WASSCE Candidates’ Weaknesses In French And Remedies | Extract From Chief Examiners Report Towards WASSCE 2023

WASSCE Candidates’ Weaknesses In French And Remedies | Extract From Chief Examiners Report Towards WASSCE 2023

Teachers preparing students for any examination are always worried about the potential weaknesses in answers that their students will provide during the examination. Fortunately, the main examining body, the West Africa Examination Council always provide WASSCE candidates’ weaknesses in French during the last held examinations.

WAEC Summary of 2021 WASSCE French Paper Two (2)

A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS

The following strengths were observed in the candidates’ works this year:

• Most of the candidates followed the rubrics by answering one question from each section. They also respected the rubrics on the length of their composition, i.e. number of words was within the required limit.
• In grammar, a few of the candidates performed very well in most of the aspects. They used the correct articles, correct gender and number, etc.
• Some of the candidates were able to tackle the question with “expliquer pourquoi” very well. Question 3 especially, which demanded an explanation of why one chose a particular profession and why, was well answered by a few who attempted it.
• They also used the tenses correctly.
• A few of the good candidates were able to organise and present their essays in an orderly manner. They had titles for their essays and developed their points sequentially.They wrote the format of the letters correctly.
• Paragraphing was well done because each point with its analysis was in a separate paragraph.

See also: WASSCE Candidates’ Weaknesses In History And Remedies | Extract From Chief Examiners Report Towards WASSCE 2023 History

B. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES

Some weaknesses were also observed. These include:

• A few of the candidates deviated. This showed that they did not understand the question. For example, in question 1, some of them wrote about their town/villages instead of the capital of a monument.
• A few of the candidates did not obey the rubrics. Some of them answered the 2 questions from the same section. This resulted in they, losing half of the total mark for the paper.
• Another challenge was spelling. Most of the French words were wrongly spelt.
• Most of them omitted some accents and those who used them, did so wrongly.
• Others wrote the essays in English.
• A few of them also copied the comprehension passages as answers.
• Some of them had challenges with Subject-Verb Agreement. They used singular verbs for plural subjects and the vice versa.

C. SUGGESTED REMEDIES

• First of all, candidates must make sure they understand clearly what the question demands before attempting them. They should not take any word of the question for granted.
• Candidates should learn to satisfy the demands of the paper by answering the number of question from the right sections.
• Candidates should be encouraged to read a lot of literature in French to enrich their stock of vocabulary and improve upon their spelling.
• They should practise essay writing frequently. These should be marked and outcomes discussed in class.
• Spelling drills should be organised regularly for the candidates so they can improve upon their spelling skills

WAEC Summary of 2020 WASSCE French Paper Two (2)

A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS

A few candidates were able to answer the questions appropriately. They used the appropriate tenses, adjectives and expressions, among other things. Their introductions were on point. They also used well-written and meaningful sentences to develop their essays and ended them with the right conclusions. These candidates were also able to present their answers in simple but very good sentences, thereby scoring very high marks. In some of their scripts, one could read sentences such as Le nom du restaurant que je connais est Linda Dor…Il est très joli.

In section B, which had to do with letter writing, most of these candidates were able to write correctly the features of informal letters in French. They used the right tenses, conjugated verbs appropriately and used the right vocabulary, among others, and this earned them very good marks.

B. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES

Despite the candidates’ strengths discussed above, some weaknesses in their work were identified in the following areas.

(1) Wrong use of accents

Many candidates displayed their ignorance of the use of accents. For example, they wrote trés instead of très; pére instead of père; and á instead of à.

(2) Wrong use of adjectives

Most of the weak candidates could not differentiate between feminine and masculine adjectives. For example, they wrote Mon mère est . . .. instead of Ma mère est…. They also wrote, Elle est pharmacien instead of Elle est pharmacienne.

(3) Wrong conjugation of verbs:

Some of the candidates could not conjugate the verbs properly. For example, they wrote Mes parents vient de Asikuma instead of Mes parents viennent de Asikuma.

They also wrote, Ils habite à Accra instead of, Ils habitent à Accra.

(4) Wrong use of punctuation marks

Many of them put a comma at the end of a sentence and started the next sentence with a small letter instead of putting a full stop at the end of the sentence and starting it with a capital letter. Also, they put a full stop at the end of a direct question instead of a question mark. Even though candidates were not punished for the misuse of punctuation marks in their work, it is necessary for them to learn how to use them correctly.

(5) Lack of vocabulary

Many candidates lacked the appropriate French vocabulary with which to express themselves and resorted to English words. For example, some wrote sentences such as Le restaurant est nice instead of, Le restaurant est joli.

(6) Inappropriate writing of address and date in French

Some candidates were ignorant of the fact that, in French, names of months and days begin with small letters. For example, they wrote Vendredi, le huit Avril 2020 instead of vendredi, le huit avril 2020. Some candidates wrote their dates adding ‘st’, ‘th’ and ‘nd’ to the numbers as though they were writing English. For example, some wrote, 22ndAvril, 2020 instead of le 22 avril, 2020.

There were other candidates who did not know what to write. Such candidates resorted to copying some portions of the comprehension passages as essays and presenting them as answers.

C. SUGGESTED REMEDIES

To minimize the incidents of the weaknesses enumerated above, the following remedies are proposed:

Teachers of French are urged to pay attention to the teaching and learning of accents during French lessons. Dictation exercises involving accents in French could help minimise the

problem.

Teachers of French are advised to do more oral drills in French before doing written exercises with their students. The written exercises should be marked and discussed with the class.

Students should be guided to write simple sentences with adjectives in both masculine and feminine forms. This would expose them to the use of adjectives in French. Merely writing words in their books does not help students to remember the words, let alone use them correctly

Students should be taught how to use punctuation marks appropriately in writing.

Exercises involving the use of punctuation marks could be conducted on regular basis by teachers of French to help their students overcome this problem.

To enrich their vocabulary in French, students/candidates are encouraged to read French materials regularly. Giving students homework on reading comprehension can also help address the situation. In addition, the students themselves are advised to cultivate the habit of reading simple materials in French that they can lay hands on.

Students should do regular exercise on letter writing. This will enable them to master the art of letter writing with emphasis on the features.

WAEC Summary of 2021 WASSCE French Paper Three (3)

A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS

• Candidates knew what was expected of them. They were aware of the various components of the oral examination i.e. Listening Comprehension, Reading and Conversation.
• Most of the candidates showed that they had read at least one of the prescribed literary texts from which questions were asked during the Conversation stage.
• A few of them showed mastery of the spoken French.
• Some of them read the passages fluently, observing the necessary pauses.

B. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES

• Some candidates could not sustain a simple conversation in French. Apart from saying their name and age, they could not go any further. It was obvious that they were not used to speaking French.
• Some candidates seem not to have read any of the prescribed literary texts while some have only read one or two stories in the ‘La belle Fleure et d’autres histoires’. This meant they could answer only one or two questions in the second part of the conversation.
• As for the exposition aspect of the conversation where candidates were required to talk on a topic, some had to be prompted to continue to talk.
• Words that are similar to words in English were most of the time wrongly pronounced.

C. SUGGESTED REMEDIES

• It is very essential for teachers to prepare candidates adequately for this exercise. To do this, they should take candidates through orals tests regularly. Practice makes perfect.
• The study of the prescribed literary text must start from form 1. The stories could be used for written as well as listening comprehension passages in class.
• Students should be trained to listen to spoken French and answer simple questions on what they have heard in French. This could start with very short texts.
• Students should be encouraged to speak French frequently especially, on issues concerning them and their immediate surroundings.
• Reading aloud must be encouraged. Students could form reading groups and read to one another. This should be supervised by the teachers.
• Teachers of French should make use of the audio-visual facilities at CREF to enable the students to get used to the oral aspect of the language.

It is the hope of our team that candidates will perform better when teachers and candidates go through this summary of strengths, WASECE candidates’ weaknesses in French and remedies and apply same

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