French Document

Doodle53

What are the best things to use for your french document in your french oral?

Mary007

My teacher isn't letting us bring in a document because she reckons it shows you're a weak student, but besides from that she said if you feel you absolutely have to bring in something interesting not a picture of your family or your pet, so I suppose something interesting like a holiday you went on?

Conor108

Mary007 wrote: »

My teacher isn't letting us bring in a document because she reckons it shows you're a weak student

HaHa I picture your French teacher is Sue Sylvester from Glee:D

We all have them in my class, and we're the top class in the school. I'm doing mine on a trip to Zambia I went on to build houses. I'm gonna talk about the details of the trip, differences in culture between Zambia and Ireland and about poverty and AIDS in Africa.

Dunno how that would make me appear as a weak student, even though I admit French isn't my strongest subject.

partyatmygaff

She probably wouldn't let you as sometimes people try and stare at the ground or at the document instead of looking at the examiner. It shows nervousness which really makes for a bad oral.

gaeilgegrinds

What a load of bull, we all did them when we were in school, don't think it makes you weak in anyway, awful thing to say to a class IMO.

AxlRose1992

I'm gonna bring in a picture of the greatest rock singer - Axl Rose.

Suppose I could speak about Guns N' Roses and stuff, it's something I'm interested in as well which makes it easier.

Dubs

something you can talk about and know about is the best thing to do it on.

Last year i did mine and there were loads of different ones in the class. Bands, sport players, pets, holidays, family members were the most popular.

An important thing is to find away to link it into one of the general topics the examiner asks you. For example, I did mine on roy keane, so when she asked me about my hobbies I said that I like football, how often i play. Then said that roy keane was my favourite football player and that that was the topic of my document and went straight into it!
She stopped once or twice to ask me a question i hadnt prepared so it helps to actually have an interest in what you do it on.

Another thing is the actual picture you bring in. Make sure it doesnt have much detail in it. My pic was keane wearing a Man U jersey and she asked me about the jersey which i didnt have the vocab for and ended calling a very nice red uniform for footballers :P So ye, just the subject of the document and no more detail!!!

Sorry, long post, hope it helps

Dubs

Dubs wrote: »

something you can talk about and know about is the best thing to do it on.

Last year i did mine and there were loads of different ones in the class. Bands, sport players, pets, holidays, family members were the most popular.

An important thing is to find away to link it into one of the general topics the examiner asks you. For example, I did mine on roy keane, so when she asked me about my hobbies I said that I like football, how often i play. Then said that roy keane was my favourite football player and that that was the topic of my document and went straight into it!
She stopped once or twice to ask me a question i hadnt prepared so it helps to actually have an interest in what you do it on.

Another thing is the actual picture you bring in. Make sure it doesnt have much detail in it. My pic was keane wearing a Man U jersey and she asked me about the jersey which i didnt have the vocab for and ended calling a very nice red uniform for footballers :P So ye, just the subject of the document and no more detail!!!

Sorry, long post, hope it helps

I'd imagine details would be good, because it wouldn't be too hard just to learn the vocab required to describe the picture. Then it'll look like you've a wide vocabulary, even though it's only really on an individual picture. Easy marks.

Crow92

I'm unsure about bringing a document in, my teacher believes it almost always sounds 'mechanical' and questions they dont prepare for totally put the people off, but then again isnt the majority of the oral mechanically done =/

felic

wow... very irresponsible thing of your teacher to tell you.

With the oral, its really a state of student preference. If you feel more comfortable with the idea of bringing something in with you to discuss, then thats your choice. And for a lot of students, that is the better option.

But if you do bring something in, you will be expected to be able to talk about it extremely well. What people think is that you go in, spill out a big reem of learned off info learned off by heart weeks, months in advance, and hey presto, full marks! Urban myth!
Yes, you will be asked why you chose this picture in particular, you will be asked to explain what it is. But then you will be asked general questions too like, the weather the day it was taken, whats going on in the background, why you were at this location.. and so on.

When I did mine, I just went in with an open mind and didnt take anything in with me. It wasnt as scary as we had been lead to believe. Basically it was just a chat and you can direct where the conversation goes.
Say for example the examiner asks you what subjects you are doing and why you chose those ones... as well as talking about the subjects, that leaves it open to talking about college and careers.. two huge areas that you can and should have prepared.

Instead of seeing it as an exam, see it as just a chat cos thats all it is.

Anthony16

Doodle53 wrote: »

What are the best things to use for your french document in your french oral?

I didnt bring one in last year(against my teachers advice) but i got on fine.Only bring it in if u know it very well,otherwise its a waste

SuperDude87

Mary007 wrote: »

My teacher isn't letting us bring in a document because she reckons it shows you're a weak student, but besides from that she said if you feel you absolutely have to bring in something interesting not a picture of your family or your pet, so I suppose something interesting like a holiday you went on?

Sweet Jesus BRING A DOCUMENT!!

What looks worse? A student that cant talk about a complicated topic because everything else has been covered or having to throw a student out the door with lots to say because the time is up.


A document is vital because in one of the most unpredictable exams you can actually predict a good 5-6 minute chunk!!! I'm sure lots of students aren't used to conversing in french so a document is vital!

I did mine on the simpsons and my examiner thought it was great because it wasn't a pet or sports or something everyone had done. She asked me my name and family etc hobbies talked about the simpsons and she only had time to ask me one question on the leaving cert points race which was great!

Yes you learn it off but if you know it well enough you can jump from one end to the other of what you've learned to answer their questions.

I had a great teacher with a weak class that prepared us well for any eventual questions and we all did well. If anyone is weak here it's your teacher because she isn't up to the task at hand...

djcervi

Bring a document in. I did the LC last year and it's a comfort IMO if you choose the right topic, and can talk generally about what you did, but expect to be asked outside of the topic. In my oral last year I intended to do the free conversation without a document, however I decided a few days before the LC oral to do a Document. I took a photo of a Spanish exchange I did with all the members of the family. I introduced each person, and described them by their clothes, and I talked about the exchange. Again it was great to talk about something I liked. The questions I got were based around cultural differences between Spain and Ireland, etc. Best advice I can give you for this part (and the oral in general) is to keep the conversation going to the point where the examiner is largely listening and cannot get his/her word in too easily. In the end I managed to get an A1 in the LC. If you start now and give it a good shot and know the different topics that can be questioned on your document, You will do well.

cork*girl

bringing in a document on all the concerts I went to during the summer! and on music I like.. etc..

Dannloads

@ SuperDude87; let's get the timing right: The examiner asks you at the beginning of your interview if you have a document, looks at it, puts it aside and usually asks you about it only after 5-6 min (that's in your interest of being asked in middle of the conversation); if you get talking about it for max 1-2 min, that's great and for the last 4-5 min, you'll be back to normal questions. Total=12-15 min (roughly 15 min between candidates but the examiner needs a bit of time to mark the previous one). Timing is everything so make the most of it!

@ cork*girl: good choice it should be interesting as long as it's not just a list of venues and not purely descriptive ie give your personal impressions etc

@ Mary007: Bringing a document and the time spent talking about it during the oral exam is no reflection on your level.

If your document is interesting and well prepared it's definitely worth it (it breaks the routine of the examiner's work) but on the other hand it does require a lot of effort and commitment and I'm not surprised that some teachers don't bother with the document; time is precious and you still have to cover as well as possible the standard & abstract topics.

If you consider you'll have enough time to prepare a document and decide to bring one (needs to be decided pretty soon though) then ask your teacher to check it once it's done before learning it!

SuperDude87

Dannloads wrote: »

@ SuperDude87; let's get the timing right: The examiner asks you at the beginning of your interview if you have a document, looks at it, puts it aside and usually asks you about it only after 5-6 min (that's in your interest of being asked in middle of the conversation); if you get talking about it for max 1-2 min, that's great and for the last 4-5 min, you'll be back to normal questions. Total=12-15 min (roughly 15 min between candidates but the examiner needs a bit of time to mark the previous one). Timing is everything so make the most of it!

Just giving my experience of what happened so although that's what SHOULD happen it isn't what happened to me.

I think it will always work in your favour if you can chat away about your document without making it obvious that it's all learned off I'm sure the exmainer will want to keep that going. Sure they want to talk about other things and what not but I guess I was either lucky or so rubbish that she let me talk about my document for ages...