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MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES
French and Spanish
Studying a foreign language at Hymers is an enriching learning experience for our pupils. In addition to gaining insight into a different culture through trips and working with our foreign language assistants, pupils acquire the fundamental communication skills essential in today’s globalised employment market.
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In French and Spanish, students work towards the Edexcel IGCSE. This course prepares students in four skill areas: Writing, Reading, Listening and Speaking. Pupils practise these across a range of topic areas, allowing pupils to develop a range of vocabulary: n Home and abroad n Education and employment n Personal life and relationships n The world around us n Social activities, fitness and health
In addition, pupils build upon the grammatical foundation established in Lower School and, by the end of the course, are able to communicate across the full spectrum of tenses.
After completing the IGCSE course, pupils can progress to study French and Spanish at A Level - a highly respected qualification among Russell group universities and employers alike. In the past three years, pupils have progressed to study a diverse range of disciplines including Medicine, History, Politics, Economics, International Relations, Computer Science at Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrew’s, among many others.
All four skills are externally assessed in the summer term of Year 11. The structure of the examination is as follows:
Examination Paper n 1. Listening n 2. Reading and Writing
What is assessed?
Seven questions, which are a combination of multiple-choice, multiple-matching, note-taking and gap-fill questions.
Section A: Reading
Five questions, which are a combination of multiple-choice, note-taking, gap-fill and shortanswer questions.
Section B: Writing n 3. Speaking
There are two open-response writing tasks and a task that requires putting words in their grammatically correct forms.
The examination is made up of three tasks (A, B and C). Students will present and answer questions on a picture that is related to one of the topic areas. Students also discuss two different topics chosen at random.
