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French: Any good topics?


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I have a practice French oral in two weeks but the question sheet needs to be handed in tomorrow. I have yet to find a good or suitable article for my presentation.

Anyone know any good topics? Or good websites with articles? I've already checked Google actualities and France24.

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The new syllabus for French B starts for May 2013 exam takers.

The course comprises five topics: three from the core and two chosen from the five options. At least two aspects must be covered in each of the five topics that make up the course. Additionally, at HL students must read two works of literature.

There are three topics in the core.

Communication and media

Global issues

Social relationships

Communication and media

How people interact, transmit and gather data for the purposes of information and entertainment.

Possible aspects to cover:

advertising

bias in media

censorship

internet

mail

press

radio and television

sensationalism in media

telephone.

Global issues

Current matters and future scenarios that have an impact at a regional, national and/or international level, bearing in mind that they need to be addressed from the perspective of the target language’s culture(s).

Possible aspects to cover:

drugs

energy reserves

food and water

global warming, climate change, natural disasters

globalization

international economy

migration (rural–urban, or international)

poverty and famine

racism, prejudice, discrimination

the effect of man on nature

the environment and sustainability.

Social relationships

How people interrelate and behave—as members of a community, individually and in groups.

Possible aspects to cover:

celebrations, social and religious events

educational system

language and cultural identity, or self-identity

linguistic dominance

minorities

multilingualism

nationalism, patriotism, fanaticism

relationships (friendship, work, family)

social and/or political structures

social behaviours and stances

taboos versus what is socially acceptable.

Options

There are five topics in the options.

Cultural diversity

Customs and traditions

Health

Leisure

Science and technology

So probably one of your oral can be based around these topics?

If you're not following the new syllabus, I think the basic criteria for your topic is either something revolving around your topics that you've covered in class, or a contemporary article from the newspaper.

My friends did quite interesting topics for their exams this year including:

- Alcoholism in France

- The effect of the economic turndown on the French economy

- Bullying in France

There were all quite good in French so they were able to tackle these topics quite well, I guess if you really want to find a topic, find something that you're interested in or basically something you can manage without constantly looking at your notes.

Good luck!

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In your list about the changes to the syllabus, was there anything about changes to the oral?? As far as I'm aware, the orals (individual) is on whatever topic you wish. Although if it's true about the pre-prescribed topic for the oral, you should talk to your teacher asap so you can prepare on something similar. If not:

You must link it to French/francophone culture. So media, colonisation, politics, literature...anything.

You need a research question/hypothesis that you argue during your oral. That helps with structure.

I did mine on the effects of the French colonisation on the indigenous population of New Caledonia. It was so easy to write. I wrote it when I was in New Caledonia after going to the library at the cultural centre...although clearly you could get the same info from the internet. There are so many French colonised countries you could talk about. Also, think about the Magrheb region of North Africa. You could discuss the French involvement in the current political situation! That would be good/very relevant! :)

Also, for the French orals, I recommend trying to predict the questions your teacher will ask you. 2-3 minutes after the oral is questions based on your speech. Think about which questions you will be asked. I wrote down a few potential answers and memorised most of it. One of them came up, and I was able to lead my answer in the direction I wanted to so I was able to talk about the other stuff I had prepared. The same for the general questions. It's good if your teacher knows you well because they may ask something obvious about you/your dreams. They often may ask a question about your reasonings for doing IB/if you like it (at least at my school they did). Also, try and give long answers to the questions asked...it reduces the amount of questions your teacher will ask you. Memorise some good lines that you can throw in when you can't think of much: "Il y a certains qui disent que...." "mais, il y en a d'autres qui sont persuades que...." etc etc

Bonne chance!! :)

Edited by Matthew Sinclair
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