I was a little surprised this week to read in The Independent that examination board OCR are planning to introduce new requirements for GCSE French candidates to submit audio or video recordings of themselves taking part in authentic conversations while away on educational visits to France as evidence for their final speaking exam.
Now although the idea is to encourage pupils to "interact with other French speakers, expressing and justifying opinions where appropriate" while adding "real-life relevance", I can see this being problematic in a number of ways.
Firstly, it may disadvantage pupils from poorer backgrounds who cannot afford to go on a school visit. Secondly, it could prove difficult for pupils to consistently record suitable examples for submission and thirdly, will this decision discourage pupils further from opting to take French to examination level in the first place?
What do you think? Is this a good idea or has OCR gone bananas?
The changes will come into effect by 2009.
And what about interacting with French speakers who don't live in France?!?
Posted by: Penny Coutas | 30/05/2008 at 03:47
Oh my god, Joe let's just hope this doesn't happen!
I thought we lived in a bit if a bubble in the EFL world, but this is absolutely crazy.
All the reasons you mentioned before like fairness to poorer students and opportunities to actually record themselves are true (I can't imagine many hyper market checkout staff in Calais being very happy with a teenager shoving a microphone under their nose when counting up our students' shopping.)
Surely this daft idea is open to cheating anyway? I know for sure that here in Italy a scheme like this couldn't work. I wonder if it will in the U.K?
Good luck!
Seth.
Posted by: Seth Dickens | 30/05/2008 at 08:22
One question for the people who thought this up... When was the last time you actually taught a class of teenagers? I live in a fairly low-income area of North Devon, an area where there is virtually no immediate access to native speakers and where the thought of telling my "grunters" (I'm sure that everyone knows the kind of group I'm refering to) that they can't get a grade unless they jump through these hoops unlike in other subjects where they can just take the easy options... I know which one I'd choose, and I know which one a large number of year 9s who were previously contemplating taking a language at KS4 will choose too.
Grr...
Posted by: Chris | 30/05/2008 at 10:10
Joe, is this for real?
Unless OCR intends to sponsor all GCSE French entries, this will prove difficult in many school for financial reasons-not to mention the "technical" barriers. Or is it another case of media hype? i.e. OCR would consider it as an alternative speaking coursework etc...
Definitely need to investigate this...
Isabelle
http://isabellejones.blogspot.com
Posted by: Isabelle Jones | 31/05/2008 at 23:43
Well at least we can all look forward to an exam board sponsored trip armed with release forms, voice recorders and 30 kids all running up to a gendarme screaming "Ou est la gare??????". Start the risk assessment now.
Posted by: James Padvis | 01/06/2008 at 09:52