Reaction to 2026 Leaving Certificate German (Higher Level) by Orla Ní Shúilleabháin, German teacher at The Institute of Education.
- Asked students to reflect upon the experiences of young people
- A balance of familiar themes and the creative topics
This paper will feel very recognisable to students of the German, not just in its choice of themes and scenarios but also in its ethos. The exam setter always challenges students to think on the spot and be innovative. The necessary vocabulary will often be familiar, but students will always be asked to reconfigure it into novel scenarios that reflect a much more individual grasp of life through the lens of language. Those who hope to recite whole paragraphs from memory will struggle, but those who tap into the pulse of the subject will fly it.
The first comprehension was a gentle narrative of a young girl learning to love reading. The vocabulary was accessible and even when the more obscure phrases appeared, a glossary was supplied. There was ample characterisation material for the style question and the grammar question on labelling nouns will be familiar from past papers. The second text was an innovative take on the accommodation crisis, this time from the perspective of innovative solutions around Europe. These initiatives ranged from self-governing communities through to repurposed shipping containers. Here the questions got trickier as students will have needed to be attentive to the tenses of their answers in order to accurately reflect the evolution of the topic over time.
The compositions offered a balanced mixture of the familiar and the creative. Many aspects will relate to material from the orals but modified for a fresh context. The first piece was on studying abroad (a perennially interesting topics for young people facing into a new era of their education) but also included sections on reunions, the attendance of teachers at said reunion and what you would or would ask their friends in 10 years. While all of these may have crossed a student’s mind it is unlikely that they would have a pre-composed piece to recite. This is always the case for German as the exam consistently denies access to rote-learned passages. Entering the exam with rigid expectations is never a viable strategy, you must meet the pulse of the paper where it is on the day.
The letter will have challenged students with its specificity. The topic choices ranged from a digital detox of social media, a very tense specific account of their exams, Ireland’s sporting ability, our international renown, free events for young people, what should be free for young people, and the potential gender separation for certain subjects in school (which ones and why). Such an assortment will require students to draw together a disparate array of material on the spot. The essay option has a comparable selection of topics: travelling without parents, public photos on social media, how we consume TV series and learning other languages. What is perhaps most notable is that two popular topics were name-checked but not asked about: A.I. and the World Cup. Both are mentioned as part of preambles but not as topics on which to to write. Some students who simply scanned the paper for key words will have potentially found themselves lured off task.
The aural was accessible. The first section was a very well-paced discussion of professional lorry driving. The second section was more challenging as the vocabulary around driving school might be less familiar. Student accommodation and community returned again in Section 3 in a piece that should suit all students. While Section 4 was balanced, the majority of the challenge in the item one a bridge collapse.
The reoccurring motif of this paper was “young people”, the people sitting the exam today. This was a paper that asked students to look at their own experiences and reflect on matters to them. There was no call to recite passages detached from context or nuance. This paper was truly about the lived experiences of the people who learned that language and those who met it knowing that core ethos will be very pleased.