Languages News
Lucie Dickens, Academic Dean of Languages
Junior School French - Spotlight on Year 4 student
Recently, Madame Mullins asked Chelsey Li, Year 4, to answer a few questions about her experience of learning French this year. Here are their questions and answers!
Q. 1: Being new to French learning this year, what were some of your highlights? Were you surprised about anything?
A. 1: Some of my highlights included creating posters in French and making madeleines during French Club. One thing that surprised me was the fact that the origin of some English words are from French.
Q. 2: Did you find it hard starting a new language? What helped you to make so much progress?
A. 2: Yes, it was hard starting a new language. To catch up, I played a lot of educational games such as 'Whack a Mole', and practised new words at home with my mum. I also tried my best to be focused during French class.
Q. 3 Why did you take part in the Alliance Française Berthe Mouchette Poetry competition? What did you learn/enjoy about this experience?
A. 3: I participated in the Competition because I like challenges and because it sounded fun. I enjoyed learning the poem. It felt really great because at the end of it, I felt like I could fluently speak French (but of course, I can't just yet).
Q. 4: How do you see yourself using French in the future? What is a positive aspect of learning French?
A. 4: I can see myself using French when I one day visit France! Something positive about learning French is that I was able to learn a few things about the French culture which were interesting. I hope that this will help me in my future travels, or when I watch French movies.
VCE Languages oral examination and workshop
Good luck to all our Year 12 Languages students who are getting ready for their VCAA oral examination (to be held early in Term 4).
Along with Year 12 French and Japanese, we also have a number of students studying languages through the Victorian School of Languages, which include Chinese (First and Second Language), Vietnamese and Russian.
To prepare for this oral exam, our French students attended a workshop on Sunday 4 September at Glen Eira College organised by the Association of French Teachers in Victoria. Here's what students had to share about the workshop:
Pia O’Reilly, Year 12 French
I found the workshop really helpful, specifically the conversation section. The mock-oral was useful as it enabled me to get a 'real-world' feel for the actual exam. It also helped me to combat a little of my nervousness. The feedback from other students was good. I also liked being able to see what level I was at in comparison to others and therefore what I could improve upon.
The discussion section was okay, but not as valuable to me as we had covered most of it in class. However, being immersed in French for a couple hours was still good practice for listening and speaking.
Paige Strachan, Year 12 French
The overall experience was very rewarding, particularly the small group conversation exercise. I felt it allowed me to understand what I needed to work on before the final oral exam, as well as to understand what'll be expected in both parts of the discussion.
Having the chance to talk to people from other schools who're studying French and to provide feedback to each other was also a major highlight for me, and something I found extremely useful.
Yoga in French
On 14 September, as part of our current Resilience Coping Skills Initiative, we tried Yoga in French!
We had 16 participants at the session which was conducted entirely in French. We all felt relaxed afterwards, and the feedback from students was that they would like to have these yoga sessions more regularly. Alex, our instructor, was great!
You can find more information here about the French yoga program.
