French Oral

[gkong]

Hello,

My french oral is in about a week, I'm planning to talk about French singer, Édith Piaf as seen in La Vie en Rose (La Môme). However, I'm not sure how to go about with this. Suggestions on structuring and how I should prepare? My teacher is away for personal reasons and I have no where else to look!

[firedemon777]

My teacher says that you want to sound fluent but not memorized. Try not to stumble, like any presentation. Apparently, the analysis of the subject is more important than the information, so you should explain how your topic influences the francophone world or how your francophone topic influences the rest of the world. My french oral is in two days, and I'm planning on not focusing much on grammar because I don't want to think too much and forget what I'm saying. For the question portion, my teacher said that it's important to never say 'I don't know' to a question, say 'I don't know, but...' and explain something else. For preparation, I'd suggest speaking about your subject, but not memorizing anything, just saying something different every time, and getting familiar with the vocabulary.

[Proletariat]

Honestly, if you want a good mark I would say memorize as much as possible. The trick is to not sound like you have.

Structure can vary depending on the content of your presentation. Fire may be right in saying that the analysis is more important than the information, but it doesn't necessarily mean that your presentation has to have more analysis than information. If most of your presentation is biographical or whatever, and you take the last third or last quarter to reflect on your person's importance, that should be fine.

Knowing grammar is good, but won't make or break the presentation. It's that fluency and flow that they're looking for, up until the 6 range at least. The best way to provide that fluency is knowing and using transitional words/phrases, as well as colloquialisms, especially phrases that don't directly translate into English. The former provides that flow as well as giving you a valuable second to formulate thoughts, and the latter shows that mastery with the language that goes above mere textbook memorization.

Honestly, your teacher shouldn't ever, ever be asking you a question to which you wouldn't be able to respond. It's their responsibility to ensure that their questions allow you to communicate on something. In fact, Orals sent in for modulation are checked to ensure questioning is fair and constructive, just as much as it is checked to ensure proper grading. If you're not at the level to easily converse with a native French speaker (and I definitely wasn't at the time of my oral) then the most important thing to remember for the Q&A portion is to keep talking. Don't pause for any reason, unless you've finished your answer (or mb if your teacher signals to stop, lol.) Grammar and pronunciation matters even less in the answers, and it's just about your response and ability to maintain the communication.

Lastly, when you're planning out your presentation, be sure to not be too specific. Purposely leaving out one smaller point, or simply alluding to a point rather than explaining it, provides an opportunity for your teacher to question you on that point (and hopefully she/he picks up on the cue.) This way, you can more or less direct a bit of the questioning to areas that you know you have the ability and knowledge to answer.

[caintalknow]

Does anyone know the general conversion for SL french orals?

I got an 8/10... does this convert to a 6 or a 7?

[Proletariat]

Generally 80% would be a 5 or 6, but I'm fairly certain that conversion rates are something decided on a school/district basis. I mean, how would IBO expect to regulate all the rubrics that every IB teacher in the world might possibly use?

Have you asked your teacher straight-up what IB mark he/she expects your oral to receive?