Junior cert french

Mandf

Hi I am in third year.I'm aiming for an A in junior cert french.However I am a bit concerned about formal letters.

In my exampapers it says that there is always an option between a formal and informal letter.However on the next page it says that it may be a possibility that the formal letter could appear on its own.

I don't want to waste loads of time learning formal letters however I want to know for certain if formal letters can't appear on their own in the junior cert.

Can anyone give me proof that formal letters can't appear on their own.

Thank you

sryanbruen

Mandf wrote: »

Hi I am in third year.I'm aiming for an A in junior cert french.However I am a bit concerned about formal letters.

In my exampapers it says that there is always an option between a formal and informal letter.However on the next page it says that it may be a possibility that the formal letter could appear on its own.

I don't want to waste loads of time learning formal letters however I want to know for certain if formal letters can't appear on their own in the junior cert.

Can anyone give me proof that formal letters can't appear on their own.

Thank you

No, they can't appear on their own. If they could, I would have learnt them in my class but my teacher never taught us formal letters, only informal letters. If you crawl through ALL of the past exam papers available online on the SEC's website, you will find that the formal letters have never come up on their own and never will - unless they make some changes to the syllabus of course which you would be aware of if they did.

spurious

As an A standard student, you should know/learn how to do a formal letter, whether it is asked in the exam or not.

mtoutlemonde

spurious wrote: »

As an A standard student, you should know/learn how to do a formal letter, whether it is asked in the exam or not.

I don't completely agree with you there. I do formal letters with my students only because it's on the syllabus but I always tell them to avoid it as it is very specific and format and ending have to be learnt off by heart. The formal letter does not show the range of vocabulary/grammar an A student has. It will never appear on its own or there would be uproar at conference. Also, I like it at leaving cert, it caused a lot of concern last year with students not knowing what 'une lettre de motivation' was. Again it doesn't always come up on leaving cert and again I wouldn't be recommending my students to do it as it appears on the same question as the diary entry. OP at this stage, don't worry about formal letters - keep working on your informal letters checking your tenses, adjectives etc. are correct and you'll be fine. Bon courage.

Mandf

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

I don't completely agree with you there. I do formal letters with my students only because it's on the syllabus but I always tell them to avoid it as it is very specific and format and ending have to be learnt off by heart. The formal letter does not show the range of vocabulary/grammar an A student has. It will never appear on its own or there would be uproar at conference. Also, I like it at leaving cert, it caused a lot of concern last year with students not knowing what 'une lettre de motivation' was. Again it doesn't always come up on leaving cert and again I wouldn't be recommending my students to do it as it appears on the same question as the diary entry. OP at this stage, don't worry about formal letters - keep working on your informal letters checking your tenses, adjectives etc. are correct and you'll be fine. Bon courage.

Thanks for your reply.By any chance do you know a link to the French chief examiner's report for 2015.I can't find it anywhere.Thank you.

spurious

Mandf wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.By any chance do you know a link to the French chief examiner's report for 2015.I can't find it anywhere.Thank you.

Where did you hear it was available?
The last CE Report released for JC was 2008, afaik.

sryanbruen

spurious wrote: »

Where did you hear it was available?
The last CE Report released for JC was 2008, afaik.

Do you mean last CE French report? 'Cause I've been seeing CE reports on other subjects like Business and Music in recent years.

spurious

Yes, I meant the last one for French. They are compiled for all subjects every year in the SEC, but not all are released to the public.

mtoutlemonde

spurious wrote: »

Where did you hear it was available?
The last CE Report released for JC was 2008, afaik.

Yeah I haven't seen a CE report for a while but after looking at website and the Lcert is available from last year - some light reading for me

mtoutlemonde

Mandf wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.By any chance do you know a link to the French chief examiner's report for 2015.I can't find it anywhere.Thank you.

You're welcome. Why would you want the chief examiner's report? I don't think any of my students would be aware of such reports.

Mandf

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

You're welcome. Why would you want the chief examiner's report? I don't think any of my students would be aware of such reports.

I just want to see what they said about the formal letter that year

mtoutlemonde

Mandf wrote: »

I just want to see what they said about the formal letter that year

Well from my report which would probably concur with CE report, it probably would say that 'it wasn't attempted by many candidates and candidates that did attempt it made a poor attempt. The layout was not adhered to and use of the conditional tense was absent in my cases.'

I wouldn't worry about formal letters - stick to the personal.

maevewiiinters

Mandf wrote: »

Hi I am in third year.I'm aiming for an A in junior cert french.However I am a bit concerned about formal letters.

In my exampapers it says that there is always an option between a formal and informal letter.However on the next page it says that it may be a possibility that the formal letter could appear on its own.

I don't want to waste loads of time learning formal letters however I want to know for certain if formal letters can't appear on their own in the junior cert.

Can anyone give me proof that formal letters can't appear on their own.

Thank you

Hiya,
I got an A in Junior Cert HL French, it was two years ago but I'm pretty sure all I did was learn about a page of phrases for formal letters in the week coming up to the exam. I had done about two formal letters in my life up until then. Remember that even in English formal letters are shorter than ordinary letters as they need to be easy-to-read, concise and to the point. So in other words, you actually don't need to write as much for the formal letter as you do for the ordinary letter, but your phrases do need to be more specific to whatever brief you get. It is unlikely that it will come up on its own, but there is no concrete proof that it won't happen. I'd say it's just easier to learn 15-20 phrases and feel confident and prepared going into the exam! Remember that most of the country probably would not be as prepared for a formal letter as in informal one, so you'll probably stand out if you know your stuff and get way more marks than others if it does come up. And who knows, the vocabulary you get from learning the phrases could help you in other parts of the exam! With just over two weeks to go, you still have loads of time!

Good luck in your exams!

donaldtramp

spurious wrote: »

As an A standard student, you should know/learn how to do a formal letter, whether it is asked in the exam or not.

The aim here is to get an A, not to waste time learning things which won't be necessary. If it doesn't come up as a mandatory question, and OP doesn't feel it is a strong point for him, then it is key that he avoids the question and not waste any time learning it.

spurious

Learning for the exam versus learning the subject I suppose.

Sign of the times.

sryanbruen

spurious wrote: »

Learning for the exam versus learning the subject I suppose.

Sign of the times.

Unfortunately, that's our educational system. It should be about learning the subject instead of learning for an exam.

shivpepper

Hi! I have plenty of Junior Cert French notes here- www.nouvelleprof.com

sryanbruen

shivpepper wrote: »

Hi! I have plenty of Junior Cert French notes here- www.nouvelleprof.com

Didn't I see you post that on Studyclix? P.S. it's a very nice looking site. Good work.