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GCE EXAMINERS' REPORTS
FRENCH
AS/Advanced
JANUARY 2013
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Statistical Information
The Examiner’s Report may refer in general terms to statistical outcomes. Statistical
information on candidates’ performances in all examination components (whether internally
or externally assessed) is provided when results are issued.
Annual Statistical Report
The annual Statistical Report (issued in the second half of the Autumn Term) gives overall
outcomes of all examinations administered by WJEC.
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FRENCH
General Certificate of Education
January 2013
Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced
Principal Examiner:
Mr Philip Anthony Ainsworth
Unit Statistics
The following statistics include all candidates entered for the unit, whether or not they
'cashed in' for an award. The attention of centres is drawn to the fact that the statistics listed
should be viewed strictly within the context of this unit and that differences will undoubtedly
occur between one year and the next and also between subjects in the same year.
Unit
Entry
FN2
1020
Max Mark
98
Grade Ranges
A
B
C
D
E
69
63
57
51
45
N.B. The marks given above are raw marks and not uniform marks.
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1
Mean Mark
59.4
FN2 - Listening, Reading and Writing
Performance for the paper overall was marginally worse than January last year with
candidates showing less command of grammar and syntax. Candidates find it challenging to
manipulate the language yet do well on Question 4 which is a grammar-based question. This
question crucially involves choosing the correct answer from a list. There was a marked
improvement, however, in adhering to the main focus of the title in the essays.
Question 1
A surprising number of candidates contravened the rubric by negating the assertions. This is
somewhat surprising as this rubric and format are by now well-publicised.
The homonyms la vie and l’avis caused much confusion and loss of marks in this question,
especially questions (ii), (vi) and (vii).
Grammar was markedly poor in answers to this question, even though where grammar does
not affect comprehensibility answers were credited, it is still disappointing. Thus for (iv) les
traditions sont…nul / nule / nuls / nulls were credited but very few got the correct form of the
adjective nulles.
In (ii) and (iii) the necessary corrections to the original assertions were often made but the
wrong tense was used and thus the answer was not awarded the mark.
Question 2
A rather disappointing performance. Candidates need a heightened awareness of grammar
and syntax in order to get these one-word answers correct. Few candidates managed to get
all answers correct with no mistakes. It must be remembered that no errors whatsoever are
tolerated in answers to this question. Grammatical awareness would help eliminate other
homonyms of the correct answer – e.g. for 1. many wrote refusons / refusent, however an
understanding of the formation of the present participle indicates that refusant is the only
viable answer. The other answers were dependent on correct verb endings (2. and 5.) or
adjectival endings (3. and 4.), with the latter group causing the most problems for
candidates.
Question 3 (a)
This question was generally well-answered with most gaining 3 or more marks out of 5.
The most common error was indicating (v) as false and (viii) as true, both incorrect.
Question 3 (b) and Question 3 (c) Reading Comprehension
Copying verbatim from the text, at times whole paragraphs, was quite widespread and such
answers were not credited. Where there was some demonstration of manipulation of
language answers were usually credited. However, few candidates were able to manipulate
the language sufficiently to be awarded marks for most of these questions.
Generally there was an inability to answer questions in a coherent and comprehensible
manner. Many candidates proved unable to successfully use the negative form of a
sentence and were largely unable to understand interrogatives such as Qui? and Combien?
Any English words used in a French answer automatically disqualified the candidate from
getting a mark for that part of the answer.
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2
Question 3 (b)
(i)
Generally well answered, using an infinitive.
(ii)
Many repeated the idea in the question.
(iii)
Idea of parents asking needed here and omitted by most.
(iv)
Many did not understand the question. The answer Thierry needed to be
extrapolated from the text.
(v)
Many failed to get the precise answer from the text.
(vi)
Many proved unable to insert the compulsory infinitives (not present participles as in
the text) to follow the given modals devrait.
(vii)
Very few candidates were able to use the future tense or a future indicator here, thus
the question proved challenging.
Question 3 (c)
(i)
Lifting from the text of whole clauses was not accepted.
(ii)
Many missed the idea of rare or copied out the sentence containing this word, neither
of which were credited.
(iii)
and (viii) – the perfect tense was badly formed so no mark awarded unless there was
an auxiliary and a past participle.
(iv)
Mostly well answered, changing the verb from the original text from the first to the
third person.
(v)
Many encountered problems expressing se coucher comprehensibly, often omitting
the reflexive pronoun or using dormer which was not acceptable. Many lacked
precision and wrote courir omitting the idea of il aime which was imperative.
(vi)
Many resorted to lifting from the text which usually made no sense, thus badly
answered.
(vii)
Past tense was essential in the answer. In spite of there being a number of viable
answers here, few were successful in expressing these comprehensibly without
resorting to copying.
(viii)
Fairly well answered, but a number seemed not to understand Que..?
Question 4
Performance in this question was generally very good. The question was divided into 3
sections for online marking. As Centres have devoted more time to understanding
morphology, the quality of answers has been improving steadily. Few questions caused
problems. The most common were cet sport (sic) for (4) and ses victories démontres (sic) for
(10).
There was a small minority who appeared to understand very little in the text and even less
about syntax and seemed to have randomly chosen their answers, resulting in very low
marks, if any at all.
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3
Question 5
Any French words used in the translation into either English or Welsh resulted in the
candidate not being given credit for that part of the question.
Omission of often simple words was a fairly common reason why candidates lost marks.
Candidates should realise that answers that make no sense in English cannot be correct!
Centres would do well to systematically learn faux-amis as these are a source of many mistranslations in this question.
(i)
Fairly well rendered but some struggled to get an idiomatic turn of phrase for
Comment faire…? The rest posed few problems, with goûts being known more often
than not.
(ii)
collégien posed problems for most with many translating it as “college student” which
was incorrect. Surprisingly allumer caused problems often “light up” or “illuminate”
which make no sense in the context of television.
(iii)
quotidien was often omitted or translated as “routine” or “quota”; le droit was often
“law” which obviously makes no sense in this context.
(iv)
Generally well done but some omitted déjà.
(v)
Many struggled to render ski-alpinisme, others omitted déjà and effectué was often
“effected”, “affected” and “effectuated”.
(vi)
Avant de was sometimes “after”. The faux-ami faire une course was almost invariably
translated as “to go on a course”; the modal was mostly well translated, although
sometimes in the conditional; sortie was a problem for many.
Question 6
All essays were reasonably popular, with the exception of c) which seemed to have been
attempted by fewer. Nevertheless, a lack of accuracy led to a lack of understanding of
what candidates were trying to say, therefore quality of response marks were affected.
There was a definite improvement in this part of the exam since last January in terms of
the relevance of essays. There were fewer completely unfocussed essays.
A number of candidates are copying the title incorrectly or mis spelling words or phrases
in the title. No candidates should be getting the spelling of these wrong!
(a)
Some good essays on tourism covering the main essential ground. Some struggled
to concentrate on whether tourism benefited everyone and wrote slightly oblique
essays on the pros and cons of tourism.
(b)
Vie saine – quite an open title, but some candidates found it difficult to contain the
essay to a few well-chosen and well-presented views and tended to cover sport,
exercise, healthy and unhealthy eating, smoking, alcohol and drugs all in 250 words
which led to superficial essays in some cases.
(c)
The importance of friends was well explored by candidates and there were some nice
essays balancing role and importance of friends / family and their influences. Some
merely provided long lists of activities that can be done with friends / family with little
or no analysis.
(d)
Université (or AU université (sic) even though is in the title!) - some good balanced
essays on why / why not, vocational courses, lack of graduate employment, high fees
etc.
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4
COMMENTS ON QUALITY OF LANGUAGE IN THE ESSAYS
These were some of the most common errors in essays:
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errors in the conjugation of the present tense are increasing (and incorrect use of “tu”
and”vous” instead of “on” – vous peut) nous peuvent, les choses qui nous aiment, il
doivent mange, on peuvent, beaucoup de jeunes allent à l’université, on peut etudie
que tu veut
use of infinitive – a conjugated verb used instead of an infinitive e.g. les parents
veulent regarde les programmes
tout le monde + plural verb = tout le monde savent, mangent
possessive adjectives were often incorrect - on doit penser à leur santé, pour ils
famille
very poor adjectival agreements throughout the paper but particularly in the essays.
obtenir – future tense not known – ils obteniront un diplôme
relatives, qui and que caused confusion and were used interchangeably
plusiures (and many other incorrect alternatives), plusieurs de
poor use of negative: ne ennuyeuse pas
2nd verb infinitive = many errors, especially after modals
qui vient juste finir
à les / au université
la chomagerie
dans cette essay
beacoup (sic), followed incorrectly by “des”
les benéfites
great difficulty in conjugating bénéficier in any tense
la sain instead of la santé
si vous avez être d’un régime strict
scant knowledge and poor application of verbs governed by à... ./ de…
dont - was very badly used, if used at all (le salaire qu’ils ont besoin de…..)
english words often appeared “methods”,“conflicts”,“l’exercise”
an attempt to invent new verbs such as improver, provider, polluter, exerciser
mal / mauvais = confusion of adverb / adjective, also mieux / meilleur
erratic and random use of disjunctive and indirect object pronouns – ça eux donne /
un bon choix pour leur = wrong choice of pronouns,
incorrect use of de + adjective preceding noun = des bonnes notes
“enseignement haute” for higher education
a mon à vie
very poor use of object pronouns: wrong position: il pousse les de…
devenir / devoir confused.
confusion of present subjunctive avoir / aller il faut qu’on aille de bons amis, also
avoir «il y aie»
A positive aspect is that candidates are more successful in garnering their thoughts and
are writing fewer irrelevant essays. As 20/35 marks are allocated to this aspect, this has
led to an improvement in marks for the essay. Alas however, the quality of language
continues to deteriorate and some basic grammar, often understood in Question 2 and
Question 4 cannot be produced accurately by the candidates. The challenge is to
improve basic verb and adjectival forms.
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5
Welsh medium papers
Only one question is answered in Welsh, which is Question 5. The standard of the Welsh in
the translation seemed a little better this time. We received English words in the translations
– in fact, a few of the candidates answered in English even though it was a Welsh medium
paper. This is permitted as it’s not the standard of Welsh being examined, but the ability to
understand and translate from French. If a French word is used in the translation the
candidate will not get the mark, as is the case with the English medium papers.
I would like to urge Welsh medium candidates to continue answering in Welsh as the tenses
in French are closer to Welsh than English, as is some syntax, such as depuis, although you
could argue that the vocabulary is generally closer to English.
With the rest of the paper which is answered in French, if a Welsh word is used in a French
sentence, the candidate will not receive a mark for that part of the question.
Papurau cyfrwng Cymraeg
Un cwestiwn yn unig sef Cwestiwn 5, sydd yn cael ei ateb yn Gymraeg. Roedd safon y
Gymraeg yn y cyfieithu yn ymddangos ychydig yn well y tro hyn.Derbyniwyd geiriau
Seasneg yn y cyfieithiadau - yn wir, roedd ambell i ymgeisydd yn ateb yn Saesneg er ei fod
yn bapur cyfrwng Cymraeg. Fe ganiateir hyn gan mai y gallu i ddeall a throsi o’r Ffrangeg
sydd yn cael ei arholi yma, nid safon y Gymraeg. Os defnyddir gair Ffrangeg yn y trosiad ni
fydd yr ymgeisydd yn cael y marc yn unol â’r sefyllfa ar gyfer papurau cyfrwng Saesneg.
Hoffwn gymell ymgeiswyr cyfrwng Cymraeg i barhau i ateb yn Gymraeg oherwydd fod yr
amserau yn Ffrangeg yn agosach i’r Gymraeg na’r Saesneg, felly hefyd rhai cystrawennau,
megis cystrawennau gyda depuis, er y gellid dadlau fod geirfa yn gyffredinol yn agosach i’r
Saesneg.
Gyda gweddill y papur sydd yn cael ei ateb yn Ffrangeg, os defnyddir gair Cymraeg mewn
brawddeg Ffrangeg, ni bydd yr ymgeisydd yn cael marc am y rhan hynny o’r cwestiwn.
GCE French Examiners Report - January 2013/ED
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6
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