Leaving Cert Oral Exam – Structure and Communication

PART 5 LEAVING CERT FRENCH ORAL EXAM – STRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATION

This is the final blog in a series of 5 about the Leaving Cert Oral exam.

In this blog entry, we have taken the Chief Examiner’s Reports from both 2010 and 2016 and looked at how candidates performed. In both, the Structure and Communication components of the exam, which between them, account for 60 marks out of a possible 100.

FIRSTLY… STRUCTURE 30% OF THE LEAVING CERT ORAL EXAM… 

As with other areas of performance, candidates’ ability to express themselves accurately and grammatically varied widely.

Many candidates had a good grasp of the main tenses, i.e…

• Present.
• Passé Composé.
• Future.

More able candidates were able to use complex tenses, such as…

• The Imperfect.
• The Conditional.
• Subjunctive, along with subordinate clauses and idiomatic phrases.

On the other hand…

• Certain candidates were unable to differentiate between the tenses, pronouncing all verb endings the same.
• In short, it was impossible for the examiner to determine which tense was being attempted.

Negatives proved difficult for many candidates, particularly in…

• The Passé Composé, for example, je n’ai jamais visité / je ne suis pas allé.
• The verbs c’est and il y a, as well as avoir and être, were sometimes confused, especially when discussing age, e.g. je suis 18 ans.
• Questions posed in the Future Tense were often not recognised by candidates.
• The rules for agreement of adjectives, even in words where the gender was obvious. For example, elle est sportive, il est beau, ma sœur, were regularly not respected.
• Expressions of quantity, for example, beaucoup de / trop de were often incorrect, and basic errors, such as à le instead of au, and de les instead of des, regularly occurred.

In many cases, grammatical errors impeded communication…

• This was not the most impressive feature of the average candidate’s performance.
• There were however some candidates who displayed a wonderful grasp of French Grammar.

Example of very good candidates use of grammar was the ability to use basic tenses very well and manipulate other verb forms, such as…

• Compound tenses.
• The Infinitive.
• The imperfect.
• The conditional.
• The present subjunctive.
• Accurate use of simple pronouns.
• Accurate use of negatives.

However…

• Some candidates found it difficult to formulate short, simple sentences.
• Candidates are expected to manipulate the present, past & future tenses with ease.
• They should be able to introduce simple pronouns, adjectives and prepositions appropriately.
• Verbs are still a major issue for some candidates.
• Some candidates only answered in the present tense form of the verb
• Some candidates used “je”  + infinitive in answering all their questions.
• Correct manipulation of the negative in compound tenses was rare!

SECONDLY… COMMUNICATION 30%… 

The more able candidates…

• Were able to sustain a natural conversation in French, dealing with topics ranging from their everyday life to more abstract topics requiring some discussion.
• These candidates understood virtually all questions.
• They did not reject any topic proffered by the examiner. They were willing and able to respond in a spontaneous and authentic manner.
• Students expressed their opinions freely, and had the ability to develop a subject without needing constant prompting.

However…

Other candidates were hesitant to venture beyond the comfort zone of their prepared material. They instead, relied on long sections of learned-off material, often poorly pronounced.

The examiner…

• If the examiner intervened gently, in order to try to elicit a more authentic response, many candidates persisted with their prepared paragraphs, rather than genuinely trying to take part in a conversation.
• They did not appear to have the necessary strategies to overcome any gaps in vocabulary or lack of opinions on a particular subject.

Examiners commented on a lack of authenticity in some class groups, for example…

• Where every candidate expressed a liking for the same TV programme.
• The same school subject, or the same film or book.
• All repeated the same few lines about their school tour.
• How they spent the previous weekend.
• Or what they did during the Easter holidays.

Document…

• At times, they all presented a document on the same theme.
• In such cases, candidates appeared to view the oral examination as a test of memory, rather than as a personal, individual conversation where the examiner gets to know the candidate and their opinions, and thus is able to determine his/her level of oral proficiency.

Less able candidates…

• Needed questions, to be reformulated.
• They focused on one word instead of on the whole sentence.
• Their answers were often inappropriate.
• However, examiners noted a great willingness to try and converse.

Candidates, who struggled with comprehension and who lacked the necessary basic 15 vocabulary and knowledge of structures to construct full answers.

• These candidates were rewarded for their efforts.

In order to score highly here…

• Candidates must demonstrate an ability to sustain a natural, flowing & comprehensible conversation in French over 12 minutes.

Conversation deals with…

• Basic details of candidate’s day-to-day life.
• Expressions of feelings, impressions & opinions.

The candidate…

• Should have no difficulty in understanding virtually all questions.
• Give a spontaneous & authentic reply.
• Should rarely reject any topic proffered by the examiner.
• There should be NO recourse to long extracts learnt off by heart.
• Should be willing to take up the challenge of moving beyond the realm of their prepared topics into other related areas.
• French used should be easily understood by a French native with no English.
• Good pronunciation is a prerequisite for effective communication.

Failure to achieve high marks in communication was attributed in some way to the following…

• Unwillingness or hesitancy of candidate in going beyond what he/she has learnt despite gentle encouragement by the examiner.
• Over-reliance of long sections, of learnt-off material.
• Tendency to misinterpret the question

 

Our  Leaving Cert French Oral Notes Booklet is a 64 page document, which you receive in .pdf format and contains over 100 sample questions and answers to help you with your preparation.