OO-LA-LA. There was lots of praise from teachers for yesterday's French papers. The French inspectorate has responded to the views of teachers, said Mr Sean Higgins, who teaches in St Mary's Diocesan School, Drogheda, Co Louth.
"During the early years of the new syllabus, the exam standard was too high and instilled fear in students. This year, the paper is more or less right," he said.
At higher level, students liked the comprehensions, which dealt with an Algerian family living in Paris and with a boy who was raised by chimpanzees in Uganda.
ASTI subject representative Ms Margaret Le Lu said the text about the Algerian family was very suitable from the point of view of content and level of difficulty.
TUI subject representative Ms Mary Costelloe said both comprehensions were short and should have been manageable.
In the compulsory question in the written production section, students had to choose between writing about the difficulty of maintaining traditions in a more open society or writing about an exceptional experience. Students might have found the first theme difficult to handle, said Ms Costelloe, who teaches in Shannon Comprehensive, Co Clare.
Optional questions dealt with an eclectic subject mix spanning adolescent problems, the decline in numbers opting to train for trades, pets, and fighting wars without destroying the environment. Some of these topics were difficult, said Ms Le Lu, but they were on the syllabus and students had adequate choice.
Students at St Mary's Diocesan School found sections three and four of the tape for the listening comprehension difficult, said Mr Higgins. In section 3 question 2, if students didn't understand the word soul they may have had difficulty, he added. Ms Le Lu agreed that sections 3 and 4 were difficult, particularly section 4.
At ordinary level, Ms Costello said the comprehensions were slightly more difficult for that level of student but the written section was fine, with plenty of choice.
Mr Higgins said this paper was well received by students with topical reading comprehensions dealing with websites and with the TV programme Friends. This latter was a "brilliant choice for weaker students", he said.
