The Student Room Group
Hiya, I'm doing AS French with Edexcel too. I'm doing a comparison of the French and British education systems, and if you look on this thread I started a while ago http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/t80048.html you'll see what some others on here are doing. A girl in my class is doing kids running away from home, and some common ones are immigration, racism and Islam.
Reply 2
I did "La Banlieu en France" It was all about the state of affairs in the french suburbs, which is the equivalent of our gettos. It was to do with the lives of the immigrants and the injustice they faced in their daily lives with the police, at school, in the work force etc.
Le Front National v much interested me for the 5 or so months I had to look at it, and I still find myself taking an interest in their news a year later so quite pleased with that one.

A tip, however, for OCR students at least (not sure about other boards) if you're planning to do French next year as well, the specifications for oral topics narrow down. Last year I could have done practically anything France-related, but this year it has to be topical etc and I really wish I'd done something more "fun" when I had the chance as I can't anymore! (I would have done francis poulenc or debussy or something like that)
Reply 4
I did the education system for my AS oral topics with edexcel for both french and german. Both were sucessful an A in German and a B in French. However, you cannot compare with ENGLAND AT ALL! This is not allowed and will loose you marks. You must read the specification. Other people in my group did: Amelie, Thierry Henri. The only thing I would stress is that do something that you are interested in because if not you are bound to fail. It makes it more fun if you enjoy the topic. Good Luck
mattyboy27
I did the education system for my AS oral topics with edexcel for both french and german. Both were sucessful an A in German and a B in French. However, you cannot compare with ENGLAND AT ALL! This is not allowed and will loose you marks. You must read the specification. Other people in my group did: Amelie, Thierry Henri. The only thing I would stress is that do something that you are interested in because if not you are bound to fail. It makes it more fun if you enjoy the topic. Good Luck


I chose education because I enjoy the topic, but why aren't you allowed to compare with England? :confused: You're still mentioning France! There's not that much to talk about if you can't compare...
Instead of comparing it with Britain, you could take the French Youth's stance on it. I'm going to do 'Attitudes of the French Youth', but narrow it down to domestic affairs. Purely because I couldn't be bothered to ramble about education for 3mins. Though I we have so little time I may have to generalise and leave some bits out.

I'm doing the same for German btw.
Reply 7
HEY KELLY

What I did was on the oral form (this is with edexcel I don't know who u r with?) had 5 points. L'ecole primaire, le college, le lycee, le bac and ma visite en france au college.

I wrote to the french embassy and used lots of books to find out the structure, what french people think of their education system. I went to my old french teacher who is French and spoke to her about it and also with my french friend. In the exam I gave alot of opinions and backed them up (good marks) what I liked and disliked about the system and what were the good and bad features. Also what another good point is that what are the current problems with the french education system "Le foulard" and there is not enough demand with students studying German and also there is too many teachers in France so the government have introduced exams for teachers. I hope this helps. The only advice I can give you is that keep it simple but with a lot of deep research. DON'T GO TOO FANCY.However, I asked my teacher today and you cannot compare with the UK at all only in a passing phrase. Good luck don't hesitate to contact me Kelly
Reply 8
YIKES! i haven't prepared anything for speaking which is worrying me but my teachers aren't informing me about speaking at all! Theyre more concerned with the pre release material!
So, guys does anyone have any suggestions what i could talk about?
I'm quite into the difficulties of families nowadays, but i think its boring and vague....really i have no idea, and i would like some interesting and not cliched like crime rates etc (even though im sure people who have done this have done it well :smile: )
Can anyone rejog my memory for aqa how long should it be? :eek:
Cheers GUYS!
mattyboy27
HEY KELLY

What I did was on the oral form (this is with edexcel I don't know who u r with?) had 5 points. L'ecole primaire, le college, le lycee, le bac and ma visite en france au college.

I wrote to the french embassy and used lots of books to find out the structure, what french people think of their education system. I went to my old french teacher who is French and spoke to her about it and also with my french friend. In the exam I gave alot of opinions and backed them up (good marks) what I liked and disliked about the system and what were the good and bad features. Also what another good point is that what are the current problems with the french education system "Le foulard" and there is not enough demand with students studying German and also there is too many teachers in France so the government have introduced exams for teachers. I hope this helps. The only advice I can give you is that keep it simple but with a lot of deep research. DON'T GO TOO FANCY.However, I asked my teacher today and you cannot compare with the UK at all only in a passing phrase. Good luck don't hesitate to contact me Kelly


Hi! :smile:

I'm with Edexcel too. I think my first 4 points will be the same as yours but I've never been to France, so for the last one I'll probably do 'l'universite'. There's a bit of information in my 'au point' textbook and Lett's revision guide and I should be able to find some websites as well. I just want to talk about the ages you start l'ecole maternelle, l'ecole primaire, le college and le lycee and the subjects you have to study, then my opinions of the system. Then I can say the exams you have to sit ('le brevet' and 'le bac') at what ages in which subjects and how they are graded. For university, I could just talk about how you get in and the cost. One of my teachers is French and we also have a French assistant, so I should be able to get some information from them. The assisant actually did a project on education last year for her degree and she's going to bring it in to show me, which should give me some ideas.

Thanks for your help. What are you doing for your A2 orals?
Reply 10
Still! No ideas! What about french media, and how it has changed teenagers...hmm ok don't know :rolleyes:

Like how computers have changed them, the impact of papers,magazines...
Reply 11
Hey Kelly

I am doing Human Cloning for my A2 orals. It has to be a debate, so I know alot about cloning and it should hopefully be successful.
Reply 12
temilola
I did "La Banlieu en France" It was all about the state of affairs in the french suburbs, which is the equivalent of our gettos. It was to do with the lives of the immigrants and the injustice they faced in their daily lives with the police, at school, in the work force etc.


Where did you get much of your information from? Its a really good choice
We have to choose a topic that we have covered over the past two years...I'm doing 'la condition feminine' and how it has changed over the past 50 years.Other people in my class are doing things like racism/immigration,advertising and the media in France :smile: