french

since i am going to sit for my finals..i do edexcel..international gcse....could anyone plz give me advice on how to improve and get good marks in french listening....coz im not so gud at it and i need help..any tips
thank you in advance

Practice practice practice. Listening to a foreign language isn't something you can cram the night before in a few hours of revision and ace like other subjects. Surround yourself with French in the form of past papers, cartoons on youtube, French music, change your phone settings to French (this one sounds silly but since people tend to go on their phone so much and can navigate it without reading what it says because we know it so well it helps with your understanding of sentence structure and vocabulary, mine is in French and it helps me out alot and sometimes I talk to siri in French too) and even making a French friend if you can (I have one who I Skype with as I help her out with English and vice versa)

On youtube, search 'Petit Potam' it's a little kids French cartoon and I watch it while doing my homework or just having it in the background while getting ready etc just to familiarize myself with the accents and language, which does subconsciously work as it is part of the way we learn our native tongue.

For past papers, download the transcript of it (this should be on the exam boards site) so you can piece together what you're reading with what is being said and it will develop your understanding, do this until you feel comfortable to take away the transcript and listen to the past paper alone and it should help.

At the start of the exam, you should get 5 minutes to go through the paper, during this time I try and translate as much of the options on the page into French as possible, and if there are more than one way of saying it (for example: going shopping could be 'faire du shopping' or 'aller au magasins' )so I am able to match what I hear with what I'm reading incase I miss any of the sentence or just don't have time try and think about what has been said, it's easier to see what I've written and think 'ah yes that must be it'

Hope this helped

OP should definitely be ready after all of this advice

Haha I always have to leave a lengthy comment on French posts, I have too much passion for it

That's great to hear! I'm guessing you're studying French either for GCSEs or A-Levels (uni maybe)?

Uni ?? I take that as a compliment

Nah, I'm still at GCSE haha! I'm taking it for A-Level however and am actually considering taking it at University (depending on whether I crash and burn with it at A-Level as everyone is scaring me with the 'if you're not native French you're going to fail' **** haha)

That's totally crass, as long as you pay attention you'll be totally fine

Sincerely,
French and Spanish A-Level Person

Uni ?? I take that as a compliment

Nah, I'm still at GCSE haha! I'm taking it for A-Level however and am actually considering taking it at University (depending on whether I crash and burn with it at A-Level as everyone is scaring me with the 'if you're not native French you're going to fail' **** haha)

Yeah I did a scholarship exam for a private school last week (please note scholarship exam - I'm not flaunting here if I don't get the scholarship I can't afford to go ) and a girl there said it was a load of bull too! I did an A-Level reading French paper (all in French) and I think it went pretty well, then there was a writing section (which said I had to write out my coursework but we haven't finished ours nor have I learnt it so I just made it up as I went along so I'm sure my grammar was awful haha) and it all went fine! I guess it should be okay as I do have the passion haha

Please do! With that passion, you taking French for uni would definitely suit you best
Don't listen to people who say that - being a native speaker in a language doesn't automatically make you better at the language at A-Levels. There's someone I know, for example, who's a native German speaker and got A in her A-Levels.

Awh, it's refreshing to see so many new people that like languages! Good luck with your scholarship, flaunt it! The fact that you're good enough to even consider taking the test is something to be proud of

As the girl you met said, it's definitely "bull"! Absolute rubbish. I love French A-Level and you will too! If you ever need any help or advice about MfL or French in general, feel free to PM me!

That's totally crass, as long as you pay attention you'll be totally fine

Sincerely,
French and Spanish A-Level Person

Wow and two languages don't overwhelm you? I'm a German and French GCSE person, but I don't think I'd be able to take both up to A-Levels...

It is slightly overwhelming at first but it's really not too much bother! If you do well at GCSE then…. pourquoi pas ?

Hey again

For French listening, it's really just about knowing your vocabulary and not being caught out by what's being said.

To revise your vocab, you could either try memrise (http://www.memrise.com/course/333006/edexcel-igcse-french/) or you could just look at the vocab list found in this website: http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-international-gcses-and-edexcel-certificates/international-gcse-french-2011.coursematerials.html#filterQuery=Pearson-UK:Category%2FTeaching-and-learning-materials (scroll down to 'Vocabulary List' ). That should hopefully prepare you for reading too.

In order to train your ears, I'd suggest listening to the French radio or even French songs (maybe with the lyrics up). That way, you can also see how much you understand. You could also start going through past papers to practice your exam technique. Some tips when sitting the paper are to read through each question and note down or think of possible answers to those questions as well as how to say those in French. You could also listen out for the tone in which someone is speaking to work out if what they are talking about is a good thing or a bad thing, if you can't understand what is actually being said.

Practice practice practice. Listening to a foreign language isn't something you can cram the night before in a few hours of revision and ace like other subjects. Surround yourself with French in the form of past papers, cartoons on youtube, French music, change your phone settings to French (this one sounds silly but since people tend to go on their phone so much and can navigate it without reading what it says because we know it so well it helps with your understanding of sentence structure and vocabulary, mine is in French and it helps me out alot and sometimes I talk to siri in French too) and even making a French friend if you can (I have one who I Skype with as I help her out with English and vice versa)

On youtube, search 'Petit Potam' it's a little kids French cartoon and I watch it while doing my homework or just having it in the background while getting ready etc just to familiarize myself with the accents and language, which does subconsciously work as it is part of the way we learn our native tongue.

For past papers, download the transcript of it (this should be on the exam boards site) so you can piece together what you're reading with what is being said and it will develop your understanding, do this until you feel comfortable to take away the transcript and listen to the past paper alone and it should help.

At the start of the exam, you should get 5 minutes to go through the paper, during this time I try and translate as much of the options on the page into French as possible, and if there are more than one way of saying it (for example: going shopping could be 'faire du shopping' or 'aller au magasins' so I am able to match what I hear with what I'm reading incase I miss any of the sentence or just don't have time try and think about what has been said, it's easier to see what I've written and think 'ah yes that must be it'

Hope this helped