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A-Level Portuguese in England is a Pearson Edexcel qualification, specification 9PG0, Issue 1, March 2018, first taught from September 2018 and first certificated in 2020. Its full title is Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Portuguese (listening, reading and writing), and that parenthesis is the single most important structural fact about the course: there is no speaking paper. Speaking is named in the qualification's aims — students should be encouraged to develop it during the course of study, and each paper's assessment information repeats the point — but it is nowhere assessed, and every mark is earned by listening, reading, translating and writing. This is a different qualification from the Edexcel languages that do carry a speaking paper, and different again from the AQA modern-language A-Levels, so the folklore attached to either is unreliable here. There are three externally examined papers, all taken in the same May/June series. Paper 1, Translation into English, reading comprehension and writing (research question) in Portuguese, runs two hours thirty minutes, carries 80 marks and is worth 40 per cent: Section A is an unseen translation from Portuguese into English for 20 marks, Section B is reading for 20 marks over four questions, and Section C is the research question for 40 marks, in which the student reads an unseen Portuguese text and responds to a statement about their own researched subject in roughly 270 to 320 words of Portuguese. Paper 2, Translation into Portuguese and written response to works, runs two hours forty minutes, carries 110 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Section A is an unseen translation from English into Portuguese for 20 marks, and Sections B and C carry two extended essays of 45 marks each, either two on literary texts or one on a literary text and one on a film. Paper 3, Listening, reading and writing in Portuguese, runs two hours fifteen minutes, carries 60 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Section A is listening comprehension for 30 marks, with individual control of the recording, and Section B is a 30-mark question in which the student summarises one heard source and one read source on the same sub-theme and then evaluates the views in both. The content is four themes, each broken into two sub-themes and one research subject, each of those divided into aspects, and the specification prints all of them in Portuguese. Tema 1, Mudanças na sociedade contemporânea, covers the changing family and the world of work; Tema 2, Cultura política e artística nos países de língua portuguesa, covers the media and music; Tema 3, Movimentos migratórios, covers immigration into Portugal and emigration from it in the twenty-first century; Tema 4, Como a História moldou a Política, covers the Salazar dictatorship and the passage from dictatorship to democracy. The scoping rule is unusual and load-bearing: Temas 1, 3 and 4 are set in the context of Portugal only, while Tema 2 is set in the wider Portuguese-speaking world, that is any country or area where Portuguese is an official language, Portugal included. The independent research is examined inside Paper 1 Section C: the student chooses exactly one of the four research subjects, bases it on exactly one country or area, covers all three of that subject's aspects, and sits the examination with no dictionary and no research documentation. Alongside the themes sit a prescribed grammar list in Appendix 2 — the whole indicative tense system including the synthetic pluperfect, five subjunctive tenses including the future subjunctive, the personal or inflected infinitive, the placement and contraction of weak object pronouns, ser, estar and ficar, por and para — and two declared works from the board's list of five literary texts and four films. Assessment objectives are weighted 20 per cent AO1, 30 per cent AO2, 30 per cent AO3 and 20 per cent AO4, and no dictionary is permitted in any paper. One further rule is easy to miss and worth knowing from the first week, because it settles a question that troubles every Portuguese classroom: all questions in every paper are set in Portuguese and must be answered in either European Portuguese and/or Brazilian Portuguese. The board does not require a variety. It requires that the Portuguese be accurate.

0/60 Texts12 Chapters~469 min total

Continue reading — Chapter I Table of contents

Pearson Edexcel 9PG0 Tema 1 — Mudanças na estrutura familiar: mudanças nas atitudes face ao matrimónio e às relações pessoais; os novos tipos de família; o papel da família alargadaDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languagesPearson Edexcel 9PG0 Tema 1 — O mundo do trabalho: a vida laboral e atitudes face ao trabalhoPearson Edexcel 9PG0 Tema 1 — O mundo do trabalho: o desempregoPearson Edexcel 9PG0 Tema 1 — O mundo do trabalho: a igualdade de géneroPearson Edexcel 9PG0 Tema 1 — Tema de pesquisa: A importância da educação após o ensino secundário em Portugal: opções no ensino superior e técnico; estágios; voluntariado+70 moreStandardAdvanced

Table of contents · 12 ChaptersT·12

Ch. IMudanças na sociedade contemporânea: a família e o mundo do trabalho5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IIMovimentos migratórios: imigração, emigração e o êxodo rural5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IIIOs media: liberdade de expressão, imprensa e o seu impacto5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IVMúsica e Lusofonia: mudança, evolução e os festivais5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VA ditadura de Salazar: a PIDE, a censura e o declínio do regime5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIDa ditadura à democracia: o 25 de Abril, o MFA e a Europa5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIGramática e tradução: the two translations and the grammar list behind them5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIICompreensão do oral: Paper 3 and the whole of AO15 texts · 0 read

Ch. IXCompreensão da leitura: Paper 1 Section B and the reading half of Paper 35 texts · 0 read

Ch. XA obra literária: Paper 2 Section B and the 45-mark essay5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIO filme: Paper 2 Section C and writing about what you saw5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIIO tema de pesquisa: Paper 1 Section C, the largest task in the qualification5 texts · 0 read

Instrument · 01Recommended study order

Instrument · 02Exam structure

Paper 1 - Translation into English, reading comprehension and writing (research question) in Portuguese (9PG0/01): Written examination of 2 hours 30 minutes, 80 marks, 40 per cent of the A-Level - the largest single component. Three compulsory sections. Section A, translation into English, 20 marks with a recommended 20 minutes: one unseen Portuguese passage rendered into English, its content drawn from any one of the eight sub-themes, marked by a points-based scheme in which one mark is given for each correct individual section of language. Section B, reading, 20 marks with a recommended 45 minutes: four questions, a mixture of multiple-choice and open-response, on texts that are authentic or adapted from authentic sources and that mix factual with abstract content - contemporary, historical, literary, fiction and non-fiction, written for different purposes and audiences, drawn across all the sub-themes, and including an extended passage. Section C, writing (the research question), 40 marks with a recommended 1 hour 25 minutes: the student reads one unseen Portuguese text on their chosen research subject and responds to a statement about it, using information from the text together with their own research findings, in a recommended 270 to 320 words. Section C is marked by three levels-based grids applied to the one answer: knowledge and understanding of society and culture through research (AO4) out of 20, understand and respond to written language (AO2) out of 10, and accuracy and range of language (AO3) out of 10. The AO4 and AO2 grids are printed side by side in the specification precisely because the two feed each other. Because a Tema 2 unseen text is written to be equally relevant to any Portuguese-speaking country or area, the country-specific substance can only come from the student's own research. All questions in Sections B and C are set in Portuguese and must be answered in either European Portuguese and/or Brazilian Portuguese. No dictionary, and no documentation relating to the research, may be taken into the examination room. This paper assesses synopticity. Its assessment-objective share is 25 per cent AO2, 10 per cent AO4 and 5 per cent AO3, so it carries five sixths of the qualification's reading marks and half of its cultural-knowledge marks. One drafting inconsistency is worth knowing rather than silently resolving: the paper's own assessment information gives the Section C length as approximately 270 to 320 words, while the generic marking-guidance boilerplate reproduced later in the same document says 300 to 350. Treat the paper-specific instruction as operative, and note that both statements agree the whole response is marked regardless of length.
Paper 2 - Translation into Portuguese and written response to works (9PG0/02): Written examination of 2 hours 40 minutes, 110 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. Section A, translation into Portuguese, 20 marks with a recommended 30 minutes: one unseen English passage rendered into Portuguese, its content drawn from any one of the eight sub-themes, marked point by point exactly as Paper 1 Section A is. Sections B and C, written response to works, 90 marks across a recommended 2 hours 10 minutes: two extended essays of 45 marks each. Section B holds the literary texts and Section C the films. A student may answer on two literary texts, in which case they answer twice in Section B and do not enter Section C; or on one literary text and one film, in which case they answer once in each. Answering on two films is not permitted. There is a choice of two questions on each work. Each essay is marked out of 45 by three separate levels-based grids applied to it individually: critical and analytical response (AO4), range of grammatical structures and vocabulary (AO3), and accuracy of language (AO3). Pearson advises approximately 300 to 350 words per essay as a guide to the depth of analysis expected, but the whole essay is marked regardless of length. Responses are expected to address features such as the form and technique of presentation, key themes, concepts and issues, characterisation, the structure of the plot, and the social and cultural setting, and to justify every point of view with evidence from the work itself. No credit is given for an essay on a literary text whose evidence comes from a film adaptation of that text. All questions in Sections A, B and C are set in Portuguese and must be answered in either European Portuguese and/or Brazilian Portuguese. No dictionaries, and no documentation relating to the works, may be taken into the examination room. The paper's assessment-objective share is 20 per cent AO3 and 10 per cent AO4, which makes it the qualification's accuracy-and-range paper: two thirds of all AO3 marks are earned here.
Paper 3 - Listening, reading and writing in Portuguese (9PG0/03): Written examination of 2 hours 15 minutes, 60 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. This is the paper that stands where a speaking test would stand in the Edexcel languages that have one, and it is the only place where listening is assessed at all. Two compulsory sections. Section A, listening comprehension, 30 marks with a recommended 45 minutes: four questions, multiple-choice and open-response, including questions that test summary skills, on a recording featuring male and female Portuguese speakers at a speed appropriate to the level, with material drawn across all the sub-themes and sources including online media. Recordings reach centres as a CD or as MP3 files through Pearson's secure download service, and each student has individual control of the playback: they may stop, revisit and replay sections of the recording as they wish. Section B, the listening, reading and writing question, 30 marks with a recommended 1 hour 30 minutes: the student listens to a recording and reads a written text, both on the same sub-theme, summarises the different points of view in each source, and then writes an evaluation of those viewpoints, saying which they agree with and why, in a recommended 200 to 250 words. Questions 5(a) and 5(b), the two summaries, are points-based; question 5(c), the evaluation, is marked by three levels-based grids - understand and respond to spoken language (AO1) out of 6, understand and respond to written language (AO2) out of 6, and accuracy and range of language (AO3). All questions in both sections are set in Portuguese and must be answered in either European Portuguese and/or Brazilian Portuguese. No dictionary. This paper assesses synopticity, and it carries the whole of the qualification's AO1 weighting: 20 of the 20 available AO1 percentage points, plus 5 per cent AO2 and 5 per cent AO3.
The four themes, the research subjects, the works, the grammar list and the rules that catch people out: The content is four themes, each broken into two sub-themes and one research subject, and each of those divided into three aspects. The scoping rule is the one most often got wrong: Temas 1, 3 and 4 are set in the context of Portugal only and cover society past and present (1 and 3) and political culture past and present (4); Tema 2 is set in the wider Portuguese-speaking world, that is the countries and areas where Portuguese is an official language, Portugal included, and covers artistic culture through music, festivals and traditions together with political culture through the media. Tema 1, Mudanças na sociedade contemporânea, holds Mudanças na estrutura familiar (changing attitudes to marriage and to personal relationships; the new kinds of family; the role of the extended family) and O mundo do trabalho (working life and attitudes to work; unemployment; gender equality), with the research subject A importância da educação após o ensino secundário em Portugal (options in higher and technical education; internships; volunteering). Tema 2, Cultura política e artística nos países de língua portuguesa, holds Os media (freedom of expression; the written and online press; the impact on society and on politics) and Música (change and evolution; the impact of music on popular culture; music festivals), with the research subject Lusofonia no mundo atual (uniting the Portuguese-official countries through the CPLP, the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa; cultural events that celebrate Lusofonia; the enrichment of the Portuguese language through linguistic diversity). Tema 3, Movimentos migratórios, holds A imigração e a sociedade multicultural portuguesa (marginalisation and alienation from the immigrants' own perspective; the steps towards integration; immigration's contribution to culture and society) and Emigração de Portugal no século XXI (the reasons for emigrating; the impact on society; the contribution of returning emigrants), with the research subject Movimento migratório em Portugal (the rural exodus; work opportunities in the city and in the countryside; access to training in the city and in the countryside). Tema 4, Como a História moldou a Política, holds A ditadura de Salazar (the PIDE, the Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado, and censorship; the impact of the dictatorship on the society of the time; the dictatorship in decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s) and Da ditadura à democracia (the twenty-fifth of April and the Revolução dos Cravos; the movement of the Armed Forces; Portugal in the European Community), with the research subject Os Descobrimentos: a viagem de Vasco da Gama à Índia (the importance of securing a trade route to India; Lisbon as the commercial centre of sixteenth-century Europe; the impact of that voyage on the Portuguese society of the time). Independent research means research carried out without the help or instruction of others, including teachers: teachers may teach research skills and comment on the availability of sources, but must not teach the content of the research subjects or supply sources. The student must gather evidence independently from at least two authentic sources in Portuguese, must base the research on one country or area only, must cover all three aspects, and must not touch either of the works studied for Paper 2. The specification instructs teachers to weigh cultural sensitivities when guiding a choice, and to make sure enough material exists in the language for the country chosen. The two works are taken from Appendix 1, which lists five literary texts - A cidade e as serras by Eça de Queirós, a novel of 1901; A viagem do elefante by José Saramago, a novel of 2008; Antes do Baile Verde by Lygia Fagundes Telles, short stories of 1970; Capitães da Areia by Jorge Amado, a novel of 1937; and Pensageiro frequente by Mia Couto, short essays of 2010 - and four feature films: Abril Despedaçado directed by Walter Salles (2001), A Canção de Lisboa directed by Pedro Varela (2016), Os gatos não têm vertigens directed by António-Pedro Vasconcelos (2014), and Que horas ela volta? directed by Anna Muylaert (2015). The list is deliberately transnational: three of the nine works are Brazilian, one is Mozambican, and every candidate should notice that the board's own reading of Portuguese literature is not confined to Portugal. Prescribed lists are set by the board and revised between issues, so every candidate must confirm the list current for their own series. Appendix 2 prescribes the grammar: nouns, articles, adjectives and their agreement and position, numerals with agreement and time expressions using há and desde há, adverbs, quantifiers, the full pronoun system including the position, order and contraction of weak object pronouns, regular, radical-changing, orthography-changing and irregular verbs in all tenses and moods, modes of address from tu through você to o senhor, the whole indicative including the synthetic pluperfect in -ra and the progressive forms estou a estudar and estou estudando, the infinitive, gerund and past participle, the perfect infinitive and the personal or inflected infinitive, all five subjunctive tenses including the future subjunctive with its long list of triggers, the three passives, ser, estar and ficar, all simple and compound prepositions with por and para singled out, conjunctions, negation, questions, formal and informal commands, word order, comparative constructions, indirect speech, connectives, discourse markers, fillers, and - listed for receptive knowledge - the common grammatical differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese. Assessment objectives: AO1, understand and respond in writing to spoken language, 20 per cent; AO2, understand and respond in writing to written language, 30 per cent; AO3, manipulate the language accurately in written forms using a range of lexis and structure, 30 per cent; AO4, show knowledge and understanding of, and respond critically and analytically to, different aspects of the culture and society of the countries where the language is spoken, 20 per cent. The qualification is linear, taken entirely at the end of the course, and no dictionary is permitted anywhere. A house policy on spelling and variety, adopted across these notes and grounded in what the specification actually says: the explanatory prose is in English and the Portuguese is written in European Portuguese under the Acordo Ortográfico de 1990, because the qualification is Portugal-centred in three of its four themes and the Acordo is the orthography in legal force in Portugal and in Brazil. That is a house choice, not a board requirement. The board's rule is that every answer may be written in either European Portuguese and/or Brazilian Portuguese, and Appendix 2 lists the common grammatical differences between the two for receptive knowledge only. Where a Brazilian form differs and matters, these notes name it. Where a pre-Acordo spelling will be met in reading - and it will be, because every text in every paper is authentic and four of the five prescribed literary texts were published before the Acordo existed - these notes say so.

Instrument · 03Official sources