French Continuers for HSC (1 Viewer)

[sweetalmond]

Hi everyone,
I am currently doing French Continuers in year 11. It is coming to that time when we are given the opportunity to drop a course or pick up an extension course. I do french through the open high school which is by distance. I a finding though French to be hard but I still want to keep it because I find it useful and I want to learn the language. Also my parents don't want me to drop because they feel it is important.
The thing with any language in general, you can't just study for a writing test the week before. You need to develop the skills over time which is proving to be a problem because I have a test tomorrow, but I can't really do much about it.

To those people who have done French continuers in the HSC how did you study, what was the workload like. What would you recommend would be the number of hours that should be devoted to French once a week.
Also, any tips for improving writing and responding or any other skills like speaking, listening in French!
Thanks

 

[WileyWanimal]

Hi everyone,
I am currently doing French Continuers in year 11. It is coming to that time when we are given the opportunity to drop a course or pick up an extension course. I do french through the open high school which is by distance. I a finding though French to be hard but I still want to keep it because I find it useful and I want to learn the language. Also my parents don't want me to drop because they feel it is important.
The thing with any language in general, you can't just study for a writing test the week before. You need to develop the skills over time which is proving to be a problem because I have a test tomorrow, but I can't really do much about it.

To those people who have done French continuers in the HSC how did you study, what was the workload like. What would you recommend would be the number of hours that should be devoted to French once a week.
Also, any tips for improving writing and responding or any other skills like speaking, listening in French!
Thanks

I do Italian Continuers + ext and French Beginners.
Definitely keep it, but work hard at it! Languages can get you great marks and it can make things less stressful at exam time as there's little revision and cramming to do - you just have to work consistently over the course of the year.
Distance education must make things a bit tough.
Basically, I do very little actual 'study' for either of my languages. I do the homework that's set - usually a piece of writing every week or every few weeks, do the grammar exercises in class etc. BUT I do loads of study that I don't even consider to be study, because I very frequently read in the language, which is an awesome way to pick up loads of new vocabulary, practice comprehension, and learn how to make things 'sound french'.
- the book that I have on the go at any given time is always in Italian or French, and I just read a few pages whenever I get a chance - on the bus or just for 5 mins before I go to sleep at night.
- set up your computer/ipod/everything in French. You'll soon get used to it, it's not really that hard since you are already so familiar with where everything is on the computer. Go do this now!
- if you are procrastinating from study, go google some French news. You could even subscribe to a French news service like 'le petit journal' which will send you an email every day.

Next, if there's one thing that you MUSt do it's to get in the habit of talking to yourself in French, all the time. Yes, you might seem a little crazy if you go around muttering a foreign language under your breath, but do it in your head! Make it a habit. If you can't think of anything to say to yourself just try to describe what's around you. Anything at all! Mundane things especially: "Quels devoirs devrai-je faire ce soir? J'ai les exercises de mathématiques, je dois écrire une dissertation pour l'anglais..."

Try to get to the point where the last thing you think at night and the first thing when you get up in the morning is in French.

Wow, I've ended up writing quite an essay on this topic and I didn't mean to! I hope I've helped... If you can, find someone to practice with - especially important since you're doing it with open high school. If not, get a penpal, preferably someone super keen who will keep writing back, so that you're forced to keep writing responses all the time.

Bonne courage!

 

[ConorDevaney]

do it, i am studying french cont and ext at the open high school atm and love it, who is ton prof? i know it can be difficult to keep up to date, but as long as you try to do a writing task for your teacher at least every 2 weeks your teacher will now your strengths and weakness, they are competent and know what they're talking about, trust them. Bonne chance!

 

[sweetalmond]

Lol. Merci beaucoup! You gave some good advice. My Open High School teacher recommended this really great website called TV5 Monde francophone. It has videos on news, stories, interviews etc. and for different levels of French like beginner, intermediate, advanced etc. It even comes with some comprehension exercises if you want to test your knowledge and you can read the transcripts and manipulate the text. If ur interested u can look it up.

 

[WileyWanimal]

Wow, there's loads of fantastic stuff on there! Thank you!

 

[BLIT2014]

Listen to french music

 

[Courtneymarree]

Im looking at picking up french extension what is the work load like guys? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!!! HEEEEELP

 

[annieramsay]

DO FRENCH EXTENSION - it's difficult at times but it's an amazing course, scales well, the movie's awesome too. French is the only skill that will stay with me after highschool... highly recommend continuing with it

 

[SuchSmallHands]

Im looking at picking up french extension what is the work load like guys? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!!! HEEEEELP

As someone who sucks at French Extension, even I recommend doing it. Frext probably won't go toward my ATAR (I have an extra 4 units, and I don't think it'll be in my best ten) but the improvements I made to my work in continuers by doing it will definitely increase my mark in 2U massively. Definitely do it, it's just extra time that you spend writing and reading in French, it can never hurt.

 

[sweetalmond]

ok, cool thanks. Good luck with the HSC, hope the oral exam went okay
I think I'll keep it for now. Its one of my more harder subjects but its so rewarding Any language is

 

[SuchSmallHands]

ok, cool thanks. Good luck with the HSC, hope the oral exam went okay
I think I'll keep it for now. Its one of my more harder subjects but its so rewarding Any language is

It's probably a bit late for you to be considering an exchange to France now, but that helped my French loads. Maybe you could talk to your parents about the possibility of going to New Caledonia for a few weeks one holidays? You can sign up for an intensive French program with a language school in Noumea (don't remember the name, but just google Noumea French language school and it should come up). It helps a lot to actually be in a 'pays francophone' when learning the language