SACE Stage 2 German (beginners) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

School assessment weighting

In beginners German, school-assessed work contributes 70 per cent of the final subject grade, with the remaining 30 per cent coming from the external examination.

Assessment Type 1: Interaction

The school-assessed component worth 20 per cent that requires students to take part in spoken and written exchanges in German, including at least one sustained spoken interaction.

Assessment Type 2: Text Production

The school-assessed component worth 30 per cent requiring several German texts in different text types, such as emails, articles or reviews, written for specified audiences and purposes.

Assessment Type 3: Investigation

A school-assessed language investigation in which students research a German-speaking topic and present findings in German, accompanied by reflection on their research and language use.

Performance standards

Published descriptors of five achievement levels used to judge student work; teachers match evidence from assessment tasks to these descriptors when awarding A to E grades.

Moderation of school assessment

The process by which external moderators review samples of school-assessed work against state standards, adjusting school scores where they are judged too generous or too harsh.

Beginners eligibility rule

The beginners pathway assumes no prior study of German; students with substantial prior knowledge or a German-speaking background normally enrol in a continuers or background-speaker course instead.

Spoken interaction criteria

Assessment of spoken German weighs fluency, pronunciation and intonation, range and accuracy of vocabulary and grammar, and the ability to sustain and extend a conversation.

Written text criteria

Assessment of written German weighs content and task fulfilment, organisation and cohesion, range and accuracy of language, and appropriateness of register for the chosen text type.

Text type awareness

Students must match conventions such as salutations, headings and closing formulas to the required text type, because inappropriate format reduces the content and communication score.

Supervised task condition

At least one school assessment task per type is completed under direct teacher supervision, ensuring the work is the student's own and can be verified.

Evidence sufficiency

A grade is defensible only when multiple tasks across the year show consistent performance; a single strong or weak task cannot carry an assessment type on its own.

Investigation reflection in English

Part of the investigation is written in English, describing research decisions, sources used and what the student learned about language and culture.

Register in German texts

Formal texts use Sie and full salutations such as Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, while informal texts use du and casual greetings; consistency is required throughout a text.

External assessment weighting

The SACE-set written examination contributes 30 per cent of the final grade and is marked externally rather than by the school.

Examination sections

The written examination contains a listening and viewing section, a reading and viewing section, and a writing section, all based on German texts and tasks.

Listening playback conditions

Recorded German texts are played a limited number of times, usually twice, with note-taking permitted; answers are given in English or German as directed.

Reading and viewing texts

Examination reading materials include authentic-style German items such as articles, notices, advertisements, emails and short literary extracts, tested for gist and detail.

Inference questions

Questions asking what a speaker implies or how a writer feels require combining textual clues with context, since the answer is not stated word for word.

Extended writing response

The writing section requires at least one longer German text of roughly 120 to 150 words in a specified text type, assessed for content, range and accuracy.

Criteria-based marking

Extended examination responses are scored against rubrics describing levels of quality, so partially accurate language can still earn partial credit.

No dictionary rule

Dictionaries and electronic translators are not allowed in the external examination; students must paraphrase or circumlocute when vocabulary is unknown.

Combining school and exam scores

The final subject grade combines the moderated school assessment score, weighted at 70 per cent, with the external examination score, weighted at 30 per cent.

Formal letter opening

A formal German letter opens with Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren or Sehr geehrter Herr plus surname, followed by a comma and a lower-case opening line.

Informal email opening

An informal German email typically opens with Liebe or Lieber plus first name, or Hallo plus first name, and closes with Viele Grüße or Bis bald.

Formal closing formulas

Formal German correspondence closes with Mit freundlichen Grüßen followed by the full name, without a comma after the greeting phrase in modern usage.

Time expressions in German

Clock times use um plus the time, as in um halb acht for 7:30; halb refers to the half hour before the stated hour, which differs from English usage.

Perfect tense with haben

Most German verbs form the perfect with haben plus a past participle, as in Ich habe gelernt; verbs of motion and change of state usually take sein instead.

Modal verb word order

A modal verb occupies position two and sends the infinitive to the end of the clause, as in Ich kann heute nicht kommen.

Accusative after für, ohne, gegen

The prepositions für, ohne, gegen, durch and um always take the accusative case, so articles change to den or die accordingly.

Dative after mit, nach, bei

The prepositions mit, nach, bei, seit, von, zu and aus always govern the dative, so the article becomes dem, der or den in the plural.

Two-way prepositions

Prepositions such as in, an, auf and über take the accusative for movement towards a destination and the dative for position or location.