French extension advice (1 Viewer)

[Rachael325]

Hey im in year 11 atm and i was wondering if someone could tell me what extension french is all about and if they would recommended it?

 

[chepas]

Basically, French Extension is sort of building on the skills learnt in the Continuers - but much much more in depth. You learn to interpret opinions, and talk more about the world and stuff in it (unlike the Continuers which is totally based around me me me me).

It's more about expressing opinions, interpreting them, current issues, the world, more on French culture and the Francophone world etc... the big topic is (I think!) "The Individual in Society", and there are 3 subtopics (prescribed issues I think is the term) "Belonging versus Alienation", "Coping With Change" and "Tolerance of Difference".

All these themes are studied through a prescribed text, which is a movie. The two set movies are "Marius et Jeannette" and "Au revoir les enfants", but you only do one of them (I do M+J).

Then we tear the movie to pieces and examine the cultural stuff and discuss the issues, like class structures and differences in "Belonging...", big changes in your life, like romances and moving away for tertiary study in "Coping with Change" and religion and different cultures/etc in "Tolerance of Difference". (these examples in reference to "Marius et Jeannette).

Together with the movie, you would have to find for yourself news and current events-y type stuff on the net to read, listen to and observe so that the stuff we study can have really up-to-date relevence.

For me. I really like it. It's sort of like the advanced course in English, esp. the modules, but not... The toughest thing I find is expressing opinions, which I don't really do naturally, and in French it's even more difficult! But if you're good at French, it'll be a great option. But it's a LOT of work, which sort of hit me, kind of surprising for just a one-unit course... but it's fun.

Bonne chance avec tes études de français!
Chépas

 

[Persephone87]

Too smart for me

argh my grammar is killing me!!

 

[Rachael325]

Thanks heaps that cleared alot up. Mmm i dunno sounds pretty hard, though im guessing if i go well it should boost my uai a fair bit and i spose it'll help with continuers as well. Im thinking i'll do it as and 11th unit then i can always drop it if its too ridiculously hard.

Anyway thanks for bothering to tell me bout it all!

 

[chepas]

Not at all Yeah, especially if you really love French so it'll be good. Good luck with prelim, you need anything else there's a wealth of people out there...

Sorry if I didn't do a really good ad for Extension, other extension souls out there have their impressions?

 

[porka]

Extension was good. All my class did was watch Marius and Jeannette a couple of times at the start of the year, then had nothing else to do so we just cooked croisants and hot cross buns for the remainder of the time. It all ended well with 3 of our class of 7 getting 47/50, probably because we studied harder for the HSC thinking we hadn't done anything all year and it was time to catch up.. But yeh I'd advise people to do it.

 

[pennielane]

surely you had to do the speaking exam too...
and the mini essays on those themes which we all hate by now....
you make it sound so simple! i swear its almost as much work as a 2u subject....n'est-ce pas?
on that note...anyone else feel my extension french pain about it being on the VERY LAST DAY!?
anyway...i should get to mini-essay writing coz its 3u french assessment no. 4 tomorrow...

 

[sarahn]

i'm in yr11, coping pretty well with continuers (+96% for assessments) and i'm just wondering whether i'd be able to handle extension if i haven't been to france on exchange for a year - the only kids at my school that i know of that have done ext all went to france for a year (i'm going for 2 months in dec/jan ). do u need to be fluent to do 3u, coz it sounds pretty hard...

 

[chepas]

Bienvenue au forum français sarahn (mais je me souviens encore de toi?!? )

Of course not, that you need to be a native, hehe . And congrats on your mark for continuers so far. If you keep at that level you should have absolutely no problem with 3U. I have never been to France either so, yeah, it's all good. While it certainly is an added bonus, to have been to a franco country to practice it, if you love French it might be an excellent thing, to get analytical in it . Sure as hell makes you think, and forces you to give opinions, and that is really hard for someone like me, who in a verbal situation has great difficulty expressing points of view.

Keep going how you are and yeah, you should kill it

 

[sarahn]

salut chepas
merci pour ta conseille et bonne chance avec tes etudes. je parlerai avec mon prof au sujet de 3u...

 

[omg_a]

I'm doing in ext, and while i definitely feel your pain about it being the very last exam (that's the day of my yr 12 formal as well! talk about lack of beauty sleep!)
i still love the course. Continuers is very......i am like this, i have a family, i go on holidays.... terribly deep and meaningful. Whereas extension is actually, or tries to be anyway! The orals are quite terrifying at first, but you get used to them. i would definitely recommend it......i have never been to france or any francophone in fact, but i'm still doing quite well...assessment of about 43/50 at the moment. it's one of the subjects like hist ext, eng ext which make you think in different ways, beyond the ho hum. so if you love languages (it helps your continuers heaps) and like learning about the world, definitely do it! But pray for a better exam time table than we have!!

a.

 

[chepas]

Bump... 10 Characters

 

[Yowiez05]

Hmm... watch the 5 extracts again, read all your mini-essays on the topic areas and have some impressive words ready (throw in 'epoustouflante' somewhere )

 

[yrtherenonames]

Yes. And don't forget:
un thème brûlant de l’actualité- a burning issue today