Year 7 French

[mrspl]

I have a daughter in Year 7. She is learning French at school and she hates it! She makes no effort at all with any French homework.

Her target for this term was to reach level 2c,so was very pleased that she came home last week with a letter saying that she has reached level 2b.

Could anybody explain what these levels mean. She is working at level 5 for most other subjects but i know languages are scored differently. Is level 2b low, average? We have been given no indication of what it means. According to my DD she is 'rubbish' at French.

Thanks!

[bigTillyMint]

I think that because they only start MFL in Y7 (though some may have done it in Primary), their levels will be much lower. I think they aim for a level 3? by the end of Y7, so it sounds like she's pretty much on track as we are only halfway through the year.

How many lessons does she do a week because that must affect it - DD does an hour of French and an hour of Spanish a week which doesn't sound much to me, but they have to fit in everything else too!

[mrspl]

She does 2 lessons a week of French I think. After half term the top set will be doing Spanish as well. What DD has been telling me i had thought that she would be one of the ones continuing with just French.

However i have now been told that she is being put in the top set and will be doing Spanish as well as French. I am really pleased about this, but was suprised! I didn't think 2B was 'top set' level. I am just worried about her struggling with two languages.

I think i'll have to boost her confidence a little. She is obviously not as bad as she thinks.

[bigTillyMint]

Well they obviously think she is capable - it's hard to think you are any good when all you know are a few words and phrases at the start

DD initially got a little bit muddled with French and Spanish, but seems to now (after a term and a half) know which word goes with which language! The two languages are quite similar in some ways and it seems to help her to see the similarity.

[Bonsoir]

Why don't you try to interest her in all things French? What are her interests? France is full of things that appeal to teenage girls, like fashion, make-up, beauty products, beaches, sex...

[bigTillyMint]

Sex!!!!!!!!!

They are 11.

Anyway, DD has more than enough interest at school

[Bonsoir]

Many, many years ago I used to tutor French to teenage girls. I tell you: the very best way to get them interested was to talk about boys

[Tinuviel]

Well we have just assessed our year 7s and levels range from 1-4. Obviously this is only on 2 pieces of work. I have bottom set and they were achieving levels 2-3. So at our school she wouldn't be top set (who seemed to be getting Levels 3-4). I work in a fairly good school in a very deprived area (fairly good for where it is!!)

However, different schools apply the levels differently and I certainly wouldn't put any of my bottom set as working consistently at level 3 - they are mostly level 2c/2b.

[bigTillyMint]

That's interesting Tinuviel - DD appears to be working at level 4, but that is jumping through the relevant hoops AFAIC - remembering to use connective, negatives, etc for a piece of written work.

We are off to France and will be seeing our French friends so will be interesting to see what she can put into practice