Dictation remains candidates' greatest area of difficulty. Their problems centred
on lack of proper understanding of French sounds and lack of sufficient exposure
to French grammar. Some of the candidates found it difficult to differentiate the
singular and plural of verbs. Some of them could not write a single word of
French, while some filled their answer booklets with words that were not French.
Some of the candidates instead of applying the punctuation marks wrote them for
instance
"a la ligne"
n deux points"
"virgule"
"point virgule"
"ouvrez les guillements" etc.
Most of the candidates spelt words in English Language instead of in French for
instance in Dictation passages A & B candidates wrote
"troixierne" instead of " troisieme''
"apartment" instead of "appatement"
"demote" instead of "derneurait"
"surir" instead of " sourire"
"charment" instead of " charrnant"
"person" instead of " personne"
"etez" instead of " etaient"
"vyel" instead of " vieille"
In the Exposition Segment, candidates exhibited poor knowledge of Background
studies.
Some of them could not make the required five (5) sentences. They could not
express themselves fluently in French. They could only give incomplete
sentences as responses to questions.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Teachers of French should encourage the students to give their responses in
complete sentences during classes. They (teachers) should talk less in class
and allow the students to be actively involved in speaking and reading French,
The students should be exposed to Dictation drills after each French lesson
The
teachers should endeavour to practice all aspects of the Oral French with the
students before the examination. They should teach the students the basic
grammatical rules. Emphasis should be placed on all tenses, spellings, genders
and accord.
Teachers of French should teach the students the French punctuation marks.
They should encourage the students to read simple French story books, journals,
magazines so as to acquire more vocabulary.
The Ministry of Education should intensify supervision to ensure that French
teachers are doing the right teaching.