Year 13 french

By now you have completed level 2 and hopefully you are developing a love of the language and culture. The NCEA Level 3 course aims at assessing your listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, together with your understanding of the way of life in French speaking countries. It is expected that by the end of Year 13 that you achieve personal independence in the language.

This means that you are able to:

• take part in general conversation with French speakers, understand much of what is said, and contribute relevant comments

• explain and discuss many of their own ideas and opinions

• use language creatively

• read a variety of authentic materials

• write expressively for a range of purposes

• use a range of language-learning strategies effectively.

You will use language variably and effectively to express and justify your own ideas and opinions and support or challenge those of others. You will be able to use and identify the linguistic and cultural forms that guide interpretation and enable you to respond critically to texts. 

You will be required to listen to, to read and to comment in French upon a wide variety of material, drawn from set courses, films, newspapers, magazines, literary texts, television and radio broadcasts. This material will focus on functional language which will enable you to communicate in French with native speakers in New Zealand or in a French-speaking country. The vocabulary and grammatical structures required are defined in the National French Curriculum, Levels 1 to 8. These will be provided to you throughout the year. This will aim to encourage the development of the skills of sensible guessing of meaning from context and selecting key information. 

Course content focuses on:

•  communicating information, ideas, and opinions through increasingly complex and varied texts;

• exploring the views of others, developing and sharing personal perspectives and

•  engaging in sustained interaction and producing extended text.

You will have the opportunity to sit the internationally recognised DELF Scolaire examinations in August. Year 13 usually sit B1 or B2 level. There is a cost to take these tests. 

You may choose to sit the scholarship exam at the end of the year.  Whilst this does not require any extra vocabulary knowledge or grammatical structures, the style of the the exam is unlike any other you have taken. It requires a lot of practice and extra work in your own time. Scholarship sessions are held at lunchtimes by Mr Mance. 

Obviously you need to want to be able to speak French, so be ready to do that! Have an open mind, curiosity and be ready to be taken out of your comfort zone!

To gain entry to this course, you should have at least 14 credits in NCEA Level 2 French. Other students may gain entry at the discretion of the HOD – consultation is required.

If you want to start from a beginners level, you are also more than welcome to join the class. You will need to be willing to learn independently online. You would not gain any NCEA credits

You will be able to achieve 24 credits at Level 3. There are 5 standards. 3 are internals (spoken presentation, interaction and writing in French). 2 are externally assessed (reading and listening).

You will also have the opportunity to sit the internationally recognised DELF Scolaire examination in August. Year 13 usually sit B1 or B12 level. There is a cost to take these tests.

NZQA Subject Resources

Click here to find out more about the NCEA standards for French

School Policy for NCEA Assessment

You should be aware of the school procedures for NCEA assessment.  They can be found on the school website at this link. There you will find answers to frequently asked questions about how NCEA works as well as guidance about how to apply for extensions, reconsiderations or the process for withdrawing from a standard.