Crashing a Higher language

Hi everyone. I was planning on taking Advanced Higher English for 2020-21 but due to clashes in the subject choice system, I’ve had to take Higher French instead. I got an A in Nat 5 French in 2019 but I’ve not really studied it since. I’m just wondering if anyone has any advice or resources for how I can get back up to speed?

Reply 1

becausethenight

Try Duolingo French as a quick way of getting back to speed with some vocab and doing a little bit of French each day.
You might also want to try to read a few newspaper articles in French (they can be quite tough, though!) from something like Le Monde or, for something more relaxing, find a French series or film you like on Neflix and watch it with subtitles (Call My Agent! is amazing, and one of the latest big films, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, is French, as The Truth, with Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche side by side) IDK about the Higher, but for A level French there's a literary/film and a cultural element, too, so these would help with that too.
If you're really feeling adventurous, try exploring the mad world of French language rap music with artists like Nekfeu or Maître Gims (sure, you might not like rap, but this is not an experience to be missed. Plus, it's all the more hilarious if you take a second to think that these songs played non-stop in French supermarkets in the summer in the 2010s.)

Reply 2

username4490612

At my school they recommend linguascope but you would need to get login if they have one for this website.

Reply 3

SchuylerSister22

Original post by aingidh

From my experience Higher French is barely a jump from National 5. Even just a basic understanding of the language is all you need. In our Higher class this year, each day of the week we would focus on a different aspect. We would do various listenings from all the way back to 2003!! Just ask your teacher to dig up all the old papers. We would also do listenings out of the Leckie and Leckie textbook which I mention in the next part. Also also, we would do this thing called Dictée where our teacher would read something out and we'd have to write it down and try and get it as accurate as possible

We had to do a practise directed writing once a week and we would use scenarios from different past papers and then when we ran out our teacher made some up. For our writing we would constantly use these 2 textbooks: Higher French Course Notes by Leckie and Leckie; and we would use metro pour l'ecosse Rouge. Both of these give you good phrases that you can use in your writing and your talking!! Once you've done a writing give it to your teacher to mark and give corrections, it's really helpful!! Remember, unlike Nat 5 where there were 4 guaranteed bullet points this time it's always different.

For reading again we would just do past papers or translate extracts from the textbooks. Also there is this thing called Duolingo stories which you have to use on a laptop or computer where you read a story and then answer questions on it. I find it really good!!!

For our talking's we were encouraged to take different vocabulary from listenings and readings and add it to our talkings!!! To remember my speaking I would keep writing it down on a whiteboard and then rubbing out each word until I learnt the whole paragraph. You can bring in I think 50 words and visual aids so it's not too awful, and you have to speak for 10 minutes. Remember to ask your examiner questions too!!

I hope this helped

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 4

Quick-use

Original post by aingidh

Feel free to have a look through this thread that I made: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2320896

With Higher French, the main thing is learning vocabulary and knowing your conjugations. You can also assure yourself an A by ensuring you get full marks on all your writing pieces and speaking. My thread should help you get full marks! I actually never got less than full marks for both French and Spanish in Higher and AH. If I could do it, you definitely can! :rambo: