Very soon now, the A level results will be out, with the usual debate in the media about whether the youth of today are brighter than their parents or whether standards are dropping.
The French Bac results are already out - the relative simplicity of the French examining boards makes this possible even when the exams finish at about the same time. Over 85% of candidates passed their Bac, with some entrants as young as 14 passing. The comments in the press were broadly the same as we will get in a week or so in the UK.
It is a tricky issue - on one hand one does not want to trash the fragile egos of adolescents who have worked hard and struggled in order to achieve their no doubt excellent grades. On the other hand, the lack of transparency of the grading systems and the rumour mill and the ever improving grades do raise the issue of whether or not standards have slipped.
My only comparison is that I did my main batch of A levels in 1981, gaining a C in Geography and a D in History and failing appallingly my English Literature A level. In 2004 I did A/S and A2 French in a year at evening classes and got As for both. I don't believe I worked harder in 2004 - in fact I am sure I didn't study as hard, as I was firstly in employment and then setting up a small business, which tend to occupy the mind rather.
Where I won out in French was that I had real life experience and knowledge to bring to my essays - I remember being able to quote my Internet rates and e-mail accounts in one of the exam essays on new media. Back in 1981, my classmates who did French were restricted in general to studying classic texts - if I had had to study Rabelais or Anatole France for my A-level I am sure I would have failed. Instead I could concentrate on things that either interested me (music, cinema) or were pretty obvious to anyone who read a paper or watched the news (crime, transport policy, immigration).
My personal assessment therefore of my success in A level French after all these years therefore is that I was more mature and had a wider general knowledge, plus the advantage of a home in France. I didn't know genders of nouns, my use of various tenses of verbs was probably all over the place, but I knew an awful lot about culture.
But what is important about learning a language in an academic environment? In my view, it is where the principles of grammar should be drilled in, dull as that can be. The cultural side you can pick up if you are interested via France 24, TV5, newspapers and magazines, France Inter Radio - it is what you go to France to learn if you like. But before you go, it would be nice to know how to speak grammatically!
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