French speaking part of GCSE?

[TawnyPippit]

Does anyone know what the French speaking test consists of at GCSE? Is there for example a set vocabulary to be picked from, or is it general free ranging conversation?

DS has his straight after Easter and his spoken French is a bit, 'ow you say, merde at the moment. My French peaked at O level in, ahem, 1980 but fortunately DH speaks pretty good French so is going to do some stuff with DS over Easter. It will only work if I can keep them both focussed on the specific task in hand, so if anyone has any info it would be gratefully received.

Merci!

Exam board? AQA there's a roleplay and a photocard element where they describe what's on the photo and then answer some questions.
Then they have a general conversation based on two of the three themes that haven't been covered by the roleplay. www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/french-8658/specification-at-a-glance

He needs to be able to narrate events, be fairly spontaneous, have a non anglicised accent, use opinions (and justify them) and use a range of tenses.

Do you know the exam board?
AQA?
Eduqas?

Each exam board has a slightly different system.
There is usually a role play, a photo card discussion, and then a ‘general conversation’.

Blimey, Rowena, I'm not sure he could do that in English...

I just checked, and its Edexcel iGCSE.

The photocard thing makes sense - I remember him having a beach scene to comment on at the mocks. I will hie me over to the Edexcel syllabus and see what it says.

I know Tawny! Hoping the grade boundaries are low in the Summer.

You and me both!

Bonne chance!

Surely his school will have gone through it. He will have been studying various themes and will be asked questions on 2 of them and to get good grades will have to use a variety of tenses and also the photo card description.

D'S is doing the Edexcel igcse too but they have been practising over the course of year 10 and 11.

My DD is going French igcse too...

Its a presentation on a Photocard (I cant remember how long) I think its 1 to 2 minutes with the teacher asking questions afterwards.
Then questions on two of the five topics they have learnt (but teacher chooses so they have to know all 5 and I think it excludes the topic of their photocard)
At Home and Abroad
Education and Employment
House, Home and daily routines
The modern world nd environment
Social activities, fitness and health

DS had his today. Sample questions included ‘describe a celebrity you admire’, ‘where did you go on your holidays last summer’, ‘what do you do to help the environment (apparently he has recently bought a dustbin of recycling) and the ultimate winner, ‘If you won the lottery, how would you redecorate your bedroom?’

I like the last one @kingscotestaff

have a non anglicised accent

That's pretty hard! Do you mean you have to pronounce the words properly, which isn't the same as not having a British accent.

I'd have failed my A level if that was the case as I can't pronounce a German R, which gives me a horrible English accent. Can't do anything about it.

It's pronunciation which they have to try and conquer (hard) not get rid of an accent (extremely hard if not impossible even for those who have lived there for years).

Use phrases like "in my opinion" as much as possible and try to keep the conversation going, which is tricky for most teens in English!

Dd’s problem is that she is monosyllabic in English, so any question such as, “How would you redecorate your bedroom?” Would be met with something like, “Grey.”

And as for asking the other person questions!!!! Does this not come across as a bit, er, smartarse though? “And what would you yourself do to ameliorate your carbon footprint, Madame Smith?” (In non-anglicised accent, naturellement...)

That's rubbish about asking the examiner questions. My DS is just like your DD LadyinCement and he was fine.

No @itstimeforanamechange The AQA markscheme clarifies non anglicised!

And aqa they do definitely have to ask a question

Poor kids!

The question can be as simple as "et vous?" at the end.

So they could say "I like swimming at the weekend. Et vous? (And you?)"