What to expect from WJEC FR1 oral?

Hi,

I'm pretty new at this, but I'm currently in high school. I'm preparing to take AS French in the summer (all three exams), but my oral is coming up on 29 April and I don't know what the format of the exam will be.

I understand that there are three "topic areas" (leisure, school and issues of young people I think) and that within those there are subtopics like sport, hobbies and travel/tourism within "leisure". From what I can gather from the spec I need to prepare one subtopic from each topic, and the examiner will ask me about 2 of the 3. Apparently I'll also need to "demonstrate an understanding of French culture" :s-smilie:

.

My main questions are:

-Will it be a structured discussion, or will the direction of the conversation depend on the examiner's mood on the day?
-Am I right in thinking it's only three subtopics, or is it the whole topic?
-How can I prepare for this if I don't know what the conversation will be like (I can't exactly learn a script like we can at GCSE)

And the biggie...

-What do I need to do to demonstrate an understanding of French culture?? :confused:

My teacher hasn't done WJEC before, my contact at the college I'm working with is away on holiday and I'm (hopefully) going over there on Monday for a lesson so I'd like to be able to get somewhere with this to check with her I'm on the right track.

Any help would be much appreciated - I'll be eternally grateful for all answers!

Thanks

Reply 1

city_chic

Muppety_Kid

I had it last year. I'll try to answer your questions :smile:

-Will it be a structured discussion, or will the direction of the conversation depend on the examiner's mood on the day?
It'll depend on the examiner really. They may have prepared some obvious Qs for you. For example if you do smoking they'll probably ask 'why do young people in France smoke?' etc. So in that respect it's worth preparing answers to Qs like that. But the discussion will depend on your answers as well. You may answer with something that the examiner decides to extend on, and may probe you for more information.

-Am I right in thinking it's only three subtopics, or is it the whole topic?
For me, it was only two topics. I chose smoking and tourism. We got told to prepare three just in case, but for everyone the examiner only decided to do two. If you're an able linguist and can prolong the discussion on each topic (by answering quite lengthily etc) then you'll most likely only cover two. However if you're the sort of person who answers with just one sentence as you can't really explain your ideas in French well, then learn three topics well (if your first two are over with sooner than expected, then your examiner may well go on to a third one). I'm not sure on what exactly you mean by 'only three subtopics and not the whole topic,' but as a general rule you choose two/three specific topics that you want to talk about.

-How can I prepare for this if I don't know what the conversation will be like (I can't exactly learn a script like we can at GCSE)
To an extent you can prepare. I wrote a script of sorts, basically answers to Qs that I knew she'd probaby ask. It definitely helped, as when she asked a Q I'd expected and prepared, I had a lot of things to say. You can't exactly memorise a set script and reel it off, as the conversation and your answers will depend on the examiner's specific Qs. But, you can also sway the topic to something you've prepared. For example, if the examiner asks you what the negatives of tourism in France are, you can state them, and then give an example of a specific region you may have studied and prepared.

-What do I need to do to demonstrate an understanding of French culture??
Basically just relate everything you say to France (the examiner's Qs will most likely do this anyway). If you're talking about smoking for example, state the French smoking ban, or give figures on how many French people smoke.

Hope I've helped :smile:

If you've got any more Qs, quote this message and I'll try and help further.

Reply 2

Muppety_Kid

The Lyceum

Herpes.

Yeah, very mature *rolls eyes*. It's not my fault they're called oral exams and some people on here have the sense of humour of a fourteen year old...

Thanks very much City_Chic - all I meant about the part with the subtopics is do I need to prepare one small part of "Leisure" (e.g. my hobbies), or do I need to talk about the leisure activities of the French in general? You've already answered this when you said you did smoking - that's only a small area within the category that is "issues of young people", so thankfully I'm not expected to know stuff on all fifteen of the subtopics :smile:

.

Please can you clarify the part about relating everything to France? For example, would it be OK within hobbies to say that the French are into a style of music called "le Slam" and to talk about some of the black rappers who created it, or are they looking for more of a "84% of teenagers like listening to music" angle?

Thanks a lot - you've certainly given me more than enough to get started with :biggrin:

Reply 3

Joanna May

Generally, you just need to be prepared to talk for a short amount of time on each topic. They'll say something like "Ah, you want to talk about X, tell me about it" and you give them a short blast of what you've learned. They interject and ask you questions about it, and the answers you give take the conversation in a different route. You do need some statistics, but mainly you just need to show knopwledge of culture, ie

You: 68% of people living in the suburbs are unemployed
Examiner: So why do you think that is?
You: Ah, low levels of education, prejudices of employers about religion, the suburbs, etc

You have to show the knowledge, but then explain it. In most cases, you won't use half the statistics your teachers tell you to learn, you'll end up talking more about the things you've picked up on from just reading about the topic.

The examiner will let you order your topics in order of preference, and may only cover two out of the three if you can talk extensively about them.

If they feel you're really good, they will challenge your perspective. For example, in my oral, I was talking about language learning in France and how I felt it was really important and he countered me with "But everyone speaks English, don't they?" to test me. A lot of the conversation, you'll find doesn't necessarily relate to France, more the issues at hand. If they do try and test you a bit, don't panic, it's because they think you're good and can handle it. You won't lose marks for stalling, but if you can respond well you'll gain them.

Reply 4

Muppety_Kid

Thanks very much - that's really useful. I guess it pays to read through some of the "personal stories" in the textbooks then. Perhaps they're not just there as part of the reading comprehension exercises :p:

!

Any recommendations as to which topics to choose?

I travel a fair bit, so I'm inclined to pick that one from leisure, school is the obvious one from education, and I guess the easiest one from issues would be drugs/smoking.

Thanks again everyone - I worship the ground you walk on :adore:

Reply 5

Joanna May

Well I did French and German with WJEC and I picked:

Health: AIDS in Francophone world, the smoking ban in Germany
Tourism/Leisure: General Tourism in France, Strong Females (increase in girls playing sports in Germany)
Education: Language teaching in French schools, Problems in the Hauptschule in Germany

I found it best to pick a topic that was impossible for you not to relate it to Germany. For example, with the Hauptschule one, Hauptschule and their fellow school types don't exist outside Germany, so just saying words like "Hauptschule" was obvious reference to culture.

Pick a narrow area of the topic and talk about it. So, don't just talk about "school" for education, pick an area of their education system that interests you (ie "Are the grande ecoles good for French Higher Education?" or "Is the Bac too broad a curriculum to be useful?"). I found it a lot easier, and it narrows the examiner's chance to ask you something you know nothing about (also, hopefully she won't know too much about the area you've picked, since it's such a speciality)

Reply 6

Muppety_Kid

Danke! (That's the limit of my German :redface:

)

J'espère que nous nous rencontrerons encore un jour (je voulais dire "later", mais le mot qui veut dire "late" est bloqué :p:

)*.

I'd better get going on this...

*Translations: "Danke" = "thanks"
"J'espère que nous nous rencontrerons encore un jour (je voulais dire "later", mais le mot qui veut dire "late" est bloqué)" = "I hope we meet again one day (I wanted to say "later" but the word for that in French is blocked)"

(I'm sure this isn't necessary, but being a new member I put it in to cover myself :smile:

)

Reply 7

city_chic

Muppety_Kid

Thanks very much City_Chic - all I meant about the part with the subtopics is do I need to prepare one small part of "Leisure" (e.g. my hobbies), or do I need to talk about the leisure activities of the French in general? You've already answered this when you said you did smoking - that's only a small area within the category that is "issues of young people", so thankfully I'm not expected to know stuff on all fifteen of the subtopics :smile:

No problem; glad to help :smile:

You could say either of those things, or both if you wanted to. There's no rule on what sort of things you should say. If you have something interesting prepared, go for it! :smile: