Japanese Beginners

Course Details

• ATAR Eligibility – YES
• NTCET Points: 20
• Cost - NO

About the subject

The Stage 2 Japanese Beginners course is the continuation of the Stage 1 Japanese Beginners course. Students will continue to develop their skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening in Japanese language. By end of this course students will have sufficient language skills to be able to communicate in Japanese on a range of everyday topics as detailed below.

Additionally, students will develop their inter-cultural understandings by reflecting on aspects their own culture and that of Japanese language speakers:

• Family life, home and neighbourhood
• People, places and communities
• Education and work
• Friends, recreation and pastimes
• Holidays, travel and tourism
• Future plans and aspirations

Students explore the three interconnected themes of Relationships, Lifestyles, and Experiences from the perspectives of ‘The Personal World’ and ‘The Japanese speaking Communities’. Students develop their ability to communicate and interact in a variety of contexts for a range of purposes, within and across languages and cultures.

Eligibility - SACE eligibility criteria apply to the subject, see downloads

This course is for students with little or no previous knowledge of the language.

Assessment

The following assessment types enable students to demonstrate their learning in Stage 2 Japanese Beginners:

External Assessment

Assessment Type 4: Examination (30%). The examination consists of two assessments:

• one oral examination
• one written examination.

Oral Examination

The oral examination is designed to assess primarily students’ knowledge and skill in using spoken Japanese. The oral examination takes approximately 10 minutes and has two sections.

Written Examination

The 2½-hour written examination, plus 10 minutes’ reading time, has three sections:

• Section I: Listening
• Section II: Reading
• Section III: Writing.

The examinations will be graded by external assessors with reference to performance standards.

Students are allowed to use monolingual and/or bilingual printed dictionaries in the written examination.