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Commentary
Low Excellence
Commentary
For Excellence, the student needs to interact clearly using effective spoken French to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives.
This involves the student accounting for and sustaining their own views, and finding out about, evaluating and giving evidence to support or challenge the ideas and perspectives of others. There will be successful use of a range of language, and skillful selection from a repertoire of language features and strategies to maintain the interaction.
Interaction will not be hindered by inconsistencies.
The exemplified student is the non-native speaker in interactions one and two. In interaction three the student is the one who says technology is useful for future study plans.
The student understands all that is said by the native speakers, and interacts naturally with them, for example, ‘ah oui c’est calme parce que ce n’est pas trop peuplé’. The student has no trouble maintaining the conversation, and has a range of strategies to do this, such as questions and finding synonyms when not understood, for example, ‘la cuisine/la nourriture’.
The student presents a range of perspectives, and supports this with evidence, for example, ‘je dois avouer que je trouve la technologie très utile pour mes études, surtout la recherche’, and has a range of language to do this.
For a more secure Excellence, pronunciation would have less impact on the communication of the message. At times the listener has to listen very carefully to follow what is said.
Further, there would be additional consistency with the successful use of language (in interaction three in particular). There are a number of inconsistencies, however communication is not hindered.
Video for Low Excellence interaction 1 (4:18 mins)
Video for Low Excellence interaction 2 (3:14 mins)
Video for Low Excellence interaction 3 (4:58 mins)
High Merit
Commentary
For Merit, the student needs to interact clearly using convincing spoken French to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives.
This involves the student accounting for and sustaining their own views, and finding out about, evaluating and giving evidence to support or challenge the ideas and perspectives of others. There will be a range of language and generally successful selection from a repertoire of language features and strategies to maintain the interaction.
Interaction will not be significantly hindered by inconsistencies.
The exemplified student starts interactions one and three, and then speaks with a native speaker.
The student presents ideas and perspectives on a range of themes and can support what is said by others, for example, ‘tu as raison’. The student is able to maintain the conversation, for example, through questions and seeking clarification. The native speaker talks at normal speed and the student understands what is said.
There are numerous interactional features, for example, correcting the language of the other speaker. There is an attempt to use a range of language, and it is used with some success.
Inconsistencies do not hinder communication in any way.
To reach Excellence, the student could interact more with what is said by the other speaker. In the native speaker interaction, the native speaker presents some perspectives, but these are largely met with ‘oui’.
Further, additional interaction with what is said would show additional evidence towards skilful selection of features and strategies, and reflect the ability to support or challenge the views of others, for example, responding to what is said at opportune moments, rather than simply presenting personal views.
Video for High Merit interaction 1 (3:56 mins)
Video for High Merit interaction 2 (3:16 mins)
Video for High Merit interaction 3 (4:43 mins)
Low Merit
Commentary
For Merit, the student needs to interact clearly using convincing spoken French to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives.
This involves the student accounting for and sustaining their own views, and finding out about, evaluating and giving evidence to support or challenge the ideas and perspectives of others. There will be a range of language, and generally successful selection from a repertoire of language features and strategies to maintain the interaction.
Interaction will not be significantly hindered by inconsistencies.
The exemplified student is the first speaker in all three interactions.
The student is able to present ideas and perspectives on a range of topics, for example, ‘il n’y a pas le problème de religion – la France est un pays catholique mais les immigrants viennent de l’Afrique du Nord’. The language used is natural but clearly draws on ideas previously studied.
The student maintains the interactions and supports the other speaker through questioning, for example, ‘Comment tu l’as trouvé?’.
The student challenges the view of others with some success, for example, ‘Je ne suis pas tout d’accord avec cette idée – ça dépend plus sur l’économie’. The student also seeks to include the other speaker in the interaction, for example, ‘ce n’est pas très très difficile – je crois que Theo avait la même opinion que moi’.
For a more secure Merit, the student could respond further to what others say in the interactions, rather than just expressing personal views.
Further, inconsistencies in language, for example, ‘Je ne suis sûr pas puis je le continuer le français’, and in pronunciation, for example, ‘Allemagne’, would have less impact on the communication of the overall message.
Video for Low Merit interaction 1 (5:54 mins)
Video for Low Merit interaction 2 (4:01 mins)
Video for Low Merit interaction 3 (6:07 mins)
High Achieved
Commentary
For Achieved, the student needs to interact clearly using spoken French to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives.
This involves the student accounting for and sustaining their own views, and finding out about, evaluating and giving evidence to support or challenge the ideas and perspectives of others.
Communication will be achieved overall, despite inconsistencies.
The exemplified student is the first speaker in all interactions.
The student takes an active part in the interaction, with a degree of fluency and spontaneity, and showing a range of interactional strategies, such as questioning, for example, ‘Est-ce que tu prévois voyager?’ and seeking clarification, such as ‘le theme?’.
The student gives personal perspectives, for example, ‘c’était difficile à lire parce que c’est en français’, and challenges things said, for example, ‘oui mais maintenant je suis plus confiante à lire des autres livres’.
To reach Merit, there would be additional evidence of a range of language. The student maintains the interactions using short, simple phrases however a more in-depth analysis could be given, for example, in the interaction about racism there could be additional language to express perspectives on the problem or show an evaluation of the topic.
Further, there needs to be additional evidence of language at this level to successfully evaluate and justify.
Video for High Achieved interaction 1 (3:02 mins)
Video for High Achieved interaction 2 (2:45 mins)
Video for High Achieved interaction 3 (3:43 mins)
Low Achieved
Commentary
For Achieved, the student needs to interact clearly using spoken French to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives.
This involves the student accounting for and sustaining their own views, and finding out about, evaluating and giving evidence to support or challenge the ideas and perspectives of others.
Communication will be achieved overall, despite inconsistencies.
The exemplified student is the first speaker in interactions one and three and with the teacher in the other two interactions.
There is an attempt to explain perspectives: ‘également je pense qu’en France…’ and to find out other’s ideas ‘qu’en penses- tu?’. The student interacts naturally,and has strategies for interacting with what has been said, for example, ‘c’est vrai’.
Communication is achieved overall despite numerous inconsistencies, for example, ‘j’aimerais connaître votre opinion’.
For a more secure Achieved, there would be additional evidence of mastery of the language needed to present and justify perspectives. At this level it would be expected that there would be some evidence of an ability to use more complex language in order to express ideas beyond the very simple.
Further, additional success with the simple language that is used, for example, ‘je pense que est très bien’, ‘c’est plus de difficile’, and fewer pronunciation inconsistencies, for example, ‘qu’en penses- tu?’ ‘conduire’, ‘site’, would result in a more secure Achieved.
Video for Low Achieved interaction 1 (2:50 mins)
Video for Low Achieved interaction 2 (4:26 mins)
Video for Low Achieved interaction 3 (3:00 mins)
High Not Achieved
Commentary
For Achieved, the student needs to interact clearly using spoken French to explore and justify varied ideas and perspectives.
This involves the student accounting for and sustaining own views, and finding out about, evaluating and giving evidence to support or challenge the ideas and perspectives of others.
Communication will be achieved overall, despite inconsistencies.
The student is with the teacher in all interactions.
The student is able to understand and make some response to all that is said. The student is able to make themselves understood and does attempt to correct what is said, for example, ‘non non, l’espace de public – comme le Baron Haussmann à Paris’, ‘il y a des gens qui disant que Amélie n’est pas une image vraie de Paris parce que Paris dans le film est très joli’.
The student gives evidence to support the ideas and perspectives of others, for example, ‘Oui, c’est très important maintenant, parce que la vie est très rapide donc c’est bon de reposer un peu dans le jardin’.
The language used is reasonably spontaneous, and the student interacts naturally with what is said.
To reach Achieved, there would be some evidence of mastery of language at the appropriate level, such as an ability to express more complex ideas and perspectives, to respond to others and their ideas beyond ‘ça aussi’, ‘oui’, ‘non’, ‘bien sûr’, and to create complete sentences.
Further, there would also be evidence of strategies to maintain the interaction, for example, the ability to initiate, to find out about others’ perspectives, and to challenge or support those ideas and perspectives.
This annotated exemplar is intended for teacher use only. Annotated exemplars are extracts of student evidence, with commentary, that explain key parts of a standard. These help teachers make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries.
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TKI French assessment resources (external link)