The speaking exam is often considered one of the most challenging of the exams of the French GCSE, but if you are well prepared, it can also be the most fun! In this article I'll explain what to expect in the exam and how to prepare for it.
The first step is knowing what to expect in the exam and this means becoming familiar with the question types that make up the exam. There are only a finite number of question types and the actual questions that you will face will simply be variations of these. Whilst there may be some variation between exam boards (AQA, OCR, EdExcel), most French GCSE speaking tests consist of these 3 question types:
Role-play questions you will carry out one role-playing situation for about 2 minutes, such as having a little conversation about social media with your friend. You are given a question page explaining the role-play situation and the structure of the conversation, after which you have a couple of minutes to prepare your thoughts. As part of the conversation you will need to respond to an unexpected question from the examiner, and you will also need to ask the examiner a question about the theme of the role-play. Make sure you use the words mentioned in the question prompt card, they are there to help and to be used!
Here’s an example of a role-play question:
Your teacher will play the part of an employee in a department store in France and will speak first. You should address the employee as “vous”.
When you see this – ! – you will have to respond to something you have not prepared.
When you see this – ? – you will have to ask a question.
| Vous parlez avec un(e) employé(e) dans un grand magasin en France. • Acheter – quoi. • Anniversaire – qui. • ! • ? Prix. • Activité(s) spéciale(s) (deux détails). |
A good way to prepare for role-play questions is to practice with your friends, or better still work with a French language tutor.
In the photo card question you’re given a page with a photo and some questions about it which the examiner will then ask you. Some of these questions will be written down next to the photo and you have a few minutes to prepare how to answer, including making some notes. Next, the examiner asks you some other questions that weren’t written down.
What kind of questions?
Here’s an example GCSE French speaking test style photo-card question:
Questions:
- Qu’est-ce qu’il y a sur la photo ?
- Comment serait ton/ta partenaire idéal(e) ?
- Pour toi, le plus important, c’est le travail ou la vie sociale ? … Pourquoi ?
Translation (not provided in the test!):
(What is in this photo?)
(How would be your ideal partner?)
(For you, the most important, is it work or social life? … Why?)
Although the photo card could be about anything, some themes that have come up in the past are:
Take a look at photo cards and associated questions on GCSE French speaking exam past papers is a good way to get a feel for what kind of questions might come up.
In this part the examiner will have a general conversation with you, asking for your thoughts on a subject and also inviting you to ask them questions. This part can often be the most challenging, but also the most natural and most fun, depending on how confident you are in your spoken French.
It’s important that this is a two-way conversation (dialogue) rather than a one-way conversation (monologue), so don’t forget to ask your examiner some questions, ask them what they think!
Now that you know the format of the GCSE French speaking exam, the following section explains how to focus your learning so that you are prepared to succeed.
To succeed in a speaking exam it's critical to be able to understand what the examiner is saying. Preparing for this is all about training your ear for the language so that you are able to capture the words.
A great way to train your ear for French include watching films or TV series’ in French (there are several good ones on netflix). You could also listen to French radio on the internet, as well as audiobooks and podcasts. In parallel, taking some online classes with a French language tutor will accelerate your progress.
Next, you want to start practicing speaking French, expressing yourself verbally in the language in a way that will be understood by other people, including the examiner!
There are 2 key skills to this:
The power of pronunciation and articulation shouldn’t be underestimated! I often meet non-native French speakers who are very good with their grammar and vocabulary, but then still have trouble being understood because of their pronunciation.
Learning to pronounce French correctly is about first, understanding how to shape your mouth to make the right sound, and second, practicing it until it becomes muscle memory. Don’t be afraid of practicing your French out loud on your own, repeating new sounds and words as you learn them.
Here are a few of the sounds that are often more challenging for English speakers are:
Try typing these into youtube and you’ll find many videos explaining how to pronounce words correctly in French.
Finally, when it comes to developing great pronunciation in French, nothing beats working one-to-one with a French language tutor who can give you immediate feedback on your own personal pronunciation, identify ways that you can improve, and help you to build confidence and fluency.
The second most important skill to succeed in the GCSE French speaking exam is being able to structure sentences to express yourself.
The General Conversation part of the exam is all about being able to express your thoughts in French. When it comes to saying what you think, here are some useful sentence starters and examples of how to use them:
| Je crois qu'il est content | I believe that he is happy |
| Je pense qu'elle a besoin d'aide | I think that she needs help (has need of help) |
| A mon avis, il est content de faire ce travail | In my opinion, he is happy to do this work |
The examiner may give you a statement and ask if you agree or disagree, to which you could reply:
Je suis d'accord - I agree
Je ne suis pas d'accord - I don't agree
Ca depend - it depends
The examiner will then likely ask you:
Pourquoi? Expliquez moi - Why? Explain to me
To which you can follow up with:
Parce que… - because…
Je pense que… - I think that…
To develop your answers you can use connectives to link your ideas:
mais - but
alors - so
par contre - however
donc - therefore
Try to aim for a minimum of 3 elements to each of your responses, for example:
Je pense qu’elle aime bien son travail, mais les horaires sont longues, donc peut-être elle va chercher un job plus flexible.
I think she likes her work, but the hours are long, therefore perhaps she will search for a more flexible job.
For ideas of how to elaborate your answer, think about when, where, how, or why something happens. You can also include your opinions (je pense, je trouve, à mon avis) and justify your points of view (parce que, car).
To score marks it's important to use a variety of tenses in your responses. To do this, you can use the connective words from above to add phrases with different tenses, for example:
normalement, je fais… (present)
mais hier j’ai fait… (past)
par contre, demain je vais faire… (future)
For extra marks, try to include the harder GCSE tenses, particularly irregular forms. Use combinations of the perfect and the imperfect.
stay away from those boring words like nice, good, interesting. Expand your range of adjectives (eg: formidable, merveilleux, amusant, génial, chouette, super)
you have been given a list of these. Try to include as many as you can. (e.g: negative sentences, comparative, relative pronouns, direct and indirect object pronouns, adverbs, the present participle…)
Answering the question without repeating it back to the examiner shows that you’re confident in yourself and your ability to communicate in French. Understanding the question first time around is an important part of this, but if you haven’t understood the question then the examiner will normally repeat it.
You cannot get full marks without asking the examiner a question.
It is best to ask an open question as this will come across as more natural and encourage conversation. Remember the words to ask open questions:
Quand, Ou, Comment, Que/Quel, Pourquoi?
Note - an “open” question is one that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. Questions with yes/no answers are “closed” questions.
just focus on the conservation and not on your mistakes. Mistakes will happen. Examiners are far more interested in what you can do than what you can’t.
To summarize, knowing what to expect in the oral exam and following these tips will help you prepare for your French GCSE oral exam.
However it may be worth considering some one-to-one tuition with a French language tutor who will be able to answer your questions and give you personalized training and practice to improve your pronunciation, verbal expression, and develop your ability to converse fluently in French.
The table below summarises the average number of hours needed to reach each level starting from an absolute beginner. Keep in mind these figures are a guide only and different people will learn at different paces, and extra exposure to the French language alongside your lessons can make a big difference (see next sections for tips about this).
The countdown is on! From 5 May to 25 June, GCSE exams will be in full swing. That means there’s just one month left to prepare—and if you’re feeling unsure about your French exam, now’s the perfect time to take action.
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