French SL (as a second langauge)

[Amber]

I am going to take French SL next year. I have a few questions:

1) How many years of French should a personal approximatley have taken to be prepared for this class

2) Going into the class to what level should a person know

3) Is the class mostly written or verbal

4) What percent are the exams worth?

Thanks

Amber

[master135]

Is this french A2, B or ab inito?

[Amber]

B i think

[master135]

You probably need a minimum of 2 years prior experience.

Internal Assessment (Orals) - 30%

Paper 1: 40%

Paper 2: 30%

so the written exams are worth a total of 70%

Edited May 17, 2010 by master135

[Bishup]

You will mostly be assessed for your written. French B is dead easy you need to have some sort of feel of language. Best way to learn is now a few tenses. Listen to music, read lyrics, read books, speak, watch films. Don't learn from a textbook solely it will reduce your rate of progress.

Why don't you Canadians take A2?

[master135]

You will mostly be assessed for your written. French B is dead easy you need to have some sort of feel of language. Best way to learn is now a few tenses. Listen to music, read lyrics, read books, speak, watch films. Don't learn from a textbook solely it will reduce your rate of progress.

Why don't you Canadians take A2?

Many of those not in Quebec don't have the necessary experience in French to do it in A2. So B is usually whats offered. A majority of students in my year found even French B SL difficult - so A2 is out of the question.

[Amber]

I agree with the dude above ^^ I am not from Quebec. Not ALL of us speak french, in fact only a few actually do. Some people in Quebec sometimes can't even speak French. So you can't just assume. Besides that Thanks to everyone else's comments. I have been taking french since grade 6/7 so I have a few years worth of experience =) Hopefully I will do fine!

Thanks,

Amber

Any other advice or things I should remember would be helpful too!

[Jason08]

Yes it is mostly written in IB French SL, my exam is on monday and i am so excited to get French over with We practiced with all the past paper 1 and paper 2 exams and paper 1 is the one that i found the most difficult as it is reading comprehension and if your french vocabulary is not that large, you might have some trouble ... however i learned a lot from my french class and as i have to take 4 french courses to get my IB diploma.

Enjoy, Jason