GCE EXAMINERS' REPORTS FRENCH AS/Advanced JANUARY 2014
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FRENCH General Certificate of Education January 2014 Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced FN2 - Listening, Reading and Writing Principal Examiner: Lindsey Davies Q.1 (Mean mark 6.4) Quite well done, better than in previous years. Even though candidates correctly identified a statement as being false they often used a simple negation (cf rubric). (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) Mostly correct. Faux ticked, but some answers incorrect il y a 12 ans, quand il était 12 ans. Well answered and corrected. Good answers il fait du latin au lycée as well as idea of le grec chez lui. Mostly correct. Well answered with a good variety of corrections. Faux ticked, but some answers did not make sense e.g. il sera travailler dans la nuit et la jour. Mostly correct. Q.2 (Mean mark 2.8) There are still problems with this grammatical exercise. Poor spelling was a problem, but also poor application of grammar: 1. Quand, conte - popular incorrect choices. 2. Many missed the feminine agreement ée (Ariane is speaking) or put the infinitive. 3. Occasional mis-spelling vraiement. 4. Mostly correct. 5. Many did not realise that a first person verb in the present tense was required. Quand, quant often used. Candidates should be aware of the need for grammatical knowledge in order to complete this question correctly. There is a zero tolerance on spelling, including accents. Q.3 (a) (Mean mark 4.6) Well done with most candidates scoring some marks. (viii) was a popular (incorrect) choice. (b) (Mean mark 4.5) Candidates are improving in their technique in responding in French (subtle manipulation and less lifting ) but there was a decline in grammatical accuracy which led to many marks being lost. 1
The answers can be found in chronological order in the text. (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) Many candidates gave the answers as diabète type 2 and problèmes cardiovasculaires. This is part of the SAME idea (la mauvaise santé). The second idea is le surpoids/l obesité. The future tense (or conditional) is required for this answer. Very poor knowledge of future formation and irregular form. On sera être/ils deveniront, also lack of adjectival agreement. The idea of les fruits was required here, not bon pour la santé. A lot of lifting here. Simple noun/verb transfer required protéger les plus jeunes. Some invented verbs provider, protecter. Good manipulation here to produce a correct answer. A correct answer is easily obtained here by simply reading and using the question i.e. réduire le niveau de caféine. (c) (Mean mark 5.4) Again, poor spelling and grammatical inaccuracy led to loss of marks. (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) (ix) (x) En mai = lifted from text. En 1806 does not answer the question " depuis quand?. Well answered, but poor use of possessive adjective sa enfants. Very few correct answers because of inability to use an object pronoun correctly: on l appelle, la mère est appelle, la mère s appelle, on appelle la/sa/elle were all seen. Many answers lifted from text. Past tense needed + vocabulary from the text = manipulation. Poor use of verbs elle a sa propre patronne, son proper patronne. Not well answered. Many candidates wrote over-complicated answers (cf markscheme). Again, simple noun to verb transfer needed elles ont peur du chômage. Ils regardent les enfants, ils soignent eux were some examples of incorrect answers. For this answer the candidate had to look at the question and the text carefully. All answers about aider a la maison, faire le ménage are incorrect. Q.4 (a) (Mean mark 1.7) Selecting correct part of speech from a list. vieille often mis-spelt. grecs - many ignored need for feminine plural form here. leur, elles often chosen. Poor knowledge of disjunctive pronouns. (b) (Mean mark 2.1) quotidien - replaced by maison (N.B. preposition is au ). Poor recognition of second verb infinitive. Many opted for changé. (c) (Mean mark 3.0) This section was done quite well. 2
Q.5 (Mean mark 9.0) There continues to be an improvement in this question. Techniques of transference are improving and some candidates produce excellent idiomatic language to convey the meaning. Any French words used in the translation into either English or Welsh resulted in the candidate not being given credit for that part of the question. Omission of often simple words was a fairly common reason why candidates lost marks. Candidates should realise that answers that make no sense in English cannot be correct! They should continue to learn faux-amis as these are a source of many mis-translations in this question. The need for idiomatic English is necessary for a good rendition. (i) Well-translated although a common error was more informed for mieux informés. C est pourquoi because = 0. Consummaters = 0 (ii) Il existe it exists = 0 une trentaine not well known and popularly translated as a third/ 300. (iii) également not recognised as also. Mostly translated as equally = 0. Marquée = marketed, branded =0. Poor use of English idiom: Mothering Sunday/Mothers Day often translated as the Festival/Feast of Mothers. (iv) This section was very badly done: I am obligated = 0. Sacrifice = 0, should be take time off work. Many did not know horaires and translations such as the horrors of the crèche were frequently seen. entre autres between others = 0. (v) Quite well done although there was some confusion over dure (feminine adjective), with many thinking it was the present tense of durer. (vi) Pleasing. The future tense was generally recognised and translated appropriately. Where partage was translated as share this was incorrect. Q.6 Essay (Mean mark 23.1) Most candidates focused on the title and planned accordingly. There is still a tendency for some to include extraneous and irrelevant material which distorts the essay. Candidates are keeping to the stated word limit of 200-250 and many are producing pertinent and relevant essays. Unfortunately many candidates are let down by their poor knowledge of grammar and incorrect spelling which makes an essay very difficult to understand. There is still evidence of too much thinking in the native tongue which produces an essay lacking in French idiom and correct syntax. (a) Les jeunes passent trop de temps à l ordinateur. Croyez-vous que ce soit une bonne chose? Discutez et justifiez vos opinions. A popular choice producing some good answers. Candidates were able to home in on the relevant aspects of the title and produced essays which showed a good analysis of the pros and cons. (b) La musique, a-t-elle une bonne ou une mauvaise influence sur les jeunes. Qu en pensez-vous? Discutez et justifiez vos opinions. Some of the essays here were too disparate and merely listed types of music without any real reference to its influence. Candidates sometimes fell into the trap of discussing every other type of bad influence on young people (la mode, le mode de vie, les parents, les copains, le cinéma, straying as far as le tabagisme et la drogue). Candidates must be aware that the question set must be answered and NOT one that they had prepared earlier. 3
(c) Il faut que les ados limitent leur consommation de «fast-foods» pour avoir une vie saine. Discutez et justifiez votre réponse. This was the most popular choice and provided some very good responses. Candidates showed that they are familiar with this question and present the arguments well. They must remember that although the ideas of healthy eating and lifestyles can be used to complement the main theme, they should not dominate the essay. (d) «Les années au lycée sont les plus importantes de la vie». Croyez-vous que ce soit vrai? Donnez et justifiez vos raisons. Some very good examples seen. There were some well-argued essays which related closely to the question. General comments on Question 6: The technique of answering the question set is still improving and essays are mostly of an appropriate length (200-250 words). There were very few vastly overlength essays. Candidates are still losing too many marks for careless and basic errors genders, adjectival agreement, and incorrect verb endings. Common grammatical errors: Many candidates have trouble in conjugating verbs in the present tense third person. They cannot make a simple subject/verb agreement les risques est trés grand. Many candidates simply use an infinitive ils avoir Second verb infinitive continues to be a problem especially after modal verbs. Perfect tense errors: ils ont devenir.., elle a augmenter. Present participle incorrectly formed en faisent, en mangant. Confusion between parce que and à cause de, also mal/mauvais, mieux/meilleur and temps/fois. Poor formation of negative: c est ne pas. REgarder la forme. Actuellement = NOT actually, propre = NOT proper,correct. Demonstratives not known = cettes maladies. A lot of confusion when using the impersonal on. Many candidates use tu or vous which leads to many verb errors and poorly constructed sentences which affect the marks for both accuracy and range and idiom. It is good to see essay plans in French (N.B. these are not taken into account for the assessment of the essay) but many plans are in English/Welsh. There is much evidence of thinking in English/Welsh as displayed in phrases such as: passer /avoir un bon temps avec.., sortir pour un peu, ils voit que ça fait à leur. Poor spelling and gender errors were prevalent especially with well-known words and structures: LA problème, LA système, LA lycée, LA regime, LE santé, LE consummation. l exercise, nouveux, beacoup. Although communication is important it does not compensate for lack of accuracy and often candidates disadvantage themselves with incomprehensible spelling and syntax. GCE French Report January 2014/JF 28/2/14 4
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