
Summer 2015
Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced
GN3: ORAL EXAMINATION
Principal Examiner:
R Jahn
Summary
As in previous years a high percentage of candidates scored marks well into the 50s which
gave evidence of their intensive preparation for the exposé and the topics relating to the
cards. In most centres the exposé titles were different for each individual student which
made it easy for the examiner to differentiate between the students. It is, however,
appreciated that it is not always feasible for big centres to find a different and challenging
exposé title for each and every candidate.
GN3 – Speaking
The comments made about GN1(a) in the AS report apply here in equal measure.
Examiners appreciated the excellent cooperation with colleagues in all but a handful of
centres. Examinations were usually arranged in sessions of five tests, though that could vary
depending on the centre’s lunch break, students’ travel arrangements and other
circumstances. Most centres allocated 25-30 minutes per test which gives examiners time in
addition to the actual tests for administrative duties such as reorganising the cards, handing
out a card to the next candidate and exchanging a few friendly words before each test.
Structured Discussion
As before, candidates chose one of two cards presented to them after the examiner had
briefly outlined what the text was about. The choice was, as in previous years, between two
aspects that could relate either to one and the same topic area or to one of each. This year
there was again a strong preference for themes relating to the environment, therefore Die
Einwegtüte- ein Umweltproblem and Das umweltfreundliche Faxi were frequently chosen,
but Buch kaputt…? turned out to be very popular as well. In most cases students were able
to engage in conversation about the cards in a lively and knowledgeable way. The cards that
were less frequently chosen such as Made auf Veddel and Repair Café, nonetheless, gave
rise to fruitful discussions. Interestingly, most of the candidates who had chosen Repair Café
claimed that they would like to learn how to repair things so that fewer items were thrown
away. Those who had chosen Made auf Veddel were acutely aware of the role that both
language skills and work play for the integration of foreign women in Germany. Few chose
Clean Clothes Kampagne when offered, but those who did, were able to sustain an
animated discussion about the responsibility of the consumer for the livelihood of those
women in Asia and Africa who produce our clothes.
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Oral Exposé
Most exposés were within the time limit, were well structured and left some loose ends to be
discussed afterwards. The most successful exposés had a title in the form of a question,
which straight away obliged the candidates to take an analytical rather than descriptive
approach to their presentation. Most exposés centred round films or books taken from the
set list, with Good Bye Lenin and Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei being the most popular, but
some other films and books were also used; for example Berlin 36, Oh Boy, Honig im Kopf,
Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland, Unsere Mütter – unsere Väter, Keinohrhasen,
Kokowää, Das Leben der Anderen, and Im Westen nichts Neues (book).
Most conversations gave evidence of the students having taken a real interest in their
chosen topic and being able to discuss it from an analytical point of view. The delivery of the
exposé poses problems at times. A fair number of candidates presented their exposé in an
extremely fast fashion and failed to pay attention to their pronunciation, which in some cases
led to the examiner not being able to understand all parts of the presentation. The notes are
intended to give support to the candidate while presenting the exposé. Some notes just
contain the beginning of sentences which do not provide any aide memoir when the
candidate gets stuck.
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9
GERMAN
General Certificate of Education
Summer 2015
Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced
GN4: LISTENING, READING AND WRITING
Principal Examiner:
R Jahn and J Desch
Though there was again a good proportion of high achievers, the overall level of
performance was lower than that of recent years. That was reflected in virtually all parts of
the paper, but particularly so in the translation (cf. below) where limitations in grammatical
accuracy, range of lexis, and application and idiomatic usage led to incorrect renderings of
the original text. It also played a part, but not to the same extent, in comprehension
questions where incorrect grammar is normally ignored. However, there were more answers
this year where grammar and syntax were so defective that they rendered the answer
ambiguous, inaccurate, or simply unintelligible.
The paper worked well as a whole to differentiate between high and low achievers, and that
gap was wider for reasons outlined above. The paper offered some easier, straightforward
tests so as not to discourage less able candidates and presented more searching questions
for the budding linguists. One problem with answers in English or Welsh was the candidates’
lack of precision and a kind of nonchalant handling of their mother tongue, which did not
always lose them marks but is still worth pointing out. Another practical problem was poor
handwriting, sometimes so small that one was tempted to reach for a magnifying glass.
Aufgabe 1
The introduction of a toll for lorries implies that it would not apply to cars. The politicians’
additional promise was that there would never be a toll for cars. Some candidates did not
make that distinction.
Question 2 presented no problems, and there was a variety of acceptable answers – not
trustworthy, not to be trusted, their promise is not worth the paper it is written on. Some
candidates seemed none too familiar with English phrases and wrote not worth the paper
they write on /wrote on /use for writing on, worth less than their paper, not worth their paper,
as worthy as a piece of paper, etc. Learning a foreign language should also enhance
awareness of the candidates’ own language.
Question 3 asked for where and when, and quite a few candidates overlooked the fact that
two pieces of information were required.
In question 5 the point was not that people of low incomes could not afford the toll but that it
was unfair in principle to demand the same toll for people opting for smaller cars with
reason. There were some similar general knowledge answers to question 6: The toll should
be higher for bigger cars because they damage the roads more and not, as quite a few
candidates stated, because of higher pollution or because their is usually more people in the
car (end of quote, and no further comment!).
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Aufgabe 2
Teil 1 was occasionally done too mechanically and without reference to the text. As a result,
some candidate confused Delegierten and Demonstranten, even Klimakonferenz, or trotz
(guter Vorbereitungen) and wegen. Applying basic logic would have helped here!
Some candidates wrote their answers to Teil 3 in English, which could not be credited even
if they were factually correct. Copying directly from the text was also not accepted since restating the facts verbatim did not answer the question. For example, the copied phrase
kommen immer weniger Leute bei Hurrikanen ums Leben does not answer question 6 Wie
hat sich die Zahl ... verändert. Answers such as die Nummer ist weniger geworden were not
accepted either because a Nummer is not a Zahl and cannot diminish. Some candidates
answered qestion 1 from their general knowledge background (pollution) which was not the
point here.
Teil 4 was another minefield, and many candidates lost marks because their mother-tongue
answers were imprecise or they had not applied any logic. Question 1 about long term
trends proffered answers such as There are unknown long term trends or They take years to
come back. Similarly in question 3 about the difficulty in predicting the severity of storms:
They are so rare they may last for hundreds of years. (Logic?) Question 2 was generally
answered quite well except that over 90 percent of candidates said there would be less
storms. The reason for more rain required in answer to question 6 was that warm air would
absorb more water – not obtain, regain, bring, evaporate, take in, take out (but take up) or,
best of all, produce – water shortages solved.
Aufgabe 3
As always, the translation was based on the reading text, and candidates who had
assimilated the main ideas fared better. One mark each was available for rendering the
distinct items of information, and the mark was awarded as long as straightforward linguistic
mistakes did not impede the correct, unambiguous rendering. Mistakes would be considered
when allocating marks for accuracy and range. Very often, however, incorrect lexis did
indeed change the meaning and lost candidates the mark. Even the first phrase ‘when
typhoon Haiyan killed thousands of people...” led to such mistakes when candidates wrote
ermordete instead of tötete, or tausend instead of Tausende /viele Tausend Menschen.
Other examples from later in the text included: mehrere Menschen instead of mehr, or bei
Häusern geschützt instead of durch, or bessere Häuser für die Arme (sic!) instead of ärmere
/weniger wohlhabende Menschen.
Translating the English idiomatic phrase ‘tell a different story’ was tricky since correct
rendering depends on the context. Candidates who had studied the reading text carefully
wrote zeigen/ demonstrieren einen anderen Zusammenhang, a phrase used similarly in the
text, while others with a firmer grasp of German idioms suggested ...geben uns /zeigen
/zeichnen (!) ein anderes Bild. The German erzählen has a much narrower meaning than ‘to
tell’ (which, unlike in German, also includes stating facts – as in ‘tell me the time’) and is
often misused by candidates at all levels.
Not knowing a directly corresponding word in German was not the problem as such since a
range of alternatives was nearly always available; but many candidates did not have enough
practice to apply their still limited linguistic resources more imaginatively. They had problems
with translating even common words, for example the verb ‘to blame’ in the next phrase, and
only the better students used paraphrasing that, with a bit of thought, should be well in the
grasp of most as regards lexis; for example …gaben dem Klimawandel die Schuld an, … or
machten … verantwortlich, or haben gesagt, dass die Katastrophe wegen … passiert ist, or
sahen die Ursache /den Grund für die Katastrophe im Klimawandel, or meinten, die
Katastrophe sei/ist wegen … passiert, or …habe/hätte es gegeben, weil sich das Klima ge© WJEC CBAC Ltd.
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/verändert hat, or...weil wir ... verändert haben., or der Klimawandel habe/hätte die
Katastrophe ausgelöst, gebracht, herbeigerufen, hervorgerufen, verursacht, provoziert,
bewirkt, or wegen des Klimawandels sei es zu der Katastrophe gekommen – and countless
more.
The phrase ‘the number of dead … has fallen’ may also serve to illustrate that point since it
prompted a wide variety of different renderings: Die Zahl der Toten ist gefallen/gesunken or
der Taifun hat weniger Menschen getötet or es gab …(viel) weniger Opfer or viel weniger
Menschen ...sind bei dem/durch den Hurrikan umgekommen /sind getötet worden / haben
ihr Leben verloren /sind gestorben or weniger Menschen sind ums Lieben[sic!] gekommen,
etc.
Candidates tend to cling to individual words rather than assimilate the phrase and recast it in
a form that they can handle, using the vocabulary and structures they evidently know but do
not apply more creatively. This is where regular active use of the language such as
classroom discussions in German play such an essential part and can make all the
difference, not only for oral performance. Only a small percentage of this year’s cohort had
developed that facility.
Aufgabe 4
General
Here, too, the gap between competent and well-structured essays and standard, prepared or
even pre-learnt essays was wider than in the past. The latter tended to be cast in a mode
that might have fitted just about any question to a text, film or region and did not focus on the
specific aspects addressed by the question set. Most were not much more than descriptive
accounts without any analysis or personal comment. That applied, in particular, to essays on
aspects of a region, and only very few essays reflected any form of research or
understanding of the region supposedly studied.
The uniformity of many of those essays made it difficult to differentiate one from the other.
Although there was still a good number of well-reasoned, focussed, analytical and indeed
imaginative essays that made interesting reading, the majority was colourless and cast in the
familiar mode of nonsensical introduction and conclusion, with very little between the
formulas Einleitend möchte ich sagen, dass ich diese Frage sehr interesant finde. Ich werde
zunächst…and Zuammenfassend spiegelt dieser Text /Film die Thematik der Frage sehr
gut – forgetting even that only the writer of the essay and not the text or the film can
zusammenfassen. Such learnt essays fail to impress, even where there is an attempt to
slant them, with one or two additional remarks, to the question set.
Only the very best candidates were able to home in on the essential themes suggested by
the question and deal with them in an analytical manner, supporting their observations with
just as much factual detail as required. Those essays, and only those, reflected personal
interest in the work studied and attracted high marks.
Die Welt des Films
Of the three options, this one remains the favourite by far. The range of essays presented
was all but limited to just three films: Good Bye Lenin and Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei and
Jenseits der Stille. With the two forerunners (Lenin and Fette Jahre), that has led to a great
deal of standardised approaches, especially in centres where the same two films have been
taught for years. Besides, too much of the teaching is conducted through English rather than
German. That was evidenced convincingly by the frequent use of the inaccurate term
Edukators when referring to either the film title or the young people or by frequent references
to sozialistisches Fatherland. Similar observations apply to other films, too. Once again,
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neither of the two forerunners prompted the better essays. Most of them drifted into
generalised outlines of issues related to either reunification or social injustices but did not
focus sufficiently on film-specific issues. Nevertheless, there was a limited number of
perspective essays on both of these films, but certainly fewer than one would have
expected.
The better candidates who had studied Good Bye Lenin in some depth debated the
dichotomy between Alex’s overt reasons for letting the GDR live on (his mother’s fragile
health) and his own newly discovered hankering after his lost youth in spite of his political
conflict with the then regime. Most opting for question (b) had not fully grasped the concept
of irony, and the majority of essays read lacklustre and uninspiring as if their authors had no
real interest in the themes that the film addressed, as if they had heard and said it all before
and had nothing left to say.
Similar misunderstandings detracted from answers to Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei when
candidates either interpreted the reference to one Schlüsselszene as an open invitation to
sketch a number of scenes without relating any of them thematically to the film as a whole,
or they had insufficient knowledge of the 68s – even though Hardenberg alluded to the
movement in some detail.
Answers to Jenseits der Stille tended to be less ‘run-of-the-mill’, and many candidates
focussed appropriately, some quite perceptively on either (a) Lara living in two worlds, or (b)
her father’s personality. However, some did not consider sufficiently the concluding aspects
in each of these two questions, namely (a) how does she cope and (b) how can her father’s
behaviour be explained, which both would have required more analysis
The remaining less popular films tended to proffer the more analytical answers overall,
especially Crazy, Der rote Kakadu, Vaya con Dios and Die weiße Rose.
Die Welt der Literatur
This continues to be the niche for the more academically minded students. The mean was
noticeably higher than that for the film option, and there was nothing like the same
concentration on just three titles.
As with the films, there was evidence here of texts having been studied and/or read in
English, which might well affect the quality of an answer. One example was: Faber trifft
Herbert im Flugzeug. Er war sein Neibar. Another comment in one of the essays on Der
Vorleser read: …aber Hanna nennt ihn Kid. Indeed, she does not, she calls him Jungchen –
and that term has quite a different ring to it and reflects on their relationship quite differently.
Reading texts in translation is not helpful and can lead to oblique or even unsatisfactory
interpretations in answer to a specific essay question – not because marks are awarded for
‘right’ interpretations as such but because, as in this case, the supporting evidence would
have been unsound, misleading, and the argument might have been unconvincing for lack of
supporting evidence (cf. marking scheme).
Although too many students again presented partially or wholly prepared essays with little
direct relevance to the questions, a good proportion knew the texts very well, were able to
support their arguments with relevant details and without lengthy synopses, and
demonstrated genuine interest in the themes and issues underlying these novels or plays.
Especially Schweigeminute, Die Verwandlung and Homo Faber had caught the imagination
of quite a few candidates, to some extent also Der Besuch der alten Dame (especially the
analysis of Claire’s and Ill’s personalities), but Der Vorleser slightly less so this year.
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Deutschsprachige Regionen
As indicated above, this is a successful option only for able candidates who are critical and
detached enough to take a broad view of the region before looking at individual aspects and
integrate them into the wider picture. Writing descriptively about waitresses carrying in both
hands hefty Bierseidel topped with lots of Feldwebel may conjure up attractive prospects but
does not meet the requirements of a critical evaluation of the cultural characteristics of
Bavaria. This is often seen as the easier option, and the assumption seems to be that it
requires less study time, and a rough framework for relevant essays can be drafted fairly
easily on the basis of a few internet searches. In practice that does not work, and there were
few essays indeed that came up to the required standard. Fortunately this has become a
minor option with only some 5% of candidates offering essays, but rather more oral exposés
where the problem is no different.
GCE German Report Summer 2015
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