FRENCH
WAEC SYLLABUS ON FRENCH
PREAMBLE
The French syllabus is drawn from the Senior High School curricular of membercountries and seeks to impact students with the requisite knowledge, skills, attitudes andvalues to communicate effectively in French for personal development and understandingof and participation in the affairs of the Sub-region and the world at large.GENERAL AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
This syllabus is intended to test the candidates’ ability to use the four language skillsnamely, listening, speaking, reading and writing to promote communicative competence.
EXAMINATION SCHEME
There will be three papers – Papers 1, 2 and 3, all of which should be taken. Papers 1 and2 will be a composite paper, to be taken at one sitting.
PAPER 1:
Will consist of forty multiple choice questions, to be answered within 1hour for 40 marks.
PAPER 2:
Will consist of two sections with three essay questions each. Candidateswill be required to answer two questions in all, one question from eachsection. Both questions will be answered within 1 hour 15 minutes for 40marks.PAPER 3:
Will test candidates’ listening comprehension, and reading andconversation abilities. Each candidate will require 40 minutes for the test.The paper will carry 50 marks.
DETAILED SYLLABUS
More detailed requirements for the tests are as follows:PAPER 1:
(a) Section A: Comprehension:
This is designed to test candidates’ ability to read and understand standard writtendocuments in French.Two passages, each of about 150 words, will be provided and a total of five shortquestions will be set on each. The questions in this section will be multiple- choicequestions only. Candidates will be required to answer al lquestions.(b) Section B: Structure:
This section is designed to test candidates’ ability to use, inappropriate communicativecontexts, French words, expressions and structural patterns. Thirty short questions will beset and candidates will be required to attempt all of them.PAPER 2:
This paper is made up of two sections: (a) Essay and (b) Letter writing. It will testcandidates’ ability to write freely and correctly on topics of general interest, using theappropriate structures, registers and tenses.Section A: Essay
Section B: Letter writing
Three questions will be set on each. Candidates are expected to answer one question onlyfrom each section. The expected length of each composition will be about 100 words.
PAPER 3:
(a) Listening Comprehension:
This paper will test candidates’ ability to listen to, and understand a straightforwardpassage in French. The test which will be based on a passage to be read aloud by theexaminer 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 thequestions for 3minutes before the second reading. At the end of the second reading,candidates will be allowed7 minutes to answer, in writing, 10 questions based on thepassage. The questions may not be multiple-choice questions only but may also includeother forms of language testing such as open-ended questions, transformation andsubstitution.(b) Reading:
The aim is to test candidates’ ability to read aloud, with the appropriate pronunciationand 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 toread once and at a normal pace.(c) Conversation:
The conversation test will last about 10 minutes per candidate. Topics to be discussedwill 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 andthe other on exposition, as follows:(i) Dialogue – This will test candidates’ ability to express themselves freely in adialogue. For this purpose, candidates will be expected to respond to a minimumof ten questions. For Ghana, five of these questions will be on selected literaturetexts.
(ii) Exposition – This will test candidates’ ability to speak freely on a given topic inFrench .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 communicativecontexts. To this end, candidates are expected to be familiar with thefollowing:● Parts of speech (Grammatical categories)
● Articles – definite, indefinite, partitive. (Gender and number whereapplicable).
● Verbs
(a) Types: regular and irregular
(b) Common moods and tenses
(c) Standard expressions such as
- avoir + noun (e.g. avoir faim)
- venir de + infinitive.
● Nouns – complements, gender, number
● Pronouns – personal, possessive, indefinite, demonstrative,relative, impersonal, (number and gender where applicable).
● Adjectives - possessive, demonstrative, indefiniteinterrogative, (agreement and position)
● Adverbs - formation and position, special adverbs:
mal, vite,fort, tout, etc.
● Negatives - negative expressions (ne…pas, ne…rien, ne…jamais, etc.)
● Conjunctions in common use: et, mais, donc, , ou, parce que, etc
● Preposition - à, de, sur, en, devant, etc.
● Sentence patterns (declarative, interrogative, exclamative, etc)
● Voice – active/passive
● Direct speech/reported speech
● Compound and complex sentences
● Idiomatic expressions & proverbs
● Forms of writing (formal/informal)
● Context and meaning e.g. to convey politeness, disgust,disappointment.
● Common figures of speech e.g. (similes, metaphors, hyperbols)
● Structures of major “Acte de Parole” e.g. (exprimer ladeception, laprobation, le degout, la surprise, le plaisir, le regret, etc.
SUGGESTED READING LIST:
The following may be of assistance to the candidates:1. Course books
(i) De Grandsaigne, J: - France-Afrique 4, Lagos, Macmillan(ii) Plaisant, Chantal, et al: -Trans Afrique 3, Lagos, Macmillan
(iii) Ajiboye, Tunde et al: - Nouvel Horizon 4, Ibadan, BountyPress Ltd.
(iv) Mazauric, Catherine et al: - On y va 3, Ibadan, SpectrumBooks
(v) Berard, Evelyne et al: - Tempo 1 & 2, Didier, Hatier
(vi) Task Force (MEST): - - Et en français 1 - 3, Freetown
(vii) Girardet J. & Pécheir J: - écho junior A2 méthode de français, Paris : CLÉInternationale
2. General Grammar Books
(i) Ajiboye, T.: - Companion to French Grammar,Ilorin, Info-Links Publishers(ii) Ferrar H. A: - French Reference Grammar,OxfordUniversity Press
(iii) Dangnaud-Macé, P & Sylès, G.LeFrançais sans faute, Paris, Hatier
(iv) Le Nouveau Bescherelle: - La grammaire pour tous,Paris: Hatier
(v) Soyoye, F. A: - Manuel de conjugaison de verbes,Sophire Ed. Resources
3. Any other useful grammar books
4. ORAL Practice
(i) Ajiboye, T: - An Introduction to Practice in Oral French, Revisededition, Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.(ii) Grandsaigne,J: - France Afrique 5, Lagos, Macmillan
(iii) Adegbilero, L. M - Teaching Yourself French (with cassette/CD)Revised edition, Ibadan, Bounty Press Ltd.
(iv) Chamberlain, Alan & Steele Ross Guide pratique de lacommunication, Paris, Didier
Any other useful document designed for Oral Practice
5. Literature (Ghana only)
(a) J. N. D. Dodoo: La Belle Fleure et d’autres Histoires, Accra(b) TundeAjiboye: Olurounbi ou Le Prix d’un Pari
(c) Hector, Malot: Sans Famille, Paris
6. Dictionaries/Glossaries
(i) Any useful French dictionary e.g.- Micro Robert/Petit Robert
- Petit Larousse
- Dictionnaire du français fondamental pour l’Afrique
(ii) Any useful French – English/English-French dictionary e.g.
- Shorter Harraps
- Collins
- Cassell’s
(iii) Any useful French glossary e.g.
Français Fondamental for West Africa, WAEC, Accra, Black MaskLtd,
To enhance comprehension skills, extracts from simple modern literary and other texts(magazines, newspapers, brochures, etc.) dealing with contemporary issues may be of immenseassistance.