A "lovely" aural tape cheered German students yesterday. "They came out beaming," said Ms Mary Shiel, a German teacher in Loreto Secondary School, Bray, Co Wicklow. ASTI subject representative Ms Eleanor Jones said the tape was clear and evenly paced.
Ms Shiel, a member of the German teachers' association, said ordinary-level students were very happy with their written paper also. They had no problems with the first text, which dealt with Julika, a trainee office worker who wants to change career. They were thrilled with the second text, Gib Mull keine Chance, she added.
She commended the use of a blank page opposite the grid on question 3, text II. Students would have prepared most of the information in text III and for the letter in the writing section for the oral exam so they should have had few vocabulary problems.
At higher-level, Ms Jones who teaches in St Angela's, Ursuline Convent, Waterford, said the written paper was very good. The literary comprehension and the journalistic comprehension were challenging with some difficult vocabulary. For instance, line 62 of the second text contained the word, geschictsbesessen, (historyobsessed) which might have thrown some students.
The Department should be commended for choosing this topical text, which focused on Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, said Ms Jones. The written exercises were also good. "The letter was very manageable with no surprises," she added, "while the alternative writing exercise (based on a cartoon) was well within the scope of students. I was delighted to see topics such as healthy living, smoking and the environment coming up here."
Ms Shiel said higher-level students were writing until the last minute. This was partly due to the clever format used in the writing section, which no longer allows students to use whole learned-off passages.
She said there was a slight problem with the letter on page 10 which asked Rein aus Interesse, wo liegt eigentlich Dein Lieblingsurlaubsort? Und warum? It was not clear if this question, which comes after a request for information on tourism on Ireland, refers to Ireland only. The alternative question, based on the cartoon, was more varied.
Higher-level students found the first comprehension more difficult than the second and some allocated too much time to it, she noted. However, they found the aural tape very clear.