French

The Subject

At Collingham French is taught by an exceptionally erudite and enthusiastic department, who will nurture both your linguistic skills and cultural expertise. They also have a record of consistently high grades at A level.

French at AS and A Level

The most popular choice of Modern Language, French is of course the coolest and most sophisticated language of all. It has a rigour and clarity foreign to English, a charm and suavity that is the stuff of legends, a plasticity that makes it a pleasure to speak. It is also very useful: France is still a larger economy than the UK and the language competes with English as the lingua franca of much of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Its culture still leads the way in the worlds of fashion and art, the high seriousness of intellectual debate and the shabby grandeur of café bohemia. An AS or A level in French can be combined with any other A level subject. Scientists who can communicate in a foreign language are particularly in demand by employers, but French also sits happily with the Arts and Humanities. It can form the basis of a university course in modern languages or lead to degrees in science, engineering, medicine, social sciences and humanities.

The Course

 

From September 2008 there is a new A level French specification. Instead of six units of examination there are now only four. The AS level represents fifty percent of the full A Level and it can be taken as a qualification in its own right. It consists of two units, covering the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. In the second year, students take two more units for the full A Level. The A2 course provides opportunity for more advanced study, including literary or cinema studies. In recent years we have studied Voltaire, Sartre, Camus, Maupassant and Moliere in literature, as well as the films of Truffaut and the French New Wave. The French department receives weekly magazines (L’Express and Le Nouvel Observateur) and has a good stock of books, audio, video and DVD resources.

 

 Preferred Boards: Edexcel