Advice for French

I'm going into yr 11, and i'm not that good at french what should i do to improve

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just do your best and ask your french teacher to help as well, they want you to do well too. revise as much as you can for it but don’t overwhelm yourself with it. i’m going into year 12, and for my gcses last year i picked geography and realised i wasn’t great at it either and i didn’t actually like it! but don’t worry, revise the things you struggle with and just do the best you can :smile:

i wish you the best of luck for year 11!

Reply 2

username4162760

Original post by SBizzy

I'm going into yr 11, and i'm not that good at french what should i do to improve

My advice to anyone is to surround yourself in the language as much as possible, reading stuff, listening to music, my laptop/websites/phone/iPod etc r all set to French which also helps :thumbsup:

And see if u can find ppl u can spk to bc spking was the thing I struggled with most

Hope this helps :h:

Reply 3

username3766892

Yo I just got my gcses yesterday and a 9 in French
Buy a revision guide and workbook (i got cgp ones)
Then I took notes of the entire grammar section in my guide and answered questions in the workbook THIS WAS VERY HELPFUL
During this I also took note of any new vocabulary I came across
Also use memrise to learn your vocabulary
Whatever structures the revision guide says is complex and gcse students don't need to use, use them in ur writing exam
In the listening exam, I'd close my eyes to focus, then not write my answer until the second recording had finished
Good luck n remember if u fail it's just gcse French lmao no one cares

Also in ur writing exam GO OVER WHAT U WROTE MULTIPLE TIMES, make sure ur spelling, feminine masculine plurals r correct (cuz so many different types of words have to be modified in French) and remember that every noun needs an article before it, except for jobs.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 4

Vinny C

Original post by SBizzy

I'm going into yr 11, and i'm not that good at french what should i do to improve

Go to France... je le parle bien. You know you are good when the TV starts to make sense.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 5

Vinny C

Think French. talk French... make it fun. Happy to teach

Reply 6

jdijx

Here are some key points that got me an A* in French:
- Make sure you know your different tenses (present, past - avoid and être verbs, imperfect past, future, conditional)
- Make sure you know simple irregular verbs such as "je vais" or "je fais"
- add idioms into your work
- adjectives
- complex phrases (e.g. ...que j'aie jamais vu- that I have ever seen)
- subjunctive (this was actually A level stuff but my teacher recommended us to use it)
- Reflexive verbs (Je m’entends)

I also did this thing where for each topic I had memorised simple phrases. For example, for "Self and Relationships"- il a les mêmes goûts en nourriture que moi or for "Entertainment and Leisure"- je suis allée au cinèma avec... (I didn't really have to memorise this because I already knew my tenses really well but you get the gist) :biggrin:

Reply 7

troubletracking

Learn all the vocab, literally type in GCSE 9-1 *exam board* French into Memrise or Quizlet and learn it (preferably not starting as late as I did :redface:

)

Reply 8

jdijx

Original post by troubletracking

Learn all the vocab, literally type in GCSE 9-1 *exam board* French into Memrise or Quizlet and learn it (preferably not starting as late as I did :redface:

)

^^ Completely forgot to mention this in my post, but it's so important that you do- esp. for the reading and listening exams. Lmfao I think I started to learn all the vocab around the April holidays mark and I still managed to learn 2000 words. Have to admit tho, it was a bit of a stretch :biggrin:

Reply 9

troubletracking

Original post by jdijx

Oof, you did better than me though, I still had around 200 to learn :colondollar:

Reply 10

jdijx

Original post by troubletracking

Oof, you did better than me though, I still had around 200 to learn :colondollar:

I mean I can't say I knew all of them off by heart because memrise had a weird flower system of remembering them all and I had loads to review lmfao. Hence why I recommend learning them at the start of year 11 and doing a bit each day and getting it into that long term memory y'know? :biggrin:

Reply 11

troubletracking

Original post by jdijx

Yes, deffo agree, it won't be such a mad rush if you learn them throughout the year. I only really started caring about French in around February when I realised I wanted to take it for A-Level, so kinda wish I'd got my life together a bit sooner :tongue:

Reply 12

username3883544

Original post by Vinny C

Go to France... je le parle bien. You know you are good when the TV starts to make sense.

You can get French tv and some films online.

Reply 13

username4221054

Original post by SBizzy

I'm going into yr 11, and i'm not that good at french what should i do to improve

Reading - practise reading French articles (for kids) or just anything in French tbh. Translate them in English as you go along. You can ask your teacher for some good French websites/books to read.

Writing - Do the same as above except translate English websites/books/articles into French. Do this for a range of writing styles that are both formal and informal. This is quite difficult to do so it's good to expand your French vocabulary and tenses as much as you can. Duolingo, Vocab Express and Memrise are some good websites to use for learning vocabulary.

Listening - listen to French songs and the French news and try to decipher what they are saying. You can note down words you understand and try to use the context to make a smart guess of what they are trying to say. Believe me, listening exams are horrible because the French is spoken so quick. You will only have time to understand bits of what they are saying. Lyricstraining is good for listening to French music and guessing the lyrics. Just try to make yourself familiar with how French words are pronounced. Because all my teachers had British accents to their French speaking, it would make it hard for me to understand when a native French speaker is speaking.

Speaking - Write short French pieces for all of the different themes you study in your course (holiday, travel, school, work, environment, etc.). Memorise them. Make a list of high level French phrases and sentences that can be applicable to any question your teacher asks you in the speaking exam. This will be helpful. Again, you need to work on your French vocab and tenses to get this down.

Always ask help from your teachers because they will do all they can to help you improve :smile:

I suggest working with native French teachers is the best option. Attend some intervention classes (your teacher will make you do this anyway if your French is not up to scratch. If you feel you aren't good at it, it's best to attend these asap).

Reply 14

Vinny C

Original post by DSutch

You can get French tv and some films online.

But I have no need... je n'ai plus besoin. Tu as besoin. Do you have any wish to learn French at all? If just a hated chore then you will never learn.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 15

jdijx

Original post by troubletracking

Yeah if anything, I've taken it as a learning experience, cough cough OP words of wisdom over here - don't leave learning vocab to the last minute :wink: