French
Course Overview
Are you a linguist? Are you a good communicator? Do you enjoy travelling to new places? Are you interested in people and other cultures? Then you should be considering studying French to A2 Level! More and more universities are asking for a language qualification for their courses, irrespective of your chosen career path.
At A level, you will benefit from one hour per week which builds specifically on your grammar knowledge from GCSE. In all
lessons, your teacher will speak French as often as possible and you will use a variety of media to research the topics.
The internet will be exploited to give you access to authentic materials and you will also be given the opportunity to go on a work experience placement in France which will enable you to use your language in real life situations.
You will study a two year course full A Level. Throughout the course, you will develop and refine your listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as revising and building on the grammar already learnt at GCSE to improve the complexity and fluency of your language. In addition you will learn about the culture of France and the life of people in France and the French speaking world. There are two areas of study which are taught at A Level; ‘Social issues and trends‘ and ‘Political and/or intellectual and/or artistic culture‘. You will study a theme per year across both years of the A Level. You will also study literature and cinema from the French speaking world.
Examination Board:
EDEXCEL
Entry Requirements:
Grade 6 in French.
You must have the required qualifications for the Advanced Pathway.
Course Level:
A Level – Level 3
Assessment Objectives
Exams taken at the end of Year 13
Paper 1: 50% Listening, Reading and Translation into
English and into French
Paper 2: 20% Critical response in writing; two essays on both books or book and film studied
Paper 3: 30% Speaking exam: discussion from a speaking stimulus and presentation on individual research project (21-23 minutes)
What skills will I develop?
| Enhanced communication skills and confidence in sharing your ideas and opinions | |
| Understanding of and empathy for others | |
| Enhanced listening, analytical and evaluative skills | |
| Understanding of and empathy for others |
How will I be assessed?
The components comprise a comparative analysis of poetry and an unseen text and the critical response to prose. Students will also study drama texts including a Shakespeare play. This course also develops student engagement with spoken language and non-literary materials. The non-exam assessment enables pupils to pursue an independent line of enquiry investigating language usage within a particular text or genre.
Progression Routes
French is highly regarded and considered a facilitating subject for the top universities in the country, regardless of the degree that you wish to study. It provides an excellent grounding for those wishing to progress onto Law and other traditional university ‘humanities‘ subjects but also for engineering, Medicine and Veterinary Science as well as Business or Management.
The Advanced GCE in French can lead to further study of languages at degree level and can easily be combined with other courses such as Law, English, Business, International Studies, a range of engineering degrees or other languages that can be taken up ab Initio at university, such as Mandarin and Japanese. Current popular career choices for students of languages include Translation and Interpreting, Business, Journalism, Computing, Law, Publishing, Marketing, as well as Teaching, both in the UK and abroad. Linguists are sought after employees for many types of Business and Industry.
On average, people who use languages in their jobs earn 8% more than their non-linguist colleagues.