How Advanced English speaking course prepared for the French C1 exam

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How are you able to grasp French? One method is to set yourself the goal of reaching C1 or C2 degree. I’ll explain extra about that in a second.

So far on this weblog I’ve usually written about how to
get beganin language studying. Getting started is likely one of the biggest hurdles for a lot of language learners, which is why I’ve maintained this focus.

However, in this submit – and in future articles – I’ll start exploring how to attain superior ranges of talking a language. These posts shall be focused at individuals who have already reached an intermediate degree in their language studying – however will little question curiosity newbies too. In this submit I’ll present you the way I handed the C1 French examination. No language learners left behind!

On the(CEFR), C1 means you understand a language to an
superiorlevel. Reaching C1 means you possibly can understand lengthy, demanding texts, converse fluently without trying to find expressions, and understand implicit meanings. English listening practice can also use the language for business and academic functions. Beyond that, this is a enjoyable degree to reach as a language learner, since at this stage you can perceive sly or subtle jokes, and you’ll know most of the colourful expressions in the language. The only degree above C1 is C2 – complete mastery.

French is the primary language that I sat a formal exam in, again in 2005, once I tried out the DELF B2 degree exam. B2 is an upper intermediate degree (what I often call “fluent”), directly under C1.

At the time I took this examination, I had no thought what each degree meant. I labored very onerous on my French for over three months. As it turned out, I was greater than able to communicating at B2 level and handed the examination
verysafely. After this, I lived inand worked as a professional translator in French for a number of years. This concerned studying many technical documents and essentially guaranteeing a mastery stage in the language.

Ever since I mastered French, I've meant to come again to it and take a proper CEFR examination. Over the past decade, I’ve sat the, so I’ve received a a lot higher understanding of what the completely different CEFR ranges mean.

Yet 10 years handed and I kept putting off formal French exams… Until now!

Why I Decided to Focus on C1 French earlier than C2

My chaotic travel itinerary over the last couple of years (by no means in the identical place for quite a lot of weeks) has made it difficult to rearrange to sit down a real certification exam. As such I decided to do a “mock” exam, which might be marked and corrected by knowledgeable French instructor – and native French speaker – and sat beneath comparable circumstances as the true factor.

This means I may take the exam at a time convenient for me, and it wouldn't contain me travelling to an official examination centre, because the complete exam can be performed over Skype or offline in a limited time. Obviously, I wouldn't be awarded any actual certificate, but as this was a private quite than skilled goal, sitting a mock exam appeared infinitely more handy.

If you’re in a similar scenario to me, the place you’d like the problem of taking an examination but can’t necessarily afford the cost or journey to the exam site, I highly recommend you contemplate taking a mock exam instead!

Since I assessed my ability as someplace between C1 and C2, I decided to take it one step at a time and focus on getting a stable C1.

I saw the mock exam as a solid milestone. Once I’d passed it, I planned to take a proper C2 examination after I’d settled down from all my travelling.

How to Do a Mock Exam

I grew up in Ireland the place “mock exams” are part of every highschool pupil’s life. In these mock exams, the outcomes weren’t the main focus. Rather, the exams acted as gauges for the way the actual exam would look and feel.

I found my mock exams extremely useful in figuring out tips on how to finest strategy exams. I realized to ensure I was giving every part of the examination enough time – which is a very common downside for test-takers. The mock exams also helped to highlight my weaknesses, and revealed the grade I might expect from the real exam if I did no further work.

Because of my high school expertise with mock exams, I now advise all language learners to attempt their own mock exams. This is particularly related when you’re planning to get a certificates in language proficiency. Many exam boards let you download earlier exam papers from their web site..

If you need assistance finding an examination paper, ask your language tutor. I find most of my lecturers on. (If you’re curious,). While “Informal tutoring” is fine more often than not for common language follow, you really need to get certainly one of their “skilled lecturers” that can assist you with an examination, since they tend to be certified and are prone to be conversant in the very examination you'll be taking. They might even have experience of marking examination papers.

My trainer, Léa, is a part of a small network ofon the web site
Léacafé. She helped me through the complete process of the mock examination, as well as mentioning what I needed to work on to reach C2 stage.

My Experience of Speaking, Reading and Writing Advanced French

Even with mock exams, it’s essential to organize correctly. So even should you see it as a easy preparation for the “real” exam, you continue to need to arrange for the preparation!

For every a part of the mock examination – listening, studying, writing and speaking – I tried to get ready as finest as I may upfront.

French C1 Oral Comprehension

To follow for the
oral comprehensionpart, I listened to French information casters and YouTube movies together with my instructor, Léa. Then Léa would ask me complex questions on what I’d just heard. This is precisely how the comprehension part works on C-degree checks, whereas the A and even B stage audio comprehension checks could simply contain selecting a word out of what you heard.

Once, for example, Léa confirmed me a YouTube video of a bunch of teenage women arguing and yelling at each other all on the identical time. She then requested me to “simply” summarize the video in my very own phrases. It was atask because they had been using lots of slang, talking very fast and talking over one another. But generally these brain-melting duties are just what you should stage up your language expertise.

Since I focus so much on talking in the early stages of my language studying, my listening comprehension tends to be weaker. In the exam, I may easily get the gist of the audio, however the questions asked at C1 stage require you to completely understand each side of what’s being said. I didn't do properly on this part, so even though I “handed” the rest of the exam, I wouldn't have handed the total exam because I would have failed this part. This meant I had to sit a second mock model of this part.

As we were not doing the complete examination directly, but one part at a time till I had it right, I did one other oral comprehension take a look at and this time remained targeted. I took cautious notes on every thing that was stated, and nearly handed.

I also had a problem with audio comprehension in my German C2 examination. This tells me that I need to give a a lot larger proportion of my time to listening comprehension and tuning my ear after I want to reach a C1 or C2 degree.

Unfortunately I am a little onerous of listening to, so that doesn't assist. Nevertheless, I'll continue to work on my listening comprehension in all my languages. To get ready for the C2 French examination, I'll be spending plenty of time listening to the upper levels of the.

French C1 Reading Comprehension

Once again, at the C-levels this begins to get really tricky as you should understand the refined cues that the writer is supplying you with. The questions are very removed from being requested to find a simple fact that you could seek for in the textual content. Even the multiple selection choices go away you questioning how the article explicitly says
anyof the options.

The best means by far to do well here is through plenty of reading. In current years, I've lastly had the time to embrace reading in my finest languages and have been enjoying Jules Verne novels of their authentic French. Proud as I was about this reality, you'll be able to imagine how I felt when I saw them marked as B1 level books in
Gibert Jeunein Paris!

This signifies that I have to up my recreation so much. I have a subscription to Le Mondeas usually as I can, however it's not as engaging as I like. Léa launched me to, which isfor “Figaro” (a serious newspaper) and primarily the French equivalent of, and I enjoy studying this for enjoyable.

I’ve recognised that I need to make use of a studying device likeand correctly notice hard words. I might additionally use C1/C2 stage exercise books that ask questions after the text to check my true comprehension.

Realising this was very attention-grabbing, and I look ahead to continuing to enhance my studying skills in French (and different languages) to be actually within the solid C ranges. I barely obtained sufficient factors on this part, and wish to enhance it dramatically if a C2 degree reading comprehension examination is on the horizon.

French C1 Speaking and Writing

In the CEFR exams, speaking and writing are known as “oral and written manufacturing”.

My language learning strategy all the time favours interaction with people, so that is the part of the examination the place I at all times shine. In the mock exams I got 88% for written production and ninety% for oral manufacturing.

I love practising my speaking abilities, and I once I’m practising I make sure that the dialog goes towards advanced discussions. Léa and I actually have had many fascinating debates on a wide variety of topics. I've additionally given her the inside view on the technical workings of my business and web site. What’s extra, when I was in France my computer broke down. I needed to work with a tech help guy to determine which a part of my computer wasn't working and verify every enter, and clarify what I was seeing over the cellphone. English online don't draw back from probabilities to use the language in various methods, and I'll ensure to keep that up!

For the written production part, I acquired one important piece of critical feedback: my sentences tended to be somewhat short. While I did well in most different elements, to help me get used to probably longer sentences we spent a number of days trying atby Immanuel Kant, because the things he describes involve very advanced sentences with nested commas that span large paragraphs. It would have originally been written in German, which is extra suited to such a convoluted sentence structure, but regardless of the lengthy sentences you may not usually expect in French, on this doc the way in which they're translated is genuinely the easiest way to specific the original thoughts.

As we worked on my French writing abilities, Léa got me to reply questions on Kant in written kind, utilizing sentences that would go on but not turn out to be nonsensical. It was one hell of a task, contemplating I wouldn't even attempt to say or write such issues in English!

What made this work notably humorous is that I am well known for telling beginner language learners that you don't have to be able to “discuss Kantian epistemology” whenever you goal for fluency in a language. This may be very true, however the day came when I had to do it to deliver myself as much as that C2 level. Oh the irony!

Wrapping it All Up

I hope you've found this account of my journey to reaching French C1 degree fascinating. I at all times figured that my French was around C1 or C2 level. Now I see that in terms of talking and writing, I could also be prepared to sit that C2 exam! But comprehension-clever I even have a lot of work to do, as I'm borderline C1 for reading and listening. Now that I know my strengths and weaknesses, I can work on them.

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