French HL Urgent Help Needed

LLAMAMILK

I'm not a languages person at all so French is proving tricky for me. I know I can definitely pass it in the Leaving because the Oral, comprehensions and listening aren't that hard in parts. It's the written section that's proving really hard for me.

Right now we're doing Journal Intime's and the opinion piece questions. Does anyone have any tips at all for getting at least half the marks in these? I just feel you can't really predict them at all. I'm only in 5th year but I know that they'll be on my November exams.

Please don't suggest practicing them because I've done a good few and none of the phrases will go into my head. Does anyone have any study techniques, know any books or anything at all that could help me? I genuinely find grammar hard even though I study it which doesn't help either. I can't afford grinds so that's out of the question.

Merci :-(

Ponguin

For grammar I would seriously recommend getting a hold of the book "Clé a grammaire", it's taught me everything I know and is great for strong a handle on pronouns and prepositions which is half the battle. For written work I'd recommend getting a good set of notes on key phrases such as "il faut que..." "Le gouvernment devrait faire.." If you get a good 10 general phrases or so you can use them in any answer. Then just keep repeating the same stuff basically until it all glues together 😊

CelticRambler

For your opinion piece, there's a programme broadcast on France Inter once a week that covers a wide range of topical subjects, some of which will overlap with topics that you're studying in other courses (or just interested in). Pick one that appeals to you and listen to the programme several times over, while reading articles (in French!) about the same subject. That way you'll understand better what's being said, and you'll more easily remember the vocab that goes with the topic. The download page for each episode includes a written introduction that corresponds closely (but isn't an exact transcript) to the spoken intro to the programme. That'll help get your ears tuned to the rhythms of spoken French (but won't help with thick culchie accents! :pac: )

https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/interception

LLAMAMILK

Ponguin wrote: »

For grammar I would seriously recommend getting a hold of the book "Clé a grammaire", it's taught me everything I know and is great for strong a handle on pronouns and prepositions which is half the battle. For written work I'd recommend getting a good set of notes on key phrases such as "il faut que..." "Le gouvernment devrait faire.." If you get a good 10 general phrases or so you can use them in any answer. Then just keep repeating the same stuff basically until it all glues together 😊

Thank you for your help. I have Clé a grammaire, but for me I couldn't understand what each task was asking me to do because the book was all in French. I have French Grammar Made Easy by Claire Redmond which I find fantastic as it's in English and explains things in the most basic form. I just genuinely can't get grammar to stick in my head. I would remember it for a day and then forget it a week later. I haven't time to keep going back over it because I have 7 other subjects as well. I'm going to try focus on vocab that appears regularly like you said and see how I get on!

LLAMAMILK

Thank you. I'll listen to those. It will be no harm getting used to hearing French as well!

Ufc2016

I struggled with HL French last year for the LC, always did but knew I needed it to count points. My technique for learning French was just to learn it off by heart. I gave up along time ago trying to know what everything meant and drove myself mad bc I couldn't understand verbs or tenses. I just stuck to the topical issues that come up every year and learned them off by heart by choosing main sentences in English that could be applied to any question that could come up about that topical issue. Learned about 20 topical issues off sentence for sentence and managed to get a B3 in the Leaving Cert. I know this was a weird technique but it might work for you, even my teacher said it was such a bad way to learn a language but if it got my my grade I wanted and the points I was looking for, then I was to keep doing it!

LLAMAMILK

Ufc2016 wrote: »

I struggled with HL French last year for the LC, always did but knew I needed it to count points. My technique for learning French was just to learn it off by heart. I gave up along time ago trying to know what everything meant and drove myself mad bc I couldn't understand verbs or tenses. I just stuck to the topical issues that come up every year and learned them off by heart by choosing main sentences in English that could be applied to any question that could come up about that topical issue. Learned about 20 topical issues off sentence for sentence and managed to get a B3 in the Leaving Cert. I know this was a weird technique but it might work for you, even my teacher said it was such a bad way to learn a language but if it got my my grade I wanted and the points I was looking for, then I was to keep doing it!

Yeah, I'm strongly thinking of doing that at this stage. It would be great to get a B or whatever it will be with the new points system. I study the grammar as we do it in class and I use a grammar book but I just find it so hard. I think I might sign up to Frenchnotes.ie as they have sample essays etc. If you don't mind, would you have any sample essays or notes on the journal intime. My exam is next week!

shivpepper

Hi guys, I have a French blog with a lot of leaving cert content- it's www.nouvelleprof.wordpress.com and I hope you find it helpful! I also tweet a lot of phrases at https://twitter.com/nouvelle_prof. Make sure that you're following @essentialfrench on snapchat also- an excellent resource and Natasha is a fantastic teacher!