WELSH JOINT EDUCATION COMMITTEE

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:
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)
Q.2
Lindsey Davies
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.
(Mean mark 2.8)
There are still problems with this grammatical exercise.
Poor spelling was a problem, but also poor application of grammar:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Quand, conte - popular incorrect choices.
Many missed the feminine agreement… ée (Ariane is speaking) or put the
infinitive.
Occasional mis-spelling vraiEment.
Mostly correct.
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.
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1
The answers can be found in chronological order in the text.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(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)
Q.4
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.
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.
(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.
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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)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
Q.6
Well-translated although a common error was “more informed” for mieux
informés. C’est pourquoi – because = 0. Consummaters = 0
Il existe – it exists = 0 une trentaine not well known and popularly translated
as “a third/ 300”.
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”.
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.
Quite well done although there was some confusion over dure (feminine
adjective), with many thinking it was the present tense of durer.
Pleasing. The future tense was generally recognised and translated
appropriately. Where partage was translated as “share” this was incorrect.
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.
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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
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