HSC German Extension case studies
HSC German Extension · Put your knowledge to work in context.
German Extension is a Higher School Certificate (HSC) course in New South Wales, Australia, taken alongside German Continuers by students who want to work with longer, more demanding German texts and to express nuanced ideas in German. It suits candidates who already handle everyday German comfortably and are ready to analyse argument, tone and perspective rather than simply extract facts. The HSC German Extension case studies are 5 cases and about 1,599 words.
1The Unreliable Narrator in a Short Story Extract
A Year 12 class is analysing a two-page extract from a contemporary German short story. The narrator, a 17-year-old boy, describes his mother's new partner as "eigentlich ganz in Ordnung" but immediately lists three petty criticisms of the man's habits.
367 words, about 2 min2Register Choice in a Formal Letter of Complaint
A student must write a formal letter in German to a Sprachschule in Vienna. The situation: she paid €480 for a four-week B2 course, but two of the four weeks were taught by an unqualified substitute, and the promised conversation practice did not happen.
308 words, about 2 min3Statistics and Interpretation in a Non-Fiction Text
Students read a one-page German newspaper article arguing that young people read less than previous generations. The article cites: "Nur noch 38 Prozent der 14- bis 19-Jährigen lesen täglich ein Buch." It compares this with "vor zehn Jahren" without giving that earlier figure.
315 words, about 2 min4Personal Response Without Sliding into Summary
The class has read a German short text in which a grandmother secretly learns to use a smartphone so she can video-call her grandchildren, who live abroad. The final line reads: "Sie sagte niemandem, dass sie jeden Abend übte." The task is a personal response in German of 200–250 words: students must connect the text to their own experience or observations and take a position on whether the grandmother's secrecy is admirable or sad.
325 words, about 2 min5Adapting a Written Text for a Spoken Audience
Students must transform a 250-word formal German information text about a school's new recycling rules into a 90-second speech to be delivered to Year 9 students at an assembly. The original contains long subordinate clauses, passive constructions such as "Es wird darauf hingewiesen, dass...", and the phrase "Die ordnungsgemäße Trennung der Wertstoffe ist verpflichtend." The task requires: spoken-appropriate register, short sentences, a clear call to action, and no loss of the three key rules (correct bin, flattened cartons, no food waste in recycling).
284 words, about 1 min