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Original poster

10 yo passes GCSE FRENCH- why is this a big deal when...

19 replies

noonar · 13/10/2006 16:24

her parents are native french speakers from mauritius??

i just dont see why this was in today's independent. wouldnt you expect bilingual children to be a few years ahead when studying their second language. sure, if it was in french lit, that would be pretty good. but a language paper? i know she deserves praise, but why is this in the papers.

what do you think?

OP posts:

belgo · 13/10/2006 16:26

I'd be more impressed if she'd passed GCSE maths at age 10.

CarolinahowlingattheMoon · 13/10/2006 16:31

agree totally. Why was she even taking it?

(because she could, I suppose )

Mercy · 13/10/2006 16:32

But English speakers only take GCSE English at 16 don't they?. Reading and writing in another language is harder than just being able to speak it.

(btw I did O-levels so don't know if has changed, but certainly there was some literature involved)

belgo · 13/10/2006 16:32

I hope she got an A (or however many you can get!)

Original poster

noonar · 13/10/2006 16:40

mercy i know they do, but thats 'english as a first language' standard! if they sat an 'english as a second lang' paper- eg if they took an exam desingned for french pupils, surely any bright 10 /11 yr could pass.

OP posts:

Mercy · 13/10/2006 16:45

Don't know tbh. I was at school with a girl whose parents were French and she did A level French when the rest of us were doing O level.

Also there are several children in my dd's class who are bi-lingual, but they certainly can't read or write in both languages. I think to have the ability to do the written aspect in particular is pretty amazing for a 10 year old.

sarahalloween · 13/10/2006 16:51

As a French teacher I'm not surprised in the slightest. Even bright children from non native speaking families could pass it after a couple of years learning if they had the motivation and language skills.

Yes i am a cynic.

Original poster

noonar · 13/10/2006 16:53

sure, she does deserve praise, but not sure its newsworthy.

i did 'a' level french myself, and there is a big literature component, isnt there? not so with gcse, AFAIK. wasnt your friend at a big advantage? if you did as well as her, you should be v pleased, cos she had a massive head start, surely?

OP posts:

Blandmum · 13/10/2006 16:55

When I were a niper in Wales there were three standars of O level Welsh on offer.

Welsh lit and lang (just like the english lit and lang we all did)
Welsh as a second language....assumned you were not fluent, but could do a fair bit
Welsh as a MFL.

Welsh speeking schools would regularly put kids who would otherwise get no O levels in for one of the last wto as they were, for them, so easy.

Original poster

noonar · 13/10/2006 16:57

very interesting, martian.

OP posts:

CarolinahowlingattheMoon · 13/10/2006 16:59

no, no lit component in foreign language GCSEs (or wasn't when I took them).

It is all write a postcard to your French penfriend type stuff.

V basic and not all that much use in the country in question, sadly.

Blandmum · 13/10/2006 17:01

As a student teacher I had to sit in on a MFL lesson that I couldn't understand. I have had 6 hour long lessons in German in my life, so I sat in on a German listening exam practice for GCSE.

I got a D

CarolinahowlingattheMoon · 13/10/2006 17:07

it's a bit gutting to find you've spent 5 years having at least a couple of lessons a week and can barely buy yourself a croissant at the end of it.

There must be a better way of teaching languages in schools, surely?

LiliLaTigresse · 13/10/2006 17:26

well, I can't quite see why it's in the paper, but she's obviously done well because being raised bilingual isn't easy and she deserves praise.
I do think however that bilingual children do not get much help or recognition for what they achieve in school
we are lucky that we have a french school in Bristol and dd has attended classes there (full time nursery, then one day a week until this year when she only goes after school on mondays for 1 hour and a half of reading and writing)
but for most bilingual children it's just speaking with family, a bit of reading and dvds, and that's about it.
so maybe there is something there that needs to be addressed
I am very impressed that dd is doing french on a french curriculum and is one year ahead in that! [boastful emoticon]

HRHQueenOfQuotes · 13/10/2006 17:29

hmm interesting one - in Zimbabwe English is the Official language, but more the majority of people Shona is their mother tongue. In English GSCE (like here) they do lit as well as language. However in Shona GSCE they don't do Literature either - yet for the majority it's there mother tongue.........amazingly a lot more people pass the English GSCE than pass the Shona one....yet it's their mother tongue!

ingym23 · 15/10/2006 14:59

I grew up in Australia, and took senior French (so equivalent to your AS system I am guessing - not that I know too much about it). In my class was a native speaker from New Calendonia.

It was grossly unfair to the rest of us....but then you could argue that she was at a disadvantage in that everyone HAD to study English....

I think she ended up studying at the Sorbonne in Paris - I am happy if I go to Paris and can ask for a beer in French, and they don't respond in English!!!

So yeah, don't see what the big deal if the girl in this story can pass GCSE French...of course she should be able to!

fartmeistergeneral · 15/10/2006 15:17

am language graduate (from years ago!) and am always pissed off that they don't teach languages in a dedicated way in primary schools.

CarolinahowlingattheMoon · 15/10/2006 18:27

that would make so much sense, Fartmeistergeneral (lurve that name ).

Isn't children's language-learning ability supposed to deteriorate after 11yo or so?

DominiConnor · 15/10/2006 20:24

GCSE French is a meaningless badge.
When I was at a French school, they studied much the same "English* books as English kids used.
Once when I was struggling in a maths class
, they switched to doing it in English. Imagine doing that in England.
And no before you ask, I didn't get it in English either...

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