The AS French class have taken part in the ‘Réalités Françaises’ Conference in Bristol. The day consisted of various topic-based activities to improve both reading and listening skills and several presentations and sketches by the French men leading the conference. Many current topics were tackled throughout the morning such as drugs, alcohol, personal identity and the increasing importance of technology. All of which proved useful to the class, particularly as they corresponded with various oral discussion topics.
After lunch the students watched several sketches and took part in a range of other activities. The day ended with the repeated singing of French song, ‘Elle Pleure Ma Planète’ (My Planet is Crying), which will remain embedded in everyone’s minds forever! After a long hard day of French grammar and non-stop French, the students returned home having learnt something and feeling that their understanding of both French culture and language had improved.
A second trip saw the students attend an AS French Revision Day at Plymouth University. This was designed to improve various aspects of the students’ linguistic skills. After an initial induction with the language department, the linguists were split up into different groups to focus on one core skill at a time, spending an hour on each one before moving on to another. After lunch, all the schools joined together for another episode of singing, although this time the song was slightly more upbeat! This also proved to be a very beneficial day for the whole class, with everyone, at the end of the day, feeling more confident about their own abilities to manipulate the French language.
