Skip to main content

Frenchteacher latest

I've been busy working on resources for the new A-levels and GCSEs in recent weeks. From September specifications will change somewhat and I am keen for the site to provide plenty of support for these new qualifications. Much of the material on the site can be carried over, but there will be gaps to fill and I have already reorganised the A-level pages to reflect the new 'sub-themes' the exam boards are putting forward.

Here is what has been added in the last two weeks:


GCSE (intermediate) 

  • 100 Foundation Tier translation sentences. You could use these with younger pupils too, but they would work well for practice in the run-up to exams. Answers provided. 
  • 20 Higher Tier translation paragraphs. As for the Foundation Tier translations I took the exam boards specimens as my model. Answers provided.


Advanced (AS and A-level) 

  • Article and exercises on the rise of the far right in France. This topic features in at least on of the new A-level specifications. Article, vocabulary list to complete, lexical work, true statements to tick off, summary, translation both ways and gap-fill. Answers provided. 
  • Vocabulary booklet for the new AQA AS/A-level specification. This one covers the first six 'sub-themes': family, cyber-society, volunteering, cultural heritage, music and cinema. This would be a useful reference handout for students. The specifications contain no vocab lists. 
  • Article with exercises about the occupation of France during the second world war. Recollections of four women. Vocabulary to complete, tick true statements, questions, gap-fill, summary, translation both ways. 
  • Six translations into French from stimulus texts for the new AS-level exams, June 2017. 
  • Conversation booklet and vocabulary lists for the new Eduqas (WJEC) specification. This is the third resource of this type. AQA and Edexcel/Pearson already posted.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a langua...

The 2026 GCSE subject content is published!

Two DfE documents were published today. The first was the response to the consultation about the proposed new GCSE (originally due in October 2021) and the second is the subject content document which, ultimately, is of most interest to MFL teachers in England. Here is the link  to the document.  We are talking about an exam to be done from 2026 (current Y7s). There is always a tendency for sceptical teachers to think that consultations are a bit of a sham and that the DfE will just go ahead and do what they want when it comes to exam reform. In this case, the responses to the original proposals were mixed, and most certainly hostile as far as exam boards and professional associations representing the MFL community, universities, head teachers and awarding bodies are concerned. What has emerged does reveal some significant changes which take account of a number of criticisms levelled at the proposals. As I read it, the most important changes relate to vocabulary and the issue ...

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans, ...