A Level French

The French A Level course has been designed to inspire all students who have an appreciation of the language, literature, film, and culture of the French-speaking world.

The qualification has a straightforward structure with four engaging themes: Les changements dans la société française; La culture politique et artistique dans les pays francophones; L’immigration et la société multiculturelle française; L’Occupation et la Résistance. The four themes are studied alongside two works (either two literary texts or one literary text and one film).

In addition to timetabled lessons, every pupil studying French in the sixth form has a separate lesson with one of our language assistants.

Examination arrangements and course content

Paper 1: Listening, Reading, and Translation (40%)

Students will be assessed on their understanding of spoken and written French from a variety of types of authentic texts and listening material, as well as their ability to translate accurately from French into English.

Paper 2: Written Response to Works and Translation (30%)

Students must study two discrete French works from a range of novels, plays and a series of short stories. The content of the translation will be a passage based on one of the four themes.

Paper 3: Speaking (30%)

Students complete two tasks: a discussion of a theme from the exam specification and a presentation and discussion of an individual research project.

For Paper 2, students are required to study two works from the list below. This can be either two literary texts or one literary text and one film.