Chapters
If you want to brush up on your French language skills and improve your grades in your language modules during your time at university, then an international language studies course might be for you. The course will be thought in English and will improve your level of French alongside international students.
You might be looking to secure some crucial marks in your leaving cert French exam, in which case the aural or listening assessment is definitely a good way to go about accomplishing just that. Unlike the Oral exam, the listening will take place on the day of your French written exam.
The same tape will be played for all students, regardless of whether you are sitting on the higher or ordinary level paper. While the conversations that you hear over the course of the assessment will be identical, the difference lies in the questions that will appear on your answer booklet.
One of the most popular languages chosen by pupils in Irish secondary schools for the leaving certificate program is French. Unfortunately, this implies that marks in the final junior and leaving cert French tests will be very competitive, which is bad news for pupils like you.
Practice listening to the recommended recordings that are on the exam if you have trouble understanding French or simply feel like you need to build a solid foundation before taking the plunge. Why not enrol in some tutoring sessions to help you learn the language better?
How can you practice for the oral exam?
While this component of the exam can’t be learned like some of the long questions or even parts of the oral exam, you can still prepare for it. You can certainly study effectively so that you are capable of answering just about any question that appears on the exam paper.
The first thing that you can employ within your preparations is familiarising yourself with ‘question word’ vocabulary. Even if you are not exactly sure what is being asked of you, knowing if the question is asking what, why, who or where will help you to arrive at an informed guess.
This will help you to pick up some marks instead of leaving the respective section blank in your answer booklet. Partial credits will go a long way to improving your grade.
Many students jump up multiple grade brackets in the French aural exam each year just by ensuring that they attempt all parts of the exam. It is essential that you make educated guesses in areas in which you are unsure as there are no marks awarded to students who leave a section blank. This is true for all your subjects!
It is important that you are aware of the options that are out there for students looking to study French abroad.
Where else can you improve your grades?
The next thing you can employ in your preparations for the French leaving cert listening exam is practising tapes from past papers. Past papers should serve as the prime reference point to focus your study around. While the exam is unique each year and features different questions and tapes, there is a multitude of similarities that feature across the papers.
In order to ensure that the paper meets the same degree of difficulty each year adjustments are made to the marks awarded to students so that they reach a similar distribution each year. You might have heard your teachers refer to this as the infamous ‘bell curve.'
In addition to this, the questions which feature on the exam paper often follow a similar order and ask students to extract similar types of information from the respective extract. By practising answering questions from past exam papers you will become familiar with where to go about finding the appropriate information.
The more elementary questions at the beginning of the exam typically ask students to find the name of the characters which feature on the tape, the days of the week mentioned, the time or place of an event or how expensive an item was. Practising the vocabulary for each of these topics will help you to listen out for the answer on the day.
Practising other listening exam tapes will also help you to familiarise yourself with the different dialects across France. Becoming accustomed to hearing the French language and the different accents will help your performance so that you can maximise your grade in the subject.
Try to answer some practice questions from past listening exam papers in order to get the best result in this component of your upcoming listening test. Be sure to use these practice questions as a guide for what will feature on your own listening test.
If you are interested in maximising your grades in leaving cert French there are a number of ways that you can go about it!
Other methods that you can try
One of the most effective, fun and possibly the least adopted method of preparing for your leaving cert listening exam is by listening to different outlets of French media in your free time. Students who watch the news, movies, television shows or listen to music or podcasts in French will expand their vocabulary at an exponential rate compared to their classmates.
This is a great way for students to become accustomed to hearing the language in their spare time without feeling like they are studying or overworking themselves.
While almost all students prioritise their study of the written section of the leaving cert French paper, few give the same attention to the listening component. This is surprising given that this section is worth 20% of the marks.
This is why allocating sufficient time to your preparation for the aural component of the exam yields such positive results for students that have ambitions of acing their marks in the subject.
Of course, if you study another language on top of French, then you should ensure that you leave yourself enough time to practice so that your grade in that module doesn’t fall. Having an international language goes a long way towards any university or job application so you should take this into account when you are paying your language course fees.
The listening section of the exam will play different conversations between people each time. There will be questions on your test written in English that you will need to answer on these tapes to the best of your ability. Each segment of the conversation will play three times in the exam.
You will need to practice how to answer a question from the listening exam if you are going to do well in this section of your tests. How well you hear the answers from the people on the tape and understand the different accents will dictate your grade in the listening section.
The benefits of improving your listening skills
By improving your ability to understand conversations which feature in your French aural exam, you will inherently improve your conversational skills. You will find that you are able to understand the language a lot more.
This will stand to you if you decide to spend some time in a French-speaking country. Being able to understand the locals will not only help you to find your way around but will enhance your experience and open up so many doors for you if you decide to find work or travel later down the line.
Understanding both French and English gives you a competitive edge in the global employment market. Understanding French allows one access to French businesses in France and other French-speaking countries. France is a crucial economic partner since it has one of the biggest economies in the world and is a popular place for international investment.
After all, more than 300 million people speak French across the world. A global organization of nations that speak French, the OIF comprises 88 member States and administrations. French is the fifth most spoken language in the world and the second most popular foreign language after English.
Along with English, French is the only other language that is taught in every nation on earth. Nearly a million students take French language classes at the largest international network of cultural institutions, which is operated by France.
If you want to succeed in french then you will need to start preparing for the French oral exam!
Get ready for the listening with Superprof
For students who are unsure about how to study the French language or have difficulty pronouncing particular words in the language. The Superprof platform offers a degree of choice and flexibility to students that extends beyond that offered by other online tutoring services.
Build fluency and confidence through interactive classes that are both effective and fun. Talking with a native speaker is the key to success and what improving your understanding of a language is all about.
Learning French for beginners is more accessible nowadays than perhaps ever before. With the increased availability of resources for learning French online, students can improve their command of the language from anywhere in the world with nothing more than a stable internet connection.
Maybe you should look at some of the French classes Dublin offers, or even Galway or cork.. you will find a French tutor offering their services in every location in Ireland and they will also provide competitive rates for your sessions.
Superprof has a lot of tutors offering both private and group classes for a range of different abilities so why not get help learning French and accelerate the learning process by cutting out all of that unnecessary trial and error?
Your French teachers will have worked with countless students in the past, coaching them to reach their respective goals and targets in the listening exam. With the option to study online with a French professional teacher, guidance has never been so accessible!
Having a teacher at your side will undoubtedly help you relax as the day approaches. Knowing how you can begin expanding your French vocabulary will help you to get the grades you deserve.
These are just a few of the advantages that come with working with an online teacher. As you advance through your listening exam study sessions, you will also have the opportunity to practice speaking the language and develop your communication abilities gradually.
Rest assured that you will become a more well-rounded language student and will be in a position to attain the grades to show it!
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