People taking their First Langauge at A-Level

In my college there are a few people that are taking their first language at A-Level i.e. Chinese taking Chinese A-level or Germans doing German A-levels etc. It seems to me that being that it is their first language this would be an incredibly easy way of getting good grades for access into Uni. Or would you say that it is the same as an English person taking English A-level?

Just wondered what your opinions are on this??

Reply 1

dogtanian

MFL A Levels are very different to an English A Level. So it's not considered the same in that respect.

A lot of universities won't include a mother tongue language A Level in an offer.

Reply 2

supercat

I've heard it's really hard to do well in a foreign language subject which is your mother tongue, because you don't know what the examiners are looking for etc.

Reply 3

Fleece

it's not as easy as you'd imagine. I mean translating exercises require adeptness in English, which is their foreign language...
Plus, just like many many MANY (if TSR is anything to go by) English people who can't speak English properly/don't have a grasp of the language/constructs/grammar etc, it's the same for foreign people too.

I had a German girl in my German class at uni and she got stuff wrong too.

Reply 4

stoney

well at any rate it is much easier for them (granted it may not be a walk in the park for the afore mentioned reasons) however there really is no point in some ways, easy or not most universities will not accept a MFL that is your mother language so that A grade becomes a bit of a waste of a subject choice

Reply 5

Monkey_Boy

Oh i didn't realise most unis would not accept them. The people i have heard talk about it are expecting a good grade to boost their ucas points :eek: