Introduction to Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin 25 April 2008 Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Jim McDonald Qualifications Manager NQ Languages Fan Lin NQ Development Officer

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Aims of the event To familiarise delegates with structure and delivery of Course Units To explore approaches to assessment of Units

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Structure of the event Presentation Workshop

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Fan Lin National Qualifications Development Officer Chinese Languages

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin National CourseSCQF Advanced Higher7 Higher6 Intermediate 25 Intermediate 14 Access 33 Introduction to Chinese Languages National Courses: Qualifications Framework

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Overview of Course National Course (NC) in Access 3 consists of three Units: Personal Language Transactional Language Language in Work

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Overview of Course (cont.) Each Unit lasts approximately 40 hours The Course also contains a notional extra 40 hours, which includes time for assessment Overall, Course delivered in approximately 160 hours

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Overview of Course (cont.) There is no externally assessed examination for NC Access 3 The three Course Units combine to create a Course Award for candidates Units can be done individually, and certificated

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment Each Unit has a range of Outcomes, which indicate the skills to be assessed For each Unit there are a maximum of three Outcomes

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment (cont.) Within the Outcomes, the Performance Criteria give precise detail of what must be covered The Outcomes also detail the Evidence Requirements for each assessment area

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment (cont.) Skills assessed across the Outcomes: Speaking Reading Listening Writing does not have to be assessed but can be part of learning and teaching activities

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment (cont.) Each Unit assesses the range of skills The skills (Speaking, Reading, Listening) can be assessed: separately or in a combined assessment

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Assessment Support A Unit Specification is available for each Unit. This Specification is generic across all languages Unit Specifications can be downloaded by SQA Co- ordinators from the secure area of SQAs website The Unit Specifications form the Arrangements document for the Access 3 Course The Arrangements for Access 3 Courses can be downloaded at

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Assessment Support (cont.) The Unit Specification includes exemplification of approaches to assessment This includes assessment approaches for Chinese languages

Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approval All candidates for NQ Courses (including Access 3) must be entered by an SQA Approved Centre Centres wishing to seek Approval should contact SQA Customer Contact Centre at

Workshop Activities Activity 1 Familiarisation with Units Activity 2 Assessment Approaches

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