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The GCSE in Applied French
Principles of teaching
Use of authentic work-related contexts
Authentic work-related contexts will motivate students and help them to see the value of the Applied GCSE French course. Extended projects such as those described below can cover all four skills as well as many of the generic topic areas (doc, 28KB).
Examples of use of authentic work-related projects
Links with a company with UK and French branches
Babington Community Technology College has formed a link with Office Depot, a global supplier of office products and services. Students visit the Leicester branch of the company and have a tour. They are then shown a company video in French and given examples of how French is used within the company. Later in the course the class is taken to Paris to see the French factory. The planning of the trip becomes the responsibility of the students, including the travel arrangements. Because the stu dents have to plan the budget and finances, funding is obtained from money allocated within the school for Business Enterprise. A number of realistic activities linked to the organisation of the trip are created. For example, the students have to write to a hotel booking the group in and then a reason is found to change the arrangements so that they have to write again. They then have to book a coach to take them from the hotel to the factory as it is not served by public transport. The students are allowed to plan a fun itinerary for the rest of the time for which they have to research what there is to do in Paris. If they want to go up the Eiffel Tower they must write and enquire how much it will cost the group and what arrangements are necessary. All this correspondence becomes coursework. While in Paris, the students take photos and upon return captions are written for them. There are therefore opportunities to produce written work in the future tense (nous arriverons le…) and the past tense (Le groupe a visité…).
Creating a website in French
Again at Babington Community Technology College, a project is set up in which the students build a website for French rugby fans coming to Leicester to watch a European Cup match. Sections of the website cover where to stay, eat, shop, what to see and how to get there. This covers several of the Applied GCSE generic topics. The site is hosted on the school website but the Tigers put a link to it as does the French club. Students create the pages for the site after researching hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions and asking permission to include them on the site. The speaking interactions for the Applied GCSE French are then based on the different pages of the website. For example, the teacher examiner pretends to be a French fan wanting advice on where to eat or where to stay. The student will ask questions to the teacher examiner on his or her eating preferences, give advice on certain restaurants and then make a recommendation giving reasons for the choice. Students then also give directions to the restaurant. Visit Babington Community Technology College's website to see the website created by the students.
Use of ICT for more extended projects
Many schools set extended projects making use of ICT for research and presentation purposes. The Elliott School makes use of authentic brochures and websites to prepare students to produce a piece of coursework on a holiday centre/theme park. The students work through the tasks step by step and at the end use a writing frame to produce the piece of written coursework.
Download the coursework task (rtf 2.02 KB)
Download the Futuroscope brochure (pdf 3.18 MB)
Download the unit of the scheme of work (rtf 221 KB)
For further work on theme parks, go to the Vocational Languages Resource Bank (VLRB).
Preparing for the spoken interactions
Spoken interactions - Business (doc, 632KB), Leisure and Tourism (doc, 2.11MB), Media and Communication (doc, 370KB) - are extended role plays which are unique to the Applied GCSE French course. Interactions may be exploited to elicit a range of responses for candidates from A* - G. Therefore all candidates in a teaching group may attempt the same spoken interaction. Each interaction is worth 5% towards the total GCSE. Three interactions should be recorded. It is important for students to gain practice in this skill as to access the higher grades they will need to use their imagination and to produce more complex sentences with a good range of vocabulary, grammar and structures. It is essential for teachers to encourage candidates to volunteer information.
Preparation for the speaking interaction is crucial. It is expected that teachers will prepare students effectively with exposure to the general language and structures that they will need in the different situations that the interactions relate to. However, once a student has been allocated a speaking interaction for formal assessment, the student must undertake independent preparation unsupported by the teacher. It is fully acceptable for teachers to practice different interactions on particular themes or situations with their students in advance of their assessment but they must not rehearse a specific interaction that will feature in formal assessment. It is necessary therefore to have a supply of interactions that are used for classroom practice and another that are retained for live assessments.
A recording of all three spoken interactions will be required for each student. Teachers will need to plan how this is to be achieved throughout the course. The final interaction will need to be recorded in the final assessment window specified by the exam board. It is a good idea to record each interaction for the same student in one place (ie on one tape or CD or file). Each interaction should be carefully timed and last between 2 and 3 minutes. Feedback may be given to students on their performance in interactions to enable them to act upon this to improve in later interactions. It is important to explain the assessment grids to students so that they understand what is required and how to achieve their full potential.
Preparing for the presentation
Students are permitted to choose an appropriate topic for presentation. This should relate to the appropriate specialist context. Students may need some guidance on how to handle research for their presentations and how to undertake appropriate preparation. The presentation must not be perceived as an exercise in copying and rote-learning of sentences for regurgitation in the exam but should be seen as an opportunity for creative oral communication. It is advisable that students become used to preparing for and giving presentations through regular practice - possibly with expanded notes or reference to two or three PowerPoint slides in their first (and non-formally assessed) presentations.
In the formally assessed presentation conducted in the assessment window, students will not be allowed access to a script although they will be able to refer to a printout of key bullet points or a ‘spider diagram’ (no larger than an A5 piece of paper and containing no more than 30 words). It is important to note that the content of the presentation should be different to any written coursework.
Suggested presentation topics
Leisure and tourism
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Presentation on:
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Business
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Presentation on:
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Media and communication
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Presentation on:
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As with the interactions, it is important to match the timing of the presentation (1–2 minutes) and content of the follow up questions (1–2 minutes) very carefully to each learner. Learners will be marked for communication, application of language and accuracy. Each learner’s presentation must be recorded and be submitted to Edexcel with the recording of their final interaction.
Preparing for the on-screen tests
Listening and reading are assessed by on-screen examinations each lasting 40 minutes. These examinations are based on the generic topic areas (doc, 28KB) and are single tier of entry examinations. Students all sit the same examination regardless of specialism or whether they are following a single award GCSE or short course. Short courses are based on two skills (either listening and speaking or reading and writing). Students will need practice in using computers to complete reading and listening tasks under timed conditions. Suggested resources which may assist with this.
