French Teachers, Read On And Weep
January 15th 2009 04:00
I recently had the (mis)fortune of reading through the year 12 exam paper in French, and all I can say is shame, shame SHAME on those who wrote this. Firstly the standard of the French in the reading passages was so basic it wasn’t necessary to fully understand the text to answer the questions. I believe competent junior to middle school level students could have answered these questions quite adequately. One of the texts is about someone trying to convince someone else to go on an outing - since when is arranging an outing ANYTHING other than what is learned from a decent year 9 textbook? In another text, there is a bland description of the walls of a tea room which is certainly not inspiring, and the students then had to pick out the three elements in the description of the room to earn their marks. Students learn about describing rooms at around year 8 level – again, the subject matter seems more than a little underwhelming. It was evident that this text was not well thought through at all – the descriptions were of umbrellas hanging off the wall, paintings of hunting scenes, and dogs. Funnily enough, dogs regularly appear in paintings of hunting scenes, and then there are other pictures of dogs? (This is an interesting take on what the French perceive to be quintessentially English, but that’s another story!) A contrast between these three elements may have made finding the answers a little less confusing for the students.
Structurally, it’s Interesting that the students were given no indication of the number of marks allocated per question – surely this is fundamental to the students managing time and effort in the pressure situation of an exam?
There is a real skill involved in writing a decent text, and then composing questions which allow for the most able students to shine, as WELL as to allow those less able to pass the exam, which was sadly absent from this paper. The questions were clearly written by native speakers who did not bother to have a native English speaker check the literal translations provided, making the paper appear amateurish and unprofessional. Apart from that, the “acceptable answers” provided did not allow students to translate literally from French into English, although the questions were translated in the paper this way. There were other inconsistencies too, and they were largely of logic in the answers and translations, which would suggest that getting full marks was almost impossible, unless the students were prepared to write lengthy answers which covered every possible angle of the material provided. Is this fair?
I have to wonder about how much those who wrote this paper really thought about the students, the potential importance of this exam to the students, and about French itself and whether they are promoting or repelling it in schools. Teaching French should be about promoting the language, keeping it alive in schools and enriching the lives of students, along with maintaining decent standards in both teaching and learning. It is almost incredible that the French teaching fraternity is not completely up in arms about the poor standard of this paper – French is a vital, living language – it’s a bit of a shame some of those teaching it are not.
Structurally, it’s Interesting that the students were given no indication of the number of marks allocated per question – surely this is fundamental to the students managing time and effort in the pressure situation of an exam?
There is a real skill involved in writing a decent text, and then composing questions which allow for the most able students to shine, as WELL as to allow those less able to pass the exam, which was sadly absent from this paper. The questions were clearly written by native speakers who did not bother to have a native English speaker check the literal translations provided, making the paper appear amateurish and unprofessional. Apart from that, the “acceptable answers” provided did not allow students to translate literally from French into English, although the questions were translated in the paper this way. There were other inconsistencies too, and they were largely of logic in the answers and translations, which would suggest that getting full marks was almost impossible, unless the students were prepared to write lengthy answers which covered every possible angle of the material provided. Is this fair?
I have to wonder about how much those who wrote this paper really thought about the students, the potential importance of this exam to the students, and about French itself and whether they are promoting or repelling it in schools. Teaching French should be about promoting the language, keeping it alive in schools and enriching the lives of students, along with maintaining decent standards in both teaching and learning. It is almost incredible that the French teaching fraternity is not completely up in arms about the poor standard of this paper – French is a vital, living language – it’s a bit of a shame some of those teaching it are not.
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