Blimey : MFL A levels have changed

I wish there were MFLs entitled "Writing only no need to speak at all to anyone" . Ds toyed with doing French A Level but just in time he spotted that the particular board his school does has a very large speaking component. That was a big no thank you from ds.

I enjoy learning new languages for the puzzle factor; I don't enjoy speaking at all. I can read books in a couple of languages but would pass out at the thought of having to ask for a cup of coffee, let alone having to discuss recycling methods!

German poster here. I studied English (to A level equiv.) and French (to A2 level?) at school in Germany. I also attended a British boarding school for one term in lower sixth form. (Not a great school, I should add.) That was in the 90s.

All my lessons in English and French (at my home school) were in the target language. Essays were written in the target language. (I mean, what is the point otherwise?) Written and oral exams were also always in the target language.

So then I went to British boarding school, where I took maths, English Lit and French A-levels. Me and my friend (who is also German) were top of the class in French, with hardly any effort. (Same with maths, actually.) My friend's French was excellent at the time, whereas mine was distinctly average! I was feeling very sorry for the Brits in the class who had clearly been subjected to mediocre teaching, with no emphasis on actually being able to speak the language. I thought that was very sad.

@Piggywaspushed the topic choice comes for the end of y13 when students are expected to research and present on a topic of their choosing. In reality I imagine a lot of teachers will push them in a particular direction.

With respect to the rote learning, if your DS is a grammar lover I'm sure he'll still do well. It's those who never really engaged with the grammar and 'just' rote learnt that will have the problem. I would also say that there is a big jump in MFL and there always has been. I always think it takes until Christmas for things to settle down.

Is he following a particular course book? My advise to students at the moment is to learn all of the vocab in the vocab sections, plus learning vocab they didn't know from texts we read. Some of this of course isn't advice but tests etc! For grammar they also have stuff to rote learn (verb formations etc) and they have websites/apps to practice from. That's certainly the best way to go in my opinion!

My 'A' level oral kicked off with a question about what my father did for a living. As his actual job title was a bit obscure and technical, I played safe and claimed he worked at the local university. "So do I" said my examiner. "Which department?"

After a momentary panic, I made something up and luckily I must have been quite fluent. She laughed and changed the subject - thankfully for me, she'd obviously decided that she was testing me on French not my ability to tell the truth!

The GCSE I did a couple of years ago was so different from my O Levels. I have an appalling memory and I found it very difficult to memorise a page and recite it to the examiner. I had practised and practised but after one sentence my mind went completely blank and she had to start the tape again.

Back in the 80s one had to do translation back and forth as well as compose a small essay. I can still remember: "A tiger has escaped from the zoo. Continue." My essay consisted of many "Au secours!"

A Level German spoken exam was terrible. Choice of two pictures. I thought mine was bad - someone throwing a cigarette out of a car into a gas mains. But then the people who had chosen the other picture staggered out of the room saying that picture B had been of a stone caught in a lawnmower

Gosh, it's amazing that I can remember the detail of all my exams. Not to mention that I occasionally have nightmares about doing A Level French (I didn't do A Level French, but wish I had rather than German.)

What a great thread for those of us who did MFL 'A' levels all those years ago! My mid 80s French texts were le Noeud de Viperes (Mauriac), Le Malade Imaginaire (Moliere) and three poets (Rimbaud, Baudelaire and de Vigny). Forgive the absence of accents. We wrote the literature essays in English but our teacher was French and made sure that we read everything - in depth - in the original.

2 years ago I taught an academically weaker boy (scraped c grades in maths,not in English). The gcse from last year encourages rote learning. He couldn't do this so he worked REALLY hard to understand the structure of the sentences and the grammar behind them, then he improvised his spoken and written tasks (60%) . He deserved a C, He got a D or E.
You then have students who CAN rote learn 300 words- they would get an A* but couldn't improvise - who is the better linguist?

vlooby I think you are right. I aced my GCSE and felt like I wasn't stretched. Then A - Level. ..

I'm really sad reading this! I've been teaching MFL for over 10 years and been a Head of department for a good few of those..... quick summary of my thoughts on thread:

GCSE current y12 took was appalling, you did not have to be a 'linguist ' to get best marks- in fact it could be a disadvantage!

ALevel and AS were fine before rewrite, but a lot changed, however a student sitting the gcse in summer 18+ will be miles better prepared. Essentially the fault is the GCSE.

I've just had a grammar loving pure linguist type, who got A* at GCSE get a B in the new AS. He'll get an A at the end of 2 years, I'm pretty sure, because that grammar knowledge will really help his expression.
Also choosing a topic of their own for the extended unit should be really engaging.

As far as I remember, essays in TL was a strong recommendation of ALCAB and I don't think ofqual would've certified the qualifications without this- but it has been essay in TL since 2009 at least,,..

I got A* at GCSE Spanish. I lasted one term of A Level. I was pretty fluent in Spanish and took the GCSE as an adult external candidate for vanity I speak even more than I did then and the thought of a Spanish A level still brings me out in a sweat. He has my sympathies and I hope it works out for him

We didn't have quite as many entrails in Latin. We had sex - Catullus. The themes were well beyond the experience of the sort of person taking Latin A-level... We had Tacitus in translation for GCSE, and Pliny for actual Latin.

I did French and German A level equivalent in Holland in 1986. We had to write essays in the target language but our literature exam was oral - in the target language though. So there I was talking about Madame Bovary and the portrayal of female characters in literature, and talking through a comparative analysis of Le Cid, Phedre and Jean Anouilh's Antigone (deliberate juxtaposition of dramas on my part). It was amazing and I loved it. I am so glad DD2 is doing the new style French GCSE, it has so much more content and substance. She loves it too.

I don't remember my German books - didn't love them quite so much - and my English (as foreign language) didn't count because I've been bilingual from age 10.

Can't beat a few good entrails, GU24mum. I might consult the oracles about the likely outcome of DD's mocks. (Did you do Tacitus as well?)

When I was in an English class in Germany (A'level equivalant) the whole lesson was in English! Thats partly why I went to my exchange partner's sister's lesson as my German wasn't very good.
My friends who did MFL back in the day certainly read the text in the target language and wrote essays in it (they did also privately get the English translation to read).
At O'level we attempted to write some Poetry in French - fortunately not something that was needed for the exam!

We did (mid 80s) - Therese Desqeyroux, Le Misanthrope, Le Neige en Deuil and Flaubert's Trois Contes - still can't look at a parrot without thinking about it............!

Lancelottie and GallicosCat - another mid 80s Latin student too - I remember learning reams of Virgil and Ovid - mostly about entrails being scattered around iirc!

I did French and German A Level in 1984.
In French, we read Therese Desqeroux, Le Roi Se Meurt, Le Petit Prince and Les Clos Du Roi.
In German, Bahnwarter Thiel, Irrungen Wirrungen, Die Physiker and another I can't remember!
All essays about the texts were written in English.
We did write essays in the TL, but these were based on fictional titles given in the exam.
Even back then, there were only two of us in the German class, but I seem to remember that the French class was quite full (maybe 20 students). There was certainly no-one who was fluent, or had a French/German parent.

Another 1980's student here. We did Eugenie Grande, La Porte Etroit, Antigone.

I recall being asked in the French oral 'What plays are you studying in your English Lit A level?'. That was a real spanner in the works as I tortuously attempted to explain the themes in The Tempest. The boy in after me got the same question and when he said it's about life on an island and a shipwreck the examiner said 'the girl before said it was about magic, good and evil..' . So I managed to stuff it up for two of us

Aaargh teaching not reaching!!

Sorry for typos, my phone doesn't like all this French and German!

Igotbills and other PPs, the new GCSE doesn't include rote learning, it is all exams, so anyone in current yr 11 or below will be much better prepped for a,level or even going to the country on question.

I am reaching dative case, imperfect tense, vocab on all kinds of things, booking a room, ordering food, as well as more complex stuff eg whether to get married and what career I would like. Much better honest!