Welcome to Languages !

A very warm welcome to you all and a huge CONGRATULATIONS on choosing to continue with your language learning - we really do look forward to welcoming you into the languages team! Your post-16 course may be challenging and seem like a great deal of hard work but it will definitely be a rewarding, life enhancing experience that you will not regret. In order to best prepare for Year 12, you should keep up-to-date with news from France, ideally in the target language but everything that is going on in France and Francophonic countries should be of interest to you. Read, read and read! Online newspapers and magazines are full of useful vocabulary and ideas that will help you next year. Watch French films, watch some Netflix series, YouTube clips in French and listen to French music or podcasts to help improve your fluency in the language. 

Suggested reading

Anything at all in French! You may wish to try some of the below:

• Current affairs - www.tv5monde.fr, www.lemonde.fr, www.lepoint.fr 

• B1 & B2 level reading texts (with questions and answers too!) - https://french.kwiziq.com/learn/reading 

• Read the novel 'No et Moi' by Delphine de Vigan in English as this will be the novel we study at the end of Year 12

Suggested listening

Again, anything at all in French! This could be listening to French music or watching a series in French. You may equally wish to try some of the below:

• Current affairs - https://www.partajondelfdalf.com/category/comprehension-orale/ OR https://apprendre.tv5monde.com/fr 

Suggested research

Find out about your AQA A level https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/french/a-level/french-7652/specification

Read around and research the topic areas that you will be studying:

• The changing nature of family (La famille en voie de changement)

• The 'cyber-society' (La « cyber-société »)

• The place of voluntary work (Le rôle du bénévolat)

• A culture proud of its heritage (Une culture fière de son patrimoine)

• Contemporary francophone music (La musique francophone contemporaine)

• Cinema: the 7th art form (Cinéma : le septième art)

• Positive features of a diverse society (Les aspects positifs d'une société diverse)

• Life for the marginalised (Quelle vie pour les marginalisés ? )

• How criminals are treated (Comment on traite les criminels)

• Teenagers, the right to vote and political commitment (Les ados, le droit de vote et l'engagement politique)

• Demonstrations, strikes – who holds the power? (manifestations, grèves – à qui le pouvoir ? )

• Politics and immigration (La politique et l'immigration)

Suggested tasks

Keep an Independent Learning Log of all work that you do to complete the tasks below.

Task 1: Change all your phone and social media settings into French - it's a really good way to immerse yourself in the language!

Task 2: Join the KS4-KS5 Bridging Resources Google classroom. 

1. Link on the following link: https://classroom.google.com/c/MjIyNTY1ODM3NDFa?cjc=gzvzj64n

2. If you need the class code it is as follows: gzvzj64n

3. In the classroom, you will find different sections for French and Spanish A-Level. You will find some booklets to support your grammar and vocabulary learning.

Task 3:

A good understanding of grammar will be essential for success in your post-16 course so make sure that you fully understand tenses and structures that you learnt at GCSE. It would be a good idea to access online grammar tests - for example, look at www.linguno.com to practise verbs, tenses and general grammar. You could also create both a Duolingo www.duolingo.com account and a Quizlet account (if you don't already have one!) www.quizlet.com - these sites will help with sentence structure and vocabulary learning. 

Task 4:

You will also need to know how to use a dictionary correctly. Make sure you familiarise yourself with www.wordreference.com.

Task 5:

Not only will you be working with your teacher in the classroom, but you will also have weekly conversation lessons with a language assistant. So whatever you do, don’t forget to practise your spoken language if you can .. even if it means talking to yourself!

If you have any questions, need help or advice please feel free to email me at Claudia.Aguiar-Hemon@education.gg