Welcome to Year 13 French at Jumeirah College

It is estimated that French is spoken by 76 million people as a native language throughout the world and by about 280 million people as a second or third language. French is the official language in 31 countries throughout the world and has significant speakers in 54 countries.
The A2 French course will enable students to develop and build on the skills acquired at AS level. The course will provide a further insight into French culture and society and provide students with a sound basis for further study at University level. The students will follow the AQA specification.

Yearly Overview:

Students will study nine main topic areas and two cultural topics:

• Pollution
• Energy
• Protecting the Planet
• Immigration
• Integration
• Racism
• Wealth and Poverty
• Law and order
• Impact of scientific and technological progress
• A French Region:  Ile-de-France
• A period of 20th Century: the Second world War

Curriculum Organisation

• Students receive 6  lessons of French per week plus an additional hour intensive speaking practice with our French assistant
• The work covered is from the textbook ‘Elan 2 second edition’. This is supplemented with authentic reading articles taken from newspapers and magazines, worksheets, online exercises and web based research.

Independent Study

• Homework will be set at the end of each lesson.
• All homework and deadlines will be recorded in student planners.
• Homework should be completed to the highest standard and presentation should follow the department’s guidelines.
• It is obligatory that students use language websites to consolidate language / grammar covered in class and to research the topics thoroughly and independently.
• Our library is stocked with a number of French books and magazines which provide extension activities for our students.

Assessment and Reporting

Ongoing informal assessment will take place in class throughout the year in all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking).

Formal Assessment

The A2 specification has 2 units

Unit 3: Listening, Reading and Writing

Externally examined:

Written paper:  2 hours 30 minutes
Weighting:  35% of total A level marks

This unit assesses listening, reading and essay writing skills. The reading material will include items such as extracts from magazines, reports and books.

Unit 4: Speaking Test

Timings: 35 minutes
Weighting: 15% of the total A level marks  

The unit consists of 2 parts

Students will have 20 minutes supervised preparation time during which they should prepare one of two cards given to them by the examiner.  Students will present a point of view based on one of the A2 topic areas and take part in a conversation covering the two cultural topics studied during the course

Unit 4 will be taped and marked by an external AQA examiner.

Extra Curricular Opportunities

• Language revision classes
• Regular visits to the Alliance Fraçaise (French Alliance) in Dubai which is a resource centre for the French language. The Alliance also holds French cultural events and language classes for students of all ages.
www.afdubai.com

Useful websites

www.monjtquotidien.com
www.internaute.com
www.dulwich.org.uk
www.europeinfos.com
www.mediajunior.com
www.CALL@Hull
www.bonjourdefrance.com
www.tv5.org
www.rfi.fr
www.zut.org.uk
www.linguascope.com
www.frenchteacher.net
www.jde.fr
www.google.fr
www.fr.yahoo.com
www.ados.fr
www.lesclesjunior.com
www.radiofrance.fr
www.bbc.co.uk
www.touslesmedias.com
www.realfrench.net

Newspapers and magazines

A large number are available on line

http://corumcle.edres74.ac-grenoble.fr/presse/pressefr.htm

(provides a link to all major French newspapers)

Grammar / Vocabulary books

Recommended self study grammar books:

La grammaire en clair – Rogers and Long (Nelson)

Help Yourself To Advanced French – Ribiere and Marriott (Longman)