Homelessness, terrorism, and moving house: they're not quite the topics a person needs for doing business or taking a holiday in France, but they were among those featured on this year's Leaving Cert higher level French paper.
Students were divided on the French aural exam, with some taking to Twitter to declare the listening element was too hard, and others saying it was brilliant.
The written exam, however, was reasonably current and straightforward, according to Amanda Quinn, a French teacher at Pobalscoil Chlioch in Falcarach, Co Donegal. "The language was familiar to students, and it was straightforward, and most of the vocabulary and verbs would have been accessible too."
Quinn praised some of the written questions on the paper, which included whether people should be able to vote at the age of 16 and whether young people are addicted to their mobile phone. “These are current, and age appropriate,” she said. “Overall, the paper was reasonably engaging.”
One question, which focused on terrorism, provided an opportunity for students to write about the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris earlier this year, despite the paper being set last October.
The ordinary level French paper was very fair and the questions were manageable, said Quinn. Comprehension topics included selfies, the French mayoral system, an interview with a French chef, and an extract from a detective novel. “As for the written sections, they had to answer two out of six questions, including a short CV, a cloze test [a fill-in-the-gaps exercise], a postcard, a message, a formal letter, and a diary. There was nothing unfair or unexpected.”
Natasha Lynch, managing director of EssentialFrench.ie, said the syllabus has too heavy an emphasis on the written word. "Leaving Cert Irish students earn 40 per cent of their marks for oral conversation; it's about time we looked at doing something similar for French," she said. "Big name companies like Apple and Google, with bases in Ireland, are looking abroad for people with language skills, and yet the Modern Languages in Primary School Initiative, which introduced national school students to a European language, was dropped."
Lynch said the comprehension question on homelessness was “nice and straightforward” but some students may have struggled in other comprehensions if they weren’t familiar with a particular word. Overall, both papers were doable, she said.
TRY THIS AT HOME Leaving Cert French, higher level En Irlande, la situation des personnes sans domicile fixe (SDF) est assez grave. À votre avis, est-ce qu'on fait assez pour résoudre ce problème ?
