Transition Handbook

A’Level

French/Spanish

Languages summer task

French - As part of the course in Year 1 you will watch a French language film

and analyse the work as part of a cultural topic. Over the summer we want you to

watch the film “La Haine” and write a critique of the film in English.

In your critique you need to write about:

• The plot

• The main characters

• The themes

• Your favourite scene

• Your personal reaction

Languages summer task

Spanish - As part of the course in Year 1 you will watch a Spanish language film and

analyse the work as part of a cultural topic. Over the summer we want you to watch the

film “El laberinto del fauno” or “Pan’s Labyrinth” and write a critique of the film in

English.

In your critique you need to write about:

• The plot

• The main characters

• The themes

• Your favourite scene

• Your personal reaction

How is it assessed? Terminal assessment at the end of Year 2

reading and writing

Paper 1 –Listening, Reading and Writing

What's assessed • Aspects of French/Spanish speaking society: current trends • Aspects of French/Spanish speaking society: current issues • Artistic culture in the French/Spanish-speaking world • Aspects of political life in the French/Spanish-speaking world • Grammar How it's assessed • Written exam: 2 hours 30 minutes • 100 marks • 50% of A-level Questions • Listening and responding to spoken passages from a range of contexts and sources covering different registers and adapted as necessary. Material will include complex factual and abstract content and questions will target main points, gist and detail. Stu-dio recordings will be used and students will have individual control of the recording. All questions are in French/Spanish to be answered with non-verbal responses or in French/Spanish (30 marks) • Reading and responding to a variety of texts written for different purposes, drawn from a range of authentic sources and adapted as necessary. Material will include com-plex factual and abstract content and questions will target main points, gist and detail. All questions are in French/Spanish, to be answered with non-verbal responses or in French /Spanish (50 marks) • Translation into English; a passage of minimum 100 words (10 marks) • Translation into French/Spanish ; a passage of minimum 100 words (10 marks). No access to a dictionary during the assessment.

Paper 2 Writing

What's assessed • One text and one film or two texts from the list set in the specification • Grammar How it's assessed • Written exam: 2 hours • 80 marks in total • 20% of A-level Questions • Either one question in French/Spanish on a set text from a choice of two questions and one question in French/Spanish on a set film from a choice of two questions or two questions in French/Spanish on set texts from a choice of two questions on each text. • All questions will require a critical appreciation of the concepts and issues covered in the work and a critical and analytical response to features such as the form and the technique of presentation, as appropriate to the work studied (e.g. the effect of narrative voice in a prose text or camera work in a film). No access to texts or films during the assessment. No access to a dictionary during the assessment. Students are advised to write approximately 300 words per essay.

Paper 3 Speaking

What's assessed • Individual research project • One of four sub-themes i.e. Aspects of French/Spanish speaking society: current trends, Aspects of French/Spanish speaking society: current issues, Artistic culture in the French/Spanish -speaking world, Aspects of political life in the French/Spanish speaking world How it's assessed • Oral exam: 21–23 minutes (including 5 minutes preparation time) • 60 marks in total • 30% of A-level Questions • Discussion of a sub-theme with the discussion based on a stimulus card (5–6 minutes). The student studies the card for 5 minutes at the start of the test (25 marks). • Presentation (2 minutes) and discussion (9–10 minutes) of individual research pro-ject (35 marks). No access to a dictionary during the assessment (including 5 minutes preparation). Students may take the assessment only once before certification. Assessments will be conducted by either the centre or a visiting examiner and marked by an AQA examiner.

Year 1 Aspects of society Social issues and trends • Family values • Cyber-society • Voluntary Work (French) • Equality (Spanish)

Current issues • The multicultural society • Crime and Punishment

The work of a director • La Haine (French) • El Laberinto del Fauno (Spanish)

Year 2 Political and artistic culture Artistic culture

• Cultural heritage • Contemporary music • Cinema (French) • Regional identity (Spanish)

Political life

• Voting • Demonstrations and strikes (French) • Popular movements (Spanish) • Politics and immigration (French) • Monarchies and dictatorship (Spanish)

The work of an author

• Analysing a literary work

An independent research project

What will I study?

Useful websites

todo-claro.com Grammar and vocabulary exercises at various levels http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/ultimas_noticias/ Lots of short texts on daily news as well as videos and photos http://www.practicaespanol.com/ Brilliant new site with activities for listening and reading on a range of topics + gram-mar http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/actividades_ave/aveteca.htm Aveteca (Actividades del Aula Virtual de Español) has a series of exercises based on grammar and topics. Self checking El Gancho Digital newspaper, manageable level http://rtve.es Search for '4 minutos' within the site and then listen and try to pick out the main stories http://www.audiria.com/ Listening practice with transcripts http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/ Video listening practice with transcripts http://web.mac.com/sanferminuk/Advanced_Level_Listening/Spanish/Spanish.html Listening exercises with exercises in pdf format http://zachary-jones.com/spanish/ Superb blog with articles and exercises to accompany them, as well as songs and videos http://www.elpais.com/audios/ Excellent short audio bites on up-to-the-minute topics, literally on the day they happen http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/ Videos and audio on up-to-the minute topics http://www.abc.es/ Spanish news site http://www.elmundoenrosa.com/ Gossip pages in Spanish http://www.spanishnewsbites.com/spanish_newsbites/advanced_level/ Excellent listening activities with blankfill exer-cise, transcript and translator tool http://feeds.feedburner.com/SlowSpainPodcast Excellent listening activiites (with transcript available) http://www.asisehace.net/?cat=4 Listening activities and vodcasts http://www.espanol-extra.co.uk/ http://www.spanishrevision.co.uk/a_level/reading/reading_index.htm Great reading exercises http://www.spanishrevision.co.uk/a_level/listening/listening_index.htm Lots of different types of listening exercises on good A level topics http://www.spanishrevision.co.uk/a_level/graphics/index.htm Illustrative graphics on a variety of A level topics http://www.spanishrevision.co.uk/a_level/index.htm http://www.elmundo.es Spanish newspaper online http://www.freeetv.com/modules.php?name=Video_Stream&page=watch&id=2211&d=2 Euronews in Spanish http://www.spanish-only.com/ Word of the day can be hepful, particularly as it gives examples http://oye.languageskills.co.uk/index.html Different activities for different levels http://www.colby.edu/personal/b/bknelson/SLC/ Grammar exercises Trinity grammar pages Grammar exercises http://www.jimmyp.me.uk/page3.html Excellent grammar notes http://www.languagesresources.co.uk/ Great resources for different levels, including reading comprehension practice, and literature notes and worksheets http://servicios.ideal.es/videos/# Brilliant videos on a huge range of topics. Try summarising what they say, for practice http://www.20minutos.es/ Accessible reading and video clips http://sacodeyl.inf.um.es/sacodeyl-search2/ Select Spanish Corpus for series of videos of Spaniards talking about differ-ent topics http://www.aulaintercultural.org/ Intercultural education, useful for A2 topics Punto y coma Listening and reading online http://zachary-jones.com/spanish/ Lots of really interesting activities and posts - check out the selections in the side bar http://zachary-jones.com/spanish/unidades-didacticas/comparativos Comparative exercises http://www.verbuga.eu/Esmi/Esmi.html Choose your verb(s) and your tense(s) then practise, practise, practise http://formespa.rediris.es/canciones/ Songs and exercises http://www.spanish.cl/Grammar/Games.htm http://www.educacionenvalores.org/ http://www.fluencyprof.com/free-spanish-audio.html Good basic listening practice with blankfills etc http://www.donquijote.org/spanishlanguage/test/ http://observadorglobal.com/videos.html Short videos on a range of topics

Useful websites

www.framasoft.net/article2225.html French punctuation www.french.about.com/library/writing/bl-acronyms.htm French acronyms www.wordreference.com online dictionary www.linguee.com online dictionary http://corumcle.edres74.ac-grenoble.fr/presse/presse.fr.htm provides a link to all major French newspapers www.europinfos.com www.mediajunior.com www.bonjourdefrance.com www.tv5.org www.rfi.fr www.zut.org.uk www.linguascope.com www.frenchteacher.net www.jde.fr www.google.fr www.fr.yahoo.com www.ipsos.fr www.ados.fr www.lesclesjunior.com www.radiofrance.fr www.bbc.co.uk www.touslesmedias.com www.realfrench.net www.lemonde.fr www.euronews.com www.rgshw.com Good for grammar www.laits.utexas.edu/tex Good for grammar

Modern Languages, Oxford

Here is where previous students have gone!

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