A Level French Tutor

A Level French is a step up from previously studied French. Having an A Level French Tutor can really excel your learning and understanding of the subject.

The French language is spoken by more than 270 million people across the world. It is one of the most widely learned languages after English and Spanish. It is considered the lingua franca of diplomacy in the modern era. Additionally, it is the native language of world-leading thinkers in philosophy, literature, science, and political theory. A Level French builds on the grammar and vocabulary taught at GCSE. It introduces students to the unique challenges and pleasures of studying culture in another language. This includes literature, film, and current affairs. In addition to the practical benefits of language proficiency, students and university graduates of French enjoy an advantage in the job market. This is an A Level for anyone intending to pursue the humanities. It also suits those with an interest in France or linguistics.

Exam Boards

It’s important to identify which exam board your child’s school is following for A Level French as they do vary. For example, some exam boards structure oral examinations differently. Exam boards also diverge in their prescribed cultural topics. Having some knowledge of exam boards is great information to give to your A Level French Tutor. This will help them tailor their lessons with your child, to include relevant syllabus content. The main exam boards for A Level French are:

• Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA)
• Edexcel
• Cambridge Assessment International Education (CIE)

What is A Level French all about?

Though syllabuses and prescribed topics and texts do vary, students of A Level French are generally expected to gain confidence. They should demonstrate prowess in various registers and applications of the language.

Reading

Candidates must critically analyse a text. This includes understanding how the language’s syntax fundamentally functions. They should also understand why writers make lexical and syntactic choices for stylistic effect. Students must also extract and explain pertinent information from a text. This can be plain everyday French, journalism, or something more literary.

Writing

Candidates are required to communicate clearly and succinctly in multiple registers. They must also demonstrate a grasp of grammar and a broad vocabulary. This could involve answering a simple factual question or developing a considered response. They may respond to an argument or cultural topic in an essay. For some exam boards, such as CIE, candidates are required to respond to passages from a prescribed text. They must answer essay questions on this text.

Listening

Candidates are required to distil key takeaways from an audio passage. They must respond in clear and succinct English and French.

Speaking

Candidates are required to understand and respond to examiner prompts and a stimulus article. They should use appropriate content in an appropriate register. Your child should be able to demonstrate understanding of key ideas and themes of a stimulus article. They must also discuss one or two prescribed topics with an examiner. This involves presenting ideas, justifying opinions, and considering new perspectives in clear, accurate, and interesting French.

How an A Level French Tutor will help you do well

The foundation of your child’s success at French A Level will come from a solid understanding of grammar and a bank of interesting and varied vocabulary. This understanding will come in part from the fundamentals taught at GCSE. It is important that your child doesn’t focus on the cultural component of the A Level exam at the expense of their language skills. The cultural topics are designed to give students the chance to demonstrate complex French. Advanced constructions and specialist vocabulary are used for this purpose.

It is important to continue to build your child’s confidence and familiarity with the language and culture. Regularly exposing them to spoken French can help. This could be through travel or simply listening to the radio for 15 minutes daily. While speaking French may be uncomfortable at first, practising everyday conversation topics with a native speaker or qualified French tutor can set candidates apart. This is particularly evident in A Level oral exams. Here, candidates must present and discuss topics in considerably more depth than at GCSE.

For the cultural component of the A Level, it helps if your child finds a research topic they find genuinely interesting. This enthusiasm comes across in the oral exam. It also increases the likelihood of retaining information to use in written exams.

Your A Level French Tutor will spend a lot of time in the run up to the exam going through past papers. These provide the best preparation to help your child master each style of exam question. This will help your child to obtain higher marks.

Understand the mark scheme

As a parent, you need to understand how your child’s A Level French exams will be marked.  This is so that you know how to help them to obtain the best mark that they can achieve. All the exam boards publish detailed guidance on what they are looking for, including specimen marked answers. The examiner will be giving a specific number of marks for predetermined responses to each question.

Your child needs to know exactly what the examiner wants from them in each style of assessment. They then need to learn how to ‘tick the boxes’ on the mark scheme to ensure they pick up the most marks they can. Learning different exam question styles will be an essential part of your child’s time with their A Level French tutor.

Make a revision plan with an A Level French tutor

It is important that your child allows enough time for revision process. They need to organise their work properly. Your A Level French tutor will have a structured revision plan by the January of their exam year.

Quality revision with an A Level French tutor

Students should actively revise key grammar (conjugations and tenses), as well as vocabulary, connectives, and opinions. French revision can also be passive: playing a French show (e.g. France24) or podcast at the breakfast table or in the car can help your child familiarise themself with common speech patterns. Regularly reading simple French novellas and news articles improves comprehension speed, introduces new and impressive vocabulary, and prepares them for further study. When approaching exam season, doing past papers is vital for practising question styles and managing exam timings.

Before exam season, make sure your child has their notes in order! It is often helpful to check off notes against the requirement of a syllabus as the year goes on. Once you’re both confident that your child has covered and noted the whole syllabus, they can independently start to make revision notes and mind maps based on things such as vocabulary modules or cultural topics. The skills developed in this re-noting and reformulating are very helpful for planning and practising common discursive structures.

Before exam season, it is also important to liaise with teachers about any material that your child is finding difficult. The more notice you give them before exams, the more likely it is that they’ll be able to make time to offer support and go over tricky topics.

Throughout the academic year and revision period it is also helpful to think about how your child learns best. Do they like the pressure of a memory test or flashcards? Or mapping out key ideas helpful? Perhaps challenging themselves to write everything they know about a topic on one side of A4? Or talking things over with a parent, sibling, or tutor? Maybe recording useful or interesting constructions to play back on the bus? Everyone learns and revises differently!

Sitting public exams

Even after navigating the demands of GCSEs, students can feel immense pressure around the time of public exams, and it is part of your job as a parent to help them navigate this.  On a positive note, this can be a time of great personal growth for teenagers, as they specialise in academic interests, sustain hard work over many months and push through exam nerves. Talk to your child about managing their emotions and introduce important elements of self care, such as sufficient sleep and good nutrition.

A Level French tutor

The best way to support your child through their A Level French is to give them the tools and skills to succeed. Some targeted intervention with an experienced tutor can make all the difference. Our A Level French tutors are experienced, qualified teachers, Heads of Department and examiners who know the A Level French syllabuses back to front. They can teach your child in the manner they learn best, explain the latest mark schemes, coach unusual pronunciations, and dramatically improve their exam technique.

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