This booklet contains OCR’s Advanced Subsidiary GCE and Advanced GCE specifications in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese and Turkish for teaching from September 2013.

The rationale for the revised specification for GCE Dutch/Gujarati/Persian/Portuguese/Turkish is:

• to conform with the revised QCA criteria for GCE Modern Languages published in 2006

• to align this specification to the French, German and Spanish specification.

The following has been done to achieve closer comparability across GCE qualifications for all languages:

• A change to the assessment demand: the examination duration and number of tasks in the AS and A2 units of GCE Dutch/Gujarati/Persian/Portuguese/Turkish specification is greater than in the equivalent AS and A2 units of GCE French, German and Spanish; this is to compensate for the absence of an assessment of the skill of speaking.

• The inclusion of assessments of the skill of listening in the AS and A2 units in the Dutch/Gujarati/Persian/Portuguese/Turkish specification; this makes the units comparable in range of task to the equivalent AS and A2 units in GCE French, German and Spanish.

• The topics for study are the same across AS and A2 for all languages.

• The breadth of study is the same for both specifications: the demands in terms of topic coverage and cultural coverage are equal. Candidates are required to study the same number of topics in both specifications and all topics for both the AS and A2 units must be studied in the context of the culture of the target-language country.

• Candidates still have the possibility to study a literary text as part of one of the A2 Topic areas (Culture: Literature and the Arts).

• The assessment criteria are the same across both specifications.

There are two units of assessment, one at Advanced Subsidiary level and one at Advanced level, for the qualification of GCE in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese and Turkish.

1. The One-Unit AS

The Advanced Subsidiary GCE is both a ‘stand- alone’ qualification and also the first half of the corresponding Advanced GCE. The AS GCE is assessed at a standard appropriate for candidates who have completed the first year of study (both in terms of teaching time and content) of the corresponding two-year Advanced GCE course, ie between GCSE and Advanced GCE.

The AS GCE is made up of one mandatory unit which is externally assessed and forms 50% of the corresponding two-unit Advanced GCE.

Units F881/F883/F885/F887/F889 are written papers, testing listening, reading and writing skills and comprising a variety of listening, reading and writing tasks. They represent 100% of the marks for AS.

For full information about the unit in detail, see Appendix A.

2. The Two-Unit Advanced GCE

The Advanced GCE is made up of one mandatory unit at AS and one further unit at A2. This A2 unit is also externally assessed.

Units F882/F884/F886/F888/F890 are written papers, testing listening, reading and writing skills, with a variety of tasks involving comprehension and manipulation of language as well as an extended essay. They represent 50% of the marks for A Level.

For full information about the unit in detail, see Appendix A.

3. Qualification Titles and Levels

These qualifications are shown on a certificate as:

• OCR Advanced Subsidiary GCE in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish

• OCR Advanced GCE in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish

Both qualifications are Level 3 in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

4. Aims

The aims of these specifications are to encourage students to:

• develop an interest in, and an enthusiasm for, language learning;

• develop understanding of the language in a variety of contexts and genres;

• communicate confidently, clearly and effectively in the language for a range of purposes;

• develop awareness and understanding of the contemporary society, cultural background and heritage of countries or communities where the language is spoken;

• consider their study of the language in a broader context.

The specifications also aims to:

• provide a coherent, satisfying and worthwhile course of study for students who do not progress to further study in the subject;

and, in addition, at A Level to:

• provide a sufficient basis for the further study of languages at degree level or equivalent.

5. Prior Learning/Attainment

It is recommended that students beginning to study Dutch, Gujarati, Persian or Turkish at AS and A Level should have the knowledge, understanding and skills equivalent to those for GCSE at Higher tier in the language.

2 Summary of Content

Leisure and entertainment sub-topics

• Sport (including national sporting concerns and traditions)

• Tourism and related themes: tourism as a changing phenomenon; tourism and the environment

• Leisure activities: aspects of cultural life, e.g. film, theatre; the arts as part of leisure time

Communication and Media sub-topics

• Communication technology: patterns and changes to communication in daily life

• Media eg written press; radio; television (roles and influences)

Education and training sub-topics

• School and school life: individual experiences; local and national concerns

• Work and training: individual experiences; school to work preparation, transition and aspirations

2.1.3 Grammar

The grammatical content for study at AS has been agreed at a national level between QCA and all awarding bodies.

For full details, see Appendix B.

2. A2 Units

A2 Unit F882 Dutch/F884 Gujarati/F886 Persian/F888 Portuguese/F890 Turkish Listening, Reading and Writing 2

2.2.1 Knowledge, Understanding and Skills

In addition to the requirements for the AS units, A Level candidates will be required to:

• use the language to present viewpoints, develop arguments, analyse and evaluate in writing;

• transfer meaning from the modern foreign language into English;

• understand and apply the grammatical system and a range of structures as detailed in the A Level specification;

• study aspects of the contemporary society, cultural background and heritage of one or more of the countries or communities whose language is being studied.

2.2.2 Language Topic areas

Spoken and written sources will include material that relates to the contemporary society, cultural background and heritage of one or more of the countries or communities where the language is spoken. The Topic areas for the A2 specification are:

Society sub-topics

• Integration and exclusion: age; gender; race; religion; equality of opportunity

• Law and order: trends of crime and punishment; civil unrest; policing

• Unemployment: causes and consequences (local, national or global)

The Environment sub-topics

• The individual and the environment: recycling; changing individual impact; local conservation

• Energy management: alternative energy sources; changing use of fossil fuels; nuclear energy; changing energy demands

• Pollution: causes; consequences; solutions

• Conservation of the natural world: changing habitats; impact of man and pollution; local, national or global initiatives

Science and technology: impact and issues sub-topics

• Medical progress: development and change – impacts on health care, life styles, ethics and beliefs

• Scientific advances: change and innovation – impacts and issues on society, knowledge and education

• Technological developments: change and development – impacts on lifestyles, habits, work and education.

Culture sub-topics

• Literature and the arts: trends, changes, influences and impacts on individuals and society

• Political issues: changes at local and national level; impacts on the individual and society

• Heritage and history: influence and impacts of heritage (including colonial heritage) and historical events (national and international) on contemporary society.

2.2.3 Grammar

The grammatical content for study at A Level has been agreed at a national level between QCA and all awarding bodies.

For full details, see Appendix B.

3. Unit Content

3. 1. AS Unit F881 Dutch/F883 Gujarati/ F885 Persian/F887

Portuguese/F889 Turkish Listening, Reading and Writing 1

Section A: Listening and Writing

Candidates should be able to:

• understand the stimulus material;

• respond to tasks that do not involve productive use of Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish;

• respond in English in words, phrases, numbers etc

• respond by transferring meaning from English into Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish.

Section B: Reading and Writing

Candidates should be able to:

• understand the stimulus material;

• respond to tasks that do not involve productive use of Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish;

• respond in writing to tasks in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish – short answer format;

• respond in writing to tasks in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish – extended answer format.

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2. A2 Unit F882 Dutch/F884 Gujarati/F886 Persian/F888

Portuguese/F890 Turkish Listening, Reading and Writing 2

Section A: Listening and Writing

Candidates should be able to:

• understand the stimulus material;

• respond in writing to tasks in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish and in English.

Section B: Reading and Writing

Candidates should be able to:

• understand the stimulus material;

• respond to tasks that do not involve productive use of Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish;

• respond in writing to tasks in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish – short answer format;

• respond in writing to tasks in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish – extended answer format;

• respond by transferring meaning from Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish into English.

Section C: Writing

Candidates should be able to:

• write an essay in Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish, presenting, developing and evaluating information, ideas and arguments on a topic related to one of the sub-topics of the A2 topic areas.

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For tasks related to text 1 and/or 2, reading comprehension is assessed on a point-by-point mark scheme; for tasks related to text 3, reading comprehension is assessed on a point-by-point mark scheme and on Quality of Language (Accuracy) (Grid C.2). For tasks related to text 4, candidates are assessed on Comprehension of text; Response to Text as well as Quality of Language (Accuracy and Range) (Grids I; J; C.2; F.2).

*Non-verbal responses – candidates respond without producing Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish. Examples of task types are matching, box-ticking and single word response.

Candidates listen to three recorded texts lasting up to five minutes in total.

Some tasks require non-verbal responses* and some require answers in English.

Listening comprehension is assessed on a point-by-point mark scheme.

There is also a transfer of meaning task from English into Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish related to the third listening text.

For this task candidates are assessed on Communication and Quality of Language (Accuracy) (Grid H.1; C.2).

Section B: Reading and Writing (100 marks) (Recommended time for this section: 1 hour 30 min)

Candidates read three or four texts and respond to a variety of tasks:

Section A: Listening and Writing (60 marks) (Recommended time for this section: 1 hour)

4 Schemes of Assessment

2. Advanced GCE Scheme of Assessment

Reading and listening materials used in the A Level units are drawn from the topic areas listed pp 8-9 and are firmly rooted in the culture of the target-language country(ies).

A2 Unit F882 Dutch/F884 Gujarati/F886 Persian/F888 Portuguese/F890 Turkish Listening,

3. Unit Order

The normal order in which the unit assessments could be taken is AS Units F881/F883/F885/F887/F889 in the first year of study, leading to an AS GCE award, then A2 Units F882/F884/F886/F888/F890 leading to the Advanced GCE award. However, the unit assessments may be taken in any order.

Alternatively, candidates may take a valid combination of unit assessments at the end of their AS GCE or Advanced GCE course in a ‘linear’ fashion.

4. Unit Options (at AS/A2)

There are no unit options in these specifications.

5. Synoptic Assessment (A Level GCE)

In modern languages knowledge, understanding and skills are inextricably linked. Synoptic assessment therefore covers not just knowledge of the language but also the skills necessary to use it, skills that are developed in different parts of the A Level course. Synoptic assessment in Modern Languages therefore draws on all three A Level assessment objectives.

In these Advanced GCE specifications, synoptic assessment is included wholly in the A Level Units F882/F884/F886/F888/F890.

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6. Assessment Availability

There is one examination series each year in June.

From 2014, both AS units and A2 units will be assessed in June only.

7. Assessment Objectives

Candidates are expected to demonstrate the following in the context of the content described:

AO1 Understand and respond in writing to spoken language.

AO2 Understand and respond in writing to written language.

AO3 Show knowledge of, and apply accurately, the grammar and syntax prescribed in the specification.

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AO weightings in AS GCE

	Unit		% of AS GCE				Total
		AO1		AO2		AO3
AS Unit F881 Dutch/F883 Gujarati/F885		25	50			25	100%
Persian/F887 Portuguese/F889 Turkish Listening,
Reading and Writing 1

AO weightings in Advanced GCE

	Unit		% of Advanced GCE				Total
				AO1	AO2	AO3
	AS Unit F881 Dutch/F883 Gujarati/F885		12.5		25	12.5	50%
	Persian/F887 Portuguese/F889 Turkish Listening,
	Reading and Writing 1
	A2 Unit F882 Dutch/F884 Gujarati/F886
	Persian/F888 Portuguese/F890 Turkish Listening,		8.75		28.75	12.5	50%
	Reading and Writing 2
				21.25%	53.75%	25%	100%

8. Quality of Written Communication

In modern foreign languages Quality of Written Communication Strand (i) is addressed in the transfer of meaning from Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish into English task at A Level in Units F882/F884/F886/F888/F890 and is integrated in Grid H.2, Transfer of Meaning.

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5. Technical Information

5. 1. Making Unit Entries

Please note that centres must be registered with OCR in order to make any entries, including estimated entries. It is recommended that centres apply to OCR to become a registered centre well in advance of making their first entries. Centres must have made an entry for a unit in order for OCR to supply the appropriate forms. It is essential that unit entry codes (the four-figure alpha-numeric codes given in brackets at the end of the unit title) are quoted in all correspondence with OCR. See Sections 4.1 and 4.2 for these unit entry codes.

2. Making Qualification Entries

Candidates must enter for qualification certification separately from unit assessment(s). If a certification entry is not made, no overall grade can be awarded.

Candidates may enter for:

• AS GCE certification (Dutch/Gujarati/Persian/Portuguese/Turkish entry codes H193/H194/H195/H196/H197).

• Advanced GCE certification (Dutch/Gujarati/Persian/Portuguese/Turkish entry codes H593/H594/H595/H596/H597).

A candidate who has completed all the units required for the qualification, and who did not request certification at the time of entry, may enter for certification either in the same examination series (within a specified period after publication of results) or at a later series.

AS GCE certification is available from June 2014.

Advanced GCE certification is available from June 2014.

3. Grading

All GCE units are awarded a–e. The Advanced Subsidiary GCE is awarded on the scale A–E. The Advanced GCE is awarded on the scale A–E with access to an A*. To be awarded an A*, candidates will need to achieve a grade A on their full A level qualification and an A* on their A2 unit. Grades are reported on certificates. Results for candidates who fail to achieve the minimum grade (E or e) will be recorded as unclassified (U or u) and this is not certificated.

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A Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) enables comparison of candidates’ performance across units and across series and enables candidates’ scores to be put on a common scale for aggregation purposes. The one-unit AS GCE has a total of 200 uniform marks and the two-unit Advanced GCE has a total of 400 uniform marks.

OCR converts each raw mark for each unit to a uniform mark. The maximum uniform mark for any unit depends on that unit’s weighting in the specification. In these specifications, the two units of the Advanced GCE specification have an equal 50% UMS weighting and the uniform mark total for each is 200. Each unit’s raw mark grade boundary equates to the uniform mark boundary at the same grade. Intermediate marks are converted on a pro-rata basis.

Uniform marks correspond to unit grades as follows:

(Advanced	Maximum			Unit Grade			u
GCE)	Unit Uniform	a	b	c	d	e
Unit	Mark
Weighting
50%	200	200-160	159-140	139-120	119-100	99-80	79-0

OCR adds together the unit uniform marks and compares these to pre-set boundaries (see the table below) to arrive at qualification grades.

Qualification			Qualification Grade
	A	B	C	D	E	U
AS GCE	200-160	159-140	139-120	119-100	99-80	79-0
Advanced	400-320	319-280	279-240	239-200	199-160	159-0
GCE

For full details of the Units and weightings, see Appendix A.

4. Result Enquiries and Appeals

Under certain circumstances, a centre may wish to query the grade available to one or more candidates or to submit an appeal against an outcome of such an enquiry. Enquiries about unit results must be made immediately following the series in which the relevant unit was taken.

For procedures relating to enquiries on results and appeals, centres should consult the OCR

Handbook for Centres and the document Enquiries about Results and Appeals – Information and Guidance for Centres produced by the Joint Council. Copies of the most recent editions of these papers can be obtained from OCR.

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5. Shelf-Life of Units

Individual unit results, prior to certification of the qualification, have a shelf-life limited only by that of the qualification.

6. Unit and Qualification Re-sits

There is no restriction on the number of times a candidate may re-sit each unit before entering for certification for an AS GCE or Advanced GCE.

Candidates may enter for the full qualifications an unlimited number of times.

7. Guided Learning Hours

AS GCE Dutch/Gujarati/Persian/Portuguese/Turkish requires 180 guided learning hours in total. Advanced GCE Dutch/Gujarati/Persian/Portuguese/Turkish requires 360 guided learning hours in total.

8. Code of Practice/Subject Criteria/Common Criteria Requirements

These specifications comply in all respects with current GCSE, GCE, GNVQ and AEA Code of Practice as available on the QCA website, the subject criteria for GCE Modern Foreign Languages and The Statutory Regulation of External Qualifications 2004.

9. Arrangements for Candidates with Particular Requirements

For candidates who are unable to complete the full assessment or whose performance may be adversely affected through no fault of their own, teachers should consult the Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations. In such cases advice should be sought from OCR as early as possible during the course.

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5.10 Prohibited Qualifications and Classification Code

Candidates who enter for the OCR GCE specifications may not also enter for any other GCE specification with the certification title Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish in the same examination series.

Every specification is assigned to a national classification code indicating the subject area to which it belongs.

Centres should be aware that candidates who enter for more than one GCE qualification with the same classification code will have only one grade (the highest) counted for the purpose of the School and College Achievement and Attainment Tables.

The classification codes for these specifications are:

• Dutch 5630

• Gujarati 5970

• Persian 6150

• Portuguese 5730

• Turkish 6110

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6 Other Specification Issues

4. Spiritual, Moral, Ethical, Social, Legislative, Economic and Cultural Issues

These specifications can contribute to an understanding of these issues during the study of relevant language topic areas.

5. Sustainable Development, Health and Safety Considerations and European Developments

Consistent with current EU regulations, these specifications necessarily address the issues of Health and Safety considerations, sustainable development and European development as part of the study of relevant Language topic areas.

6. Avoidance of Bias

OCR has taken great care in the preparation of these specifications and assessment materials to avoid bias of any kind.

7. Language

Whilst the language being assessed is Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese or Turkish, this specification is designed for learners whose native language is English and so English is the carrier language for all parts of the scheme of assessment.

8. Performance Descriptions

Standards of performance at the key grades at AS and A Level have been agreed on a national basis and published by the QCA.

For full details, see Appendix D.

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9. Disability Discrimination Act Information Relating to these Specifications

AS/A Levels often require assessment of a broad range of competences. This is because they are general qualifications and, as such, prepare candidates for a wide range of occupations and higher level courses.

The revised AS/A Level qualification and subject criteria were reviewed to identify whether any of the competences required by the subject presented a potential barrier to any disabled candidates. If this was the case, the situation was reviewed again to ensure that such competences were included only where essential to the subject. The findings of this process were discussed with disability groups and with disabled people.

Reasonable adjustments are made for disabled candidates in order to enable them to access the assessments. For this reason, very few candidates will have a complete barrier to any part of the assessment. Information on reasonable adjustments is found in Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations produced by the Joint Council (refer to Section 5.9 of this specification).

Candidates who are still unable to access a significant part of the assessment, even after exploring all possibilities through reasonable adjustments, may still be able to receive an award. They would be given a grade on the parts of the assessment they have taken and there would be an indication on their certificate that not all of the competences have been addressed. This will be kept under review and may be amended in the future.

A Level Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese and Turkish require assessment of the skills of listening, reading and writing. Some candidates may have difficulty in accessing aspects of the assessment, where reasonable adjustments cannot be applied, as follows:

• Listening – some candidates with a hearing impairment and who cannot lip read

• Reading – some candidates with a visual impairment who cannot read Braille.