French

Course Overview

National 4/5 French aims to further develop the language previously studied at level 3/4 in S3. Learning a foreign language encourages children and young people to broaden their horizons as they explore the language and its associated culture. In addition, the study of a language plays an important role in the development of literacy skills. The National 5 French course builds on the Experiences and Outcomes at level 4 and aims to increase knowledge and understanding of the language. A range of topics is studied within the contexts of: 

• Society 

• Learning 

• Employability 

• Culture 

We explore cultural aspects of the country whose language students are learning and they will become familiar with and learn to apply the rules of the language. 

Learning and Teaching Approaches

In French students will further develop their skills of Reading, Writing, Listening and Talking. They will extend their vocabulary and they will broaden their knowledge about how the language works, enabling them to understand and use the language at a more advanced level. Activities include paired speaking, collaborative and independent reading of authentic foreign language texts, listening to recordings of native speakers, watching video clips or films, writing for a variety of purposes, use of ICT to create presentations, group and individual work. 

Homework

Students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning by working regularly at home on the learning of new vocabulary and sentence structures and revising previous work. To reinforce class work students may also have reading, listening or writing tasks to complete. 

Assessment Approaches

Course assessment at National 4:

• Internally assessed with no external exam

Course assessment at National 5: 

• Assignment (talking) – 30 marks (25%) 

• Question Paper 1: 30 marks (reading) (25%) 

• Question Paper 1: 20 marks (writing) (25%) 

• Question Paper 2: 20 marks (listening) (25%)