VCE Vietnamese Second Language cheat sheet

Units 1 and 2 are each one semester; satisfactory completion requires demonstrating the unit outcomes, not a ranked letter grade.

Unit 1 establishes foundations: the individual, family and friends, and education and work contexts; Unit 2 extends to leisure, holidays, and the Vietnamese-speaking communities.

Assessment tasks for Units 1 and 2 must be part of the regular teaching program and completed mainly in class time under supervision.

At least one assessment task per unit must be an oral or aural task; the remaining tasks are typically reading, writing, and viewing tasks.

Outcome 1 (communicating) is assessed through listening, speaking, reading, and writing tasks in Vietnamese; Outcome 2 (understanding) through responses about language and culture.

A student receives 'S' for a unit when all outcomes are demonstrated; an 'N' requires the school to record which outcome(s) were not met and to provide feedback.

Tasks are graded against a school-based scale or rubric; Unit 1 and 2 results do not contribute to the ATAR but inform progression advice into Units 3 and 4.

The Vietnamese writing system used is the romanised quốc ngữ script with tone marks; accurate tone marking is part of written accuracy in assessment.

Units 3 and 4 consist of four outcomes: Unit 3 Outcome 1 (listening and speaking), Outcome 2 (reading and writing), and Unit 4 Outcome 1 (listening and speaking), Outcome 2 (reading and writing).

School-assessed coursework (SACs) in Units 3 and 4 contributes 50 per cent of the study score; the external examination contributes the other 50 per cent.

The external examination has two components: an oral examination (approximately 15 minutes) and a written examination (2 hours 30 minutes including reading time).

The oral examination comprises a 7-8 minute presentation/discussion on the Detailed Study and a general conversation of approximately 7 minutes.

The Detailed Study is a research task on an aspect of Vietnamese language or culture, presented orally in Units 3 and 4 and referenced in the oral examination.

The written examination contains listening, reading and viewing, and writing sections; the writing section requires responses in Vietnamese of specified text types and lengths.

Assessment criteria include relevance, depth and accuracy of information, range and appropriateness of vocabulary and grammar, and cultural knowledge where relevant.

Examination answers must be in Vietnamese unless the question is phrased in English and asks for an English response; mixing languages inappropriately loses marks.

Text types for the writing task may include diary entry, letter, article, report, speech, or blog; register and format conventions of each text type are assessed.