GCE EXAMINERS' REPORTS. FRENCH AS/Advanced

Transcription

1 GCE EXAMINERS' REPORTS FRENCH AS/Advanced JANUARY 2011

2 Statistical Information This booklet contains summary details for each unit: number entered; maximum mark available; mean mark achieved; grade ranges. N.B. These refer to 'raw marks' used in the initial assessment, rather than to the uniform marks reported when results are issued. Annual Statistical Report The annual Statistical Report (issued in the second half of the Autumn Term) gives overall outcomes of all examinations administered by WJEC.

3 FRENCH General Certificate of Education January 2011 Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Principal Examiner: Mr. Philip Ainsworth, B.A., PGCE, M.Ed., MIL, Language Co-ordinator, Swansea Metropolitan University Unit Statistics The following statistics include all candidates entered for the unit, whether or not they 'cashed in' for an award. The attention of centres is drawn to the fact that the statistics listed should be viewed strictly within the context of this unit and that differences will undoubtedly occur between one year and the next and also between subjects in the same year. Unit Entry Max Mark Mean Mark FN Grade Ranges A 70 B 64 C 58 D 52 E 46 N.B. The marks given above are raw marks and not uniform marks. 1

4 FN2 - LISTENING, READING AND WRITING General Comments The standard in the examination was slightly higher than in past January examinations, as testified by the increase in the mean mark for the paper. Notable was the fact that the translation question (Question 5) seemed to be more accessible than in previous years and performance overall on the essay questions was also of a higher standard. Q.1 Listening Première partie: This question was somewhat less accessible than in the past, with some candidates having difficulties with numbers, fractions and percentages. One mark awarded for each question. Most candidates seemed to identify correctly the 3 correct statements namely, (a), (g) & (h). F: If V or F was not ticked and statement corrected properly, a mark was still awarded. If V was ticked and statement corrected, no mark was awarded. (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Either 2 or the 2 activities listed. Some put down 1 theme, others 4 themes, but many chose to list the 2 activities mentioned. 15%. A fair number confused quinze and cinq and thus indicated this statement as being correct. La majorité/la plupart/plus de 50%. Beaucoup was not accepted but the answer given by some. 50% des garçons/la moitié OR ¾ (75%) des filles. moite/moité were not acceptable spellings. Some wrote fils for filles and obviously were not credited. 27% de ans n ont pas voté OR 73% de ans. Two details needed to be changed for this question and negation was allowed for this question. Q.2 Deuxième partie: The blanks had to be filled in with words spelt correctly. All spellings including all accents had to be completely correct. Generally this question was better answered than in previous January examinations. No mis-spellings or incorrect answers were tolerated for this question answers needed to be entirely correct. A number of candidates seemed to get the correct morphology but lost the mark by being careless with accents or other basic spelling. The adjective intéressants had a myriad of different spellings with superfluous s, t and r letters! Others put an accent on the second e. Ont often became on which made no sense in the context. 2

5 Q.3 Reading This question was well answered by most and was a good lead-in to reading tasks. A number thought that (c) or (h) were true. (i) only 5 true statements had to be ticked. One mark was deducted for any extra statement ticked. For the next 2 sets of questions there was some improvement on the standard achieved last January. In many cases candidates seemed to perform better on the second passage. (ii) Answers had to be in French and in candidates own words. No lifting allowed except for question (f). (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Idea of recently. Some did not understand depuis. Answers including pour or 2006 were not credited. Idea of 1: son potentiel financier, 2: il y a 36 millions (verb needed). A number using the English word potential were not credited for not obeying the rubric (answer in French). Idea of 1: comment ils viennent OR leur venue. 2: où ils séjournent OR leurs passe-temps. Much verbatim copying here although there were some straightforward synonyms e.g. hébergement/logement Idea of elle est en retard OR elle n est pas assez bien. Many assumed (guessed?) that France was ahead of the game here. Idea of on doit se renseigner avant. Much copying here again. 3 answers needed. Well answered. (g) Only 12%. (iii) As in (ii), answers had to be in candidates own words. Lifting of a sentence was not allowed except for questions 4 and 6. A fair number of candidates showed good manipulation of language by successfully changing the 1 st person in the passage to the 3 rd person required for the answer. (1) Idea of choice of her parents. Some lifted from the text. (2) Idea of marks in Science going down. Most successfully conveyed this. (3) Idea of not wanting to repeat another year. (4) Three answers needed. Well answered. Any words that looked decidedly English e.g. literature or geography were not credited. Some changed arts to dessin but this could not be given credit as it would be a different subject. (5) Idea of seeing the result of her work. Quite well answered. (6) Well answered. 3

6 Q.4 This question was quite a discriminator in this paper and generally speaking was less well done than has been true of late. Once candidates started making mistakes and choosing the wrong word this led to a number of other wrong answers. This question is a test of grammatical and syntactical application and comprehension. Not all words were needed and every word could only be used once. The spelling had to be correct and accents had to be right and at the right place. Once candidates chose a wrong word this then inevitably led to further errors as a knock-on effect. Q.5 Translation This question was better answered than it has been in previous years as the question was deliberately made more accessible and centres seem to be teaching this skill more thoroughly than they have been doing. The 16 maximum marks for this question are well worth working for! Every sentence was divided into sections according to the marks awarded. (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) Few candidates gained the 2 marks here. Problem in translating...niveau européen. Many confused niveau with nouveau. Mostly well translated but a number wrote discrimination of and the word domaine caused a problem for some. Quite well translated, but many translated endroits as rights. Second and third part caused problems - many thought envie referred to envy/jealousy and very few candidates know the meaning of passionnant. Quite well translated, with a large number of candidates failing to get the conditional tense in pourraient. Q.6 Essays 20 marks were awarded for Quality of Response, 10 marks for Accuracy, 5 marks for Range and Idiom. Some candidates did not specify the question answered (a), (b),(c) or (d) and it could be very confusing for the examiner when the question was not answered properly (see (b) and (d). (a) (b) Le sport est essentiel pour tout le monde: most candidates chose to discuss that question and was quite well done but some candidates did not mention that it was for everybody. Also, many deviated and discussed manger sain instead or discussed other aspects of sport and provided the examiner with an excellent pre-learned essay...that did not address the ideas of essential and for all. La toxicomanie menace les jeunes: some candidates deviated and only discussed le tabagisme or l alcoolisme. There were also often long, prelearned lists of the dangers of drugs and smoking, drinking etc. 4

7 (c) (d) La femme et l homme sont égaux: Fewer chose this question but those who chose it generally did well. Issues and problems were clearly articulated and justified. I influence des amies est la chose la plus importante dans la vie dans la vie des adolescents: sometimes mixed up with question (b), difficult to mark when title or the question number were not mentioned. Many ignored the word discutez and wrote overly descriptive essays about relationships and parental conflicts. The grammatical errors were fewer than in the same examination last year. Nevertheless, the most common errors still remain unchanged. Poor use of present tense of common irregular (and even regular!) verbs. Adjectival endings not correctly applied. Ignorance of differences between bon/bien, mal/mauvais. The verbs est/a/il y a used interchangeably. Use of tu/vous where French would clearly use on. Very few candidates can use the Passive. Nevertheless it is pleasing to note that centres are addressing many of the difficulties highlighted in the report on this paper and that the overall standard of French is increasing steadily. GCE French Examiners Report - January 2011/ED

8 WJEC 245 Western Avenue Cardiff CF5 2YX Tel No Fax website: