LEAVING CERT SPANISH: HIGHER AND ORDINARY LEVEL:IT MUST be some kind of record but the Beliebers will have been rejoicing again as their hero made his second appearance in as many weeks on the State examination papers.
After his debut appearance on the Junior Cert Irish paper a week and a half ago, pop phenomenon Justin Bieber cropped up again on the Leaving Cert ordinary level Spanish paper yesterday.
The comprehension piece, along with the rest of the paper, was well pitched for ordinary level students, according to ASTI representative Máire Ní Chiarba, a teacher in Coláiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire.
Other comprehension topics concerned an elderly man who was reunited with his car after forgetting where he parked it two years previously, and the richest dog in the world.
The written expression section in which students had to write an email, as well as a note or a diary entry, was “fine,” Ms Ní Chiarba said.
Reaction of students to the higher level paper was “extremely positive”. However there was disappointment in the letter topic given. Students were asked to write to a Spanish newspaper about the role of royalty in today’s world.
“The topic threw them,” Ms Ní Chiarba said. “I didn’t meet any student who actually did the letter.”
The rest of the higher level paper was good, Ms Ní Chiarba said. Comprehension extracts included a literary piece by Josep Lorman, a journalistic piece about a killer whale, an article about the problem of people not paying in restaurants, a 12-day traffic jam in China and an article about emigration from Mexico.
Reaction on the social networks was fairly positive although the listening comprehension section came in for some criticism. There was a problem in one of the sections where the paper indicated there would be an audio pause, but it failed to materialise.