Quick help needed please re: A Level French!

[AugustAngst]

DS unexpectedly got an A* in GCSE French and is now thinking of taking it at A level - needs to decide in time for his sixth form college enrolment interview tomorrow.

This would be instead of Economics which was only ever chosen as a convenient 4th as he couldn't decide on any other 4th. He did quite enjoy Econ. on the open day. The 3 definites are Maths, Geog & Hist.

He has no clue what he wants to do post-18. We have gone round in circles about the pros and cons of French/Economics. I'm thinking that with the decline in numbers taking languages it could well be an asset jobwise as well as the general usefulness of having a language.

He's always loved French so that's pretty important I suppose - whereas Economics is a bit of an unknown.

Any comments welcome especially re: leap from GCSE to A level as I've read that it's huge for languages?

I think the leap from GCSE to A-level is a big one whatever the subject.
I'd encourage him to go for it.
At least he knows he likes French, and so far has been good at it. Economics may be the same, or may not - it's a bit of an unknown.

My friends daughter gave A level French up but her mate did very well, despite similar GCSE grades (I think they both got A not A*). The difference seemed to be that one was a confident speaker and good with grammar whereas the other had an amazing memory and most of her scores came from the memory game that is GCSE languages nowadays.

To be honest, I think she would have been fine if it had been one of her major subjects and the commute wasn't so long but she picked hard other choices too, so it was just to much for her. Her friend who continued did very well indeed and will be travelling to France with her degree (although it is not a language degree).

Coolas
Surely you are not saying only bilingual kids get the highest possible marks? How many bilingual,kids in the UK are there?

Thank you all. He's going to discuss with the admissions tutor today. The more he's thought about it the keener he is to do French. He'd be quite happy with trips.

What type of learner is he? He must be hardworking to have gained an A* but is he an independent learner who will instinctively try to go that little bit further or is he likely to just follow teachers' instructions?

The leap is huge between GCSE and AS because students are suddenly asked to not only use advanced french but also to think independently on a number of complex subjects. EG: at GCSE, he may have had to describe his favourite film using a bucket list of expressions. At AS, he will have to discuss the pros and cons of the french cinematic exception, the various aspects of independent cinema, etc. so if he enjoys reading, researching and he enjoys the linguistic aspect as well, I'd say he should go for it.

There are some very good (and easy!) strategies he can put in place at the beginning to help with the language and the cultural data. I'm sure his teacher(s) will help him with that. The secret is to keep on top of everything and accept that it will be hard (and therefore not to be discouraged too easily). I wish him good luck, whatever subject he chooses

I don't really think that is the case about bilingual kids. A Levels are designed for non-bilingual kids. Nor do I think that just two weeks in France would make that much difference except in terms of enthusiasm and experience of culture. The jump from GCSE is pretty big. I'd say the most important thing is to have a really solid grasp of the grammar required at GCSE. You can get a good grade at GCSE while not being shit hot at the grammar, but you really need that solid foundation when you start learning the harder stuff post-GCSE.

Dd's exchange visit in February hugely helped with her speaking and listening - was only for a week.

A level is different from GCSE French (well obviously!) but what dd really found different was having to write essays with an argument, and using the same sorts of rhetorical features that up til then she had only ever used for writing in English. So where at GCSE you might need to write which sports you do, for example, at AS you'd be writing 'is sport important for mental well being' type essays. So, new skills which take a while to get used to, but not beyond abilities of a child who likes languages. That said, of all dds ASs (history, eng lit, maths and French) she has found French the biggest leap.

Does the syllabus include French literature? Ds is taking German a level ( cambridge internaional) and has three set texts - big jump from gcse and writing about your hobbies.

I did both subjects at a level. I loved French although the literature was a bit of a shock. 4 texts studied in French, 2 answered in french and 2 in English. Had to write critical appreciation of novels and discuss all in French.

Everyone thought I'd be great at economics because I did well at gcse maths but in reality I hated it and barely scraped an E. There's a lot of maths and theory with it.

The jump from GCSE to AS is massive. DD1 was predicted A/B at GCSE, got a very high A, with a* in both the spoken and one of the papers. Was always planning to take AS, told she was mad to be taking both French and Maths. Maybe they clashed on her old schools timetable for a reason, but she changed schools (her other 2 subjects Los clashed).
Crashed badly in French pretty much from the start. Advised her to swap it but she wouldn't listen. Ended up with a U at AS, and think it also had a negative affect on her overall results too.
She's not a good independent learner though, English was her weakest subject, no France connections, not a great memory and she struggles to write essays.
Maths on the other hand went better than expected.

GCSES in MFL are really poor prep for a level IMVHO. The jump is silly. That said a committed student can manage it with hard graft.

shanghai whichever exam board dd is doing has set texts at A2, so she'll be starting them this year.

My DD did french A level. Lots and lots of grammar particularly in year 12. However, she is doing french as a joint honours at uni and found her offers were lower by at least a grade than people not doing her subject combined with MFL.