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edexcel igcse french

Hii, I am a Year 11 whos studying edexcel igcse french, and i am really struggling with it. One of the main reasons why is because the specification is really vague, and although it has a minimum vocab list, this only goes to grade 5 and I really am not sure what to know in order to improve my grade. I am at a grade 6/7 right now and ideally i want to get to an 8 or 9. If anyone could help id be super grateful!!
Reply 1
Hi, I'm an A2 student doing French and German who got 3 9s for languages for GCSE, so I hope it's okay to weigh in even though I didn't do your board. This is kind of advice that becomes more effective at A-level, but it does help for GCSE if you're trying to get 8s and 9s, and that's reading articles in French that include the topics on the spec. For example, for le travail you can find something about working from home in French, using an extension like Reverso that lets you double-click on words or phrases to translate them. Another great source is doing past papers - when I was doing Edexcel GCSE (not IGCSE) Russian, I bumped my grade up from a 7 to a 9 in the weeks before the exam by doing past papers on the writing and translation paper, which I had been weakest on. Listening to the language also helps a lot with both the listening and speaking components as it immerses you in the language and makes it easier to pick up on new vocab, as well as working out context and getting better at listening comprehension so you don't freeze or freak out when your teacher asks you a question or the recording has a word you don't know. You can do this through watching TV or YouTube, or through podcasts. Podcastwise I'm interested in news so I started listening to l'Heure du Monde, but with shows you can watch Lupin, le Bureau des légendes or an endless back-catalogue of Nouvelle Vague cinema online, like Les 400 coups, with subtitles. While these won't necessarily help with topic vocabulary, it'll give you a far greater general vocabulary and more impressive grammar if you pay attention to the dialogue and look up expressions, which means you won't have to rely so heavily on it when speaking and writing, plus the shows are good anyway so its kind of a win-win. This next one's kind of obvious, but if you have a textbook with vocabulary in it, test yourself on it regularly. I don't know your situation on if you have a textbook/if it has vocabulary sections, but honestly just doing anything from the textbook, which most likely has 9-level vocabulary in it, you can improve your vocab level quite a lot. Ofc another way of improving is to talk to the classmates, if you have any, who are better than you in French. This is all I can think of, but if you want any other specific help for French just ask!!
Reply 2
Original post by teratoma
Hi, I'm an A2 student doing French and German who got 3 9s for languages for GCSE, so I hope it's okay to weigh in even though I didn't do your board. This is kind of advice that becomes more effective at A-level, but it does help for GCSE if you're trying to get 8s and 9s, and that's reading articles in French that include the topics on the spec. For example, for le travail you can find something about working from home in French, using an extension like Reverso that lets you double-click on words or phrases to translate them. Another great source is doing past papers - when I was doing Edexcel GCSE (not IGCSE) Russian, I bumped my grade up from a 7 to a 9 in the weeks before the exam by doing past papers on the writing and translation paper, which I had been weakest on. Listening to the language also helps a lot with both the listening and speaking components as it immerses you in the language and makes it easier to pick up on new vocab, as well as working out context and getting better at listening comprehension so you don't freeze or freak out when your teacher asks you a question or the recording has a word you don't know. You can do this through watching TV or YouTube, or through podcasts. Podcastwise I'm interested in news so I started listening to l'Heure du Monde, but with shows you can watch Lupin, le Bureau des légendes or an endless back-catalogue of Nouvelle Vague cinema online, like Les 400 coups, with subtitles. While these won't necessarily help with topic vocabulary, it'll give you a far greater general vocabulary and more impressive grammar if you pay attention to the dialogue and look up expressions, which means you won't have to rely so heavily on it when speaking and writing, plus the shows are good anyway so its kind of a win-win. This next one's kind of obvious, but if you have a textbook with vocabulary in it, test yourself on it regularly. I don't know your situation on if you have a textbook/if it has vocabulary sections, but honestly just doing anything from the textbook, which most likely has 9-level vocabulary in it, you can improve your vocab level quite a lot. Ofc another way of improving is to talk to the classmates, if you have any, who are better than you in French. This is all I can think of, but if you want any other specific help for French just ask!!

Hi! Thank you so much for the advice, ill definitely use it. For things like shows and movies, how do i avoid falling into the trap of accidentally learning stuff like slang that's used in shows?, because my teacher told me that it can sometimes happen, and do you recommend just watching the show normally and trying to pick things up, or watching whilst writing notes down after each scene, and should i watch with subtitles or will this take away from the learning? again thank you so much!!
Reply 3
Original post by llma.llma
Hi! Thank you so much for the advice, ill definitely use it. For things like shows and movies, how do i avoid falling into the trap of accidentally learning stuff like slang that's used in shows?, because my teacher told me that it can sometimes happen, and do you recommend just watching the show normally and trying to pick things up, or watching whilst writing notes down after each scene, and should i watch with subtitles or will this take away from the learning? again thank you so much!!

Honestly, don't be afraid to use subtitles - it's not like you're at degree level, and watching things in and of themselves will help greatly. Taking notes would be preferable to improve more quickly, but also I would recommend you put the subtitles on in French as opposed to English it helps a lot in comprehension, as you can improve the mental links between the word sounds and them written down. If you put on French subtitles, it removes some of the need to take notes as you get a better absorption of what's going on, though they would still obviously help a lot.

As for the slang trap, it's worth considering whether the character is likely to be shown speaking in slang in the context of the show, e.g. in the film we study for A-level, La haine, the residents of the banlieue are far more likely to be shown speaking in slang, particularly verlan (the specific French slang that derives from reversing the syllables of words and which itself is verlan for "l'invers") than the posh residents of inner Paris at the art exhibition. If a word sounds un-'French' to you, it's most likely from verlan, for example I was stunned seeing the word 'téma' function as a verb, before I looked it up and found that it came from the inversion of 'mater', itself a slang word for 'to look', or the example of 'ouf' as an adjective, which is commonly used instead of 'fou', or crazy. It's a little harder to learn to avoid general slang, but it's worth looking up common slang words. There's practically hundreds of slang words for argent and some other common ones are 'flingues' (very commonly used to describe vêtements but more informal to the point where I wouldn't risk using it), 'une dinguerie' (for something to be crazy, changes meaning and intent slightly based on how its pronounced) and words instead of homme and femme, such as mec, type or gars (describe men, gars is a shortening of garçon and I believe mec comes from copain) and meuf, which is technically verlan of woman but also general slang for woman. Obviously you should also get a handle on which gros mots (swear words) to avoid in writing by finding the main ones online!

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