GCSE Music

GCSE Modern Foreign Languages: French, German, Spanish

The GCSE courses in French, German and spanish are all structured and examined in the same way as set out below.

Aims of the courses

All four language skills are systematically developed through the course and there is a focus on skills such as translation, understanding authentic and literary texts and spontaneous speaking as follows:

● To develop students’ understanding of the spoken foreign language to the point where they can understand everyday conversations and extracts from a variety of media.

● To develop students’ spoken language to enable them to cope with everyday situations in which they may use the language, to relate events giving their opinions and to cope with unpredictable elements.

● To develop their reading skills so that they can understand the main details from a variety of sources written in the foreign language including letters, brochures and newspaper articles or extracts from stories.

● To improve their written skills to allow them to write short business letters, to recount events, or produce brochures using a variety of verb tenses and expressing opinions about and reactions to events.

● To allow students to transfer meaning of sentences from the foreign language into English and from English into the foreign language.

How will the courses be assessed?

The system of assessment for German, Spanish and French is as follows:

Listening

A paper of 45 minutes is set. This paper is worth 25% of the final mark.

Reading

A paper of about 1 hour is set. This paper is worth 25% of the final mark.

Writing

A paper of 1 hour and 15 minutes is set. This paper is worth 25% of the final mark.

Oral

An oral exam of approximately 10 minutes will be sat in March or April of Year 11. This is worth 25% of the final mark.

The emphasis on oral work throughout Key Stage 3 continues to be an important part of the lessons in Years 10 and 11 culminating in the speaking examination component. Lessons and activities will be structured to elicit and reinforce vocabulary. In class, there will be the opportunity to work in pairs, small groups and individually. Students may also be given the opportunity to work in smaller groups with the language assistant. Preparation for the speaking examination will involve students’ choice of topic to discuss, role play simulations and the preparation of conversational topics.