French Waec Syllabus

PAPER 1

1. Section A: Comprehension

   This is designed to test candidates’ ability to read and understand standard written documents in French.

   Two passages, each of about 150 words, will be provided, and a total of five short questions will be set on each. The questions in this section will be multiple-choice questions only.  Candidates will be required to answer all questions.

2. Section B: Structure

   This section is designed to test candidates’ ability to use inappropriate communicative contexts, French words, expressions and structural patterns.  Thirty short questions will be set, and candidates will be required to attempt all of them.

PAPER 2     

1. Section A
   • Essay
2. Section B
   • Letter Writing
3. This paper is made up of two sections:  (a) an essay and (b) letter writing. It will test candidates’ ability to write freely and correctly on topics of general interest using the appropriate structures, registers, and tenses.

   Three questions will be set for each. Candidates are expected to answer one question only from each section.  The expected length of each composition will be about 100 words.

PAPER 3

1. Listening Comprehension

   This paper will test candidates’ ability to listen to and understand a straightforward passage in French.  The test, which will be based on a passage to be read aloud by the examiner, will be about 200 words long.    It will deal with issues of general interest. During the first 10 minutes, the passage will be read twice.  Candidates will study the questions for 3 minutes before the second reading.  At the end of the second reading, candidates will be allowed 7 minutes to answer, in writing, 10 questions based on the passage.  The questions may not be multiple-choice questions only but may also include other forms of language testing, such as open-ended questions, transformation, and substitution.

2. Reading

   The aim is to test candidates’ ability to read aloud with the appropriate pronunciation and fluency.  For this purpose, a simple passage of about 100 words will be provided.  The passage will be of contemporary interest.  In principle, candidates will be asked to read once and at a normal pace.

3. Conversation

   The conversation test will last about 10 minutes per candidate. Topics to be discussed will be drawn from themes of general and contemporary interests such as sports, health, leisure, education, politics, culture, etc. There will be two sections, one on dialogue and the other on exposition, as follows:

   • Dialogue – This will test candidates’ ability to express themselves freely in a dialogue. For this purpose, candidates will be expected to respond to a minimum of ten questions.  For Ghana, five of these questions will be on selected literature texts.
   • Exposition – This will test candidates’ ability to speak freely on a given topic in French .The candidate is expected to make a minimum of 5 sentences.

NOTES ON THE SYLLABUS

1. Structure

   This will be tested, as far as possible, within suitable communicative contexts.  To this end, candidates are expected to be familiar with the following:

2. Parts of speech (Grammatical categories)
3. Articles – definite, indefinite, partitive. (Gender and number where applicable).
4. Verbs
   • Types:   regular and irregular
   • Common moods and tenses
   • Standard expressions, such as
     • avoir + noun (e.g. avoir faim)
     • venir de + infinitive
5. Nouns
   • complements
   • gender
   • number
6. Pronouns.
   • personal
   • possessive
   • indefinite,
   • demonstrative
   • relative,
   • impersonal, (number and gender where applicable)
7. Adjectives
   • possessive,
   • demonstrative
   • indefinite
   • interrogative (agreement and position)
8. Adverbs
   • formation and position
   • special adverbs:  mal, vite, fort, tout, etc.
9. Negatives
   • negative expressions (ne…pas, ne…rien, ne… jamais, etc.)
10. Conjunctions in common use
    • et, mais, donc, , ou, parce que, etc
11. Preposition
    • à, de, sur, en, devant, etc.
12. Sentence patterns
    • declarative, interrogative, exclamative, etc
13. Voice
    • active/passive
14. Direct speech/reported speech
15. Compound and complex sentences
16. Idiomatic expressions& proverbs
17. Forms of writing (formal/informal)
18. Context and meaning
    • e.g. to convey politeness, disgust, disappointment.
19. Common figures of speech
    • e.g. (similes, metaphors, hyperbols)
20. Structures of major “Acte de Parole”
    • e.g. (exprimer ladeception, la probation, le degout, la surprise, le plaisir, le regret, etc.

SUGGESTED READING LIST

1. Course books
   • De Grandsaigne, J:   –   France-Afrique 4, Lagos, Macmillan
   • Plaisant, Chantal, et al:  -Trans Afrique 3, Lagos, Macmillan
   • Ajiboye, Tunde et al:   –   Nouvel Horizon 4, Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.
   • Mazauric, Catherine et al:   –  On y va 3, Ibadan, Spectrum Books
   • Berard, Evelyne et al:   –   Tempo 1 & 2, Didier, Hatier
   • Task Force (MEST):   –  –  Et en français 1 – 3, Freetown
   • Girardet J. &Pécheir J: – écho junior A2 méthode de français, Paris : CLÉ Internationale
2. General Grammar Books
   • Ajiboye, T.:   –   Companion to French Grammar,  Ilorin, Info-Links Publishers
   • Ferrar H. A:   –   French Reference Grammar,  OxfordUniversity Press
   • Dangnaud-Macé, P &Sylès, G.   LeFrançais sans faute, Paris, Hatier
   • Le Nouveau Bescherelle:   –   La grammaire pour tous,  Paris: Hatier
   • Soyoye, F. A:   –   Manuel de conjugaison de verbes, Sophire Ed. Resources
3. Any other useful grammar books
4. ORAL Practice
   • Ajiboye, T:  –  An Introduction to Practice in Oral French, Revised edition, Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.
   • Grandsaigne,J:  –  France Afrique 5, Lagos, Macmillan
   • Adegbilero, L. M   –   Teaching Yourself French (with cassette/CD) Revised edition, Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.
   • Chamberlain, Alan & Steele Ross Guide pratique de l communication, Paris, Didier
5. Any other useful document designed for Oral Practice
6. Literature (Ghana only)
   • J. N. D. Dodoo: La  Belle Fleure et d’autres Histoires, Accra
   • TundeAjiboye: Olurounbi ou Le Prix d’un Pari
   • Hector, Malot: Sans Famille, Paris     
7. Dictionaries/Glossaries
   • Any useful French dictionary e.g.
     • Micro Robert/Petit Robert
     •  Petit Larousse
     • Dictionnaire du français fundamental pour l’Afrique
   • Any useful French – English/English-French dictionary e.g.
     • Shorter Harraps
     • Collins
     • Cassell’s
   • Any useful French glossary e.g.
     • Français Fondamental for West Africa, WAEC, Accra, Black Mask Ltd

   To enhance comprehension skills, extracts from simple modern literary and other texts (magazines, newspapers, brochures, etc.) dealing with contemporary issues may be of immense assistance.