Name French GCSE

[Pages:89]Name _______________

French GCSE

Reading & Listening Revision Booklet

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Get ready for your listening exam

To help you prepare for the Listening Test in your French GCSE, follow these 10 top tips. They are grouped into 3 categories: A. Preparation B. Revising for the listening test C. During the listening test There is also an `On the day' checklist to help you not to forget the important tips for the day of your exam.

A. Preparation

1. Use past exam papers Look back at any past examination papers or sample papers and make a list of key words that appear regularly as well as vocabulary you do not know. Examination boards often have their `favourite' words they like to test. Keep a list of these words in a separate book or folder. In the days just before the listening test, look through and learn these lists. These items of vocabulary are very likely to appear again. At foundation and higher tier, it is important to use the word lists in the exam specification and learn as many as you can.

2. Get used to hearing French people speaking You will always be asked to listen to real French speakers in listening examinations, so try not to base your practice only on listening to your teacher or other native English speakers who speak French. Your course book will help you to listen to appropriate voices at appropriate pace and degree of difficulty, but it might also be useful to find other commercially produced material to listen to, or simply to watch French films or listen to French radio. Try to listen to the recordings that go with past examination or sample papers, too.

B. Revising for the listening test

3. Learn `families' of words with related meanings

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Learn as many `linked words' as you can manage. Some examples of the sorts of things often tested in French listening examinations include: a. piscine/natation/nager/lac b. cheval/?quitation c. ski/sports d'hiver/neige/piste d. barbant/ennuyeux/pas int?ressant e. cin?ma/films f. heureux/content g. triste/malheureux/pas content

Make your own lists and keep them together so that you can revise them quickly and easily.

4. Learn your negatives Listen very carefully for negatives. If you miss a negative, you will think a sentence means the exact opposite. Learn the most commonly tested: ne ... pas (not) ne ... jamais (never) ne ... personne (nobody) ne ...rien (nothing) ne ... plus (no longer) ne ... ni ... ni (neither ... nor)

There are other words which express negatives indirectly, such as sauf (except). Look at the following example: A question in the exam paper asks "When is the market open?" The answer to that question is contained in the sentence "Le march? est ouvert tous les jours sauf le mardi."

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If you don't know the word "sauf" or don't listen carefully to all the words, you might think the answer was either "every day" (tous les jours) or "Tuesday" (mardi). However, if you catch the word "sauf" you will be able to give the correct answer of "every day except Tuesday".

5. Similar spelling, different pronunciation Cognates (words which are spelt the same in French and in English) are not tested very often in listening, except at the easiest level. However it is worth noting down words such as "th??tre" which means theatre but is pronounced so differently that you might have difficulty understanding it. You might find it helpful to note down roughly how the word is pronounced, too. E.g. tay-ah-tr.

6. Similar sound, different meaning Pay special attention to `false friends' ? words which sound like English words but actually have a completely different meaning. For example, if you hear, "j'ai les cheveux raides", you might think the speaker has red hair, as "raides" sounds like the English word "red". In fact, it means, "straight", so you'd have lost a mark. Make lists of as many words like this as you can and listen out for them in the exam.

C. During the listening test

7. Use your preparation time well Make good and effective use of your preparation time immediately before the recording begins by reading through the question papers and thinking of the French for any pictures or icons there. For example, if there is a picture of a tree think of as many French words as possible associated with that picture e.g. arbre/bois/for?t and listen out for them during the recording. In addition, it is a good idea to check at the start of the test what type of answers you are going to have to give for each question, so you don't waste time when you're listening, wondering exactly what you have to do. For example, decide whether you have to fill a gap with a word/letter or select an answer from a selection of pictures, etc.

8. Listen all the way through Be prepared for answers to come anywhere on the recording, so listen immediately and do not switch off, even if you think that you have heard the answer you are listening for. Sometimes additional or contradictory information may follow, which could be vital in getting the correct answer.

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For example, if you are listening for a specific place that the speaker has visited and hear, "je suis all? ? la piscine", you might believe that you have found the correct answer and stop listening, only to miss the vital addition, "mais c'?tait ferm?, alors je suis all? au cin?ma."

9. Watch out for twists and turns Some questions appear straightforward, but you might hear `extra' information on the recording which could mislead you. In listening for the speaker's opinion about something you might hear other opinions too. Make sure you listen carefully to work out who is saying or thinks what. For example, if you are asked what the speaker thinks about skiing and hear "Mon fr?re aime le ski, mais je d?teste ?a." don't just write down the first thing you hear. The speaker hates skiing, it's his brother who likes it.

10. Listen for tone of voice Listen to the way things are said on the recording as this can often help with questions about opinions. If the speaker sounds negative or enthusiastic this can help you assess his or her opinion, even if you are unsure of the exact vocabulary they use

On the day In the tension of the exam it's all too easy to forget some of the things you've practised so hard. So learn this simple list and say it to yourself at the start of your exam to remind you what to listen out for and how to act. 1. Word families 2. Negatives 3. Cognates and false friends (sounds like ...) 4. Question types 5. Listen to everything 6. Twists and turns 7. Tone of voice

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Get ready for your reading exam

To help you prepare for the Reading Test in your French GCSE, follow these top tips. They are grouped into 3 categories: D. Preparation E. Revising for the reading test F. During the reading test There is also an `On the day' checklist to help you not to forget the important tips for the day of your exam.

A. Preparation

1. Use past exam papers Look back at any past examination papers or sample papers and make a list of key words that appear regularly as well as vocabulary you do not know. Examination boards often have their `favourite' words they like to test. Keep a list of these words in a separate book or folder. In the days just before the listening test, look through and learn these lists. These items of vocabulary are very likely to appear again. At foundation and higher tier, it is important to use the word lists in the exam specification and learn as many as you can.

2. Become familiar with question types The more familiar you can become with question types the less there will be for you to panic about when you open your exam paper! Here's a good example of how knowledge of a certain type of question can help you answer more questions correctly. In some multiple choice questions you may be asked to indicate whether a piece of information is true, false or not mentioned in the text. It is unlikely that there will be more than two `not mentioned' statements. The reason for this is that the examiner mainly wants to find out what you understand about the text. There wouldn't be much point in giving you lots of questions that had nothing at all to do with the text!

In such cases, statements which are not mentioned are often opinions or simple statements about topics not covered in the passage. If you are unsure of a response, it is probably better not to guess at "not mentioned" as there are usually fewer of these answers than true or false.

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