Second Language Evaluation tips

[jonf]

I've managed to get to the language testing phase of one federal government contest. I will be tested next weekend on reading comprehension and written expression, and so I don't have a lot of time to prepare. I have looked at the PSC's website and while I feel prepared to answer the reading comprehension questions, the 'writing' questions seem rather a different story. From what I can tell, the majority of the questions are on recognizing minor grammatical errors related to accents and, more prominently, gender. Aside from seeming like a ridiculous way of testing someone's ability to make themselves understood in writing, it also seems like something very difficult to study for, other than by flipping open a dictionary and memorizing. I imagine there are lots of people on here who have gone through this testing process and am just wondering if anyone has any tips for this test? Any help would be appreciated. Merci beaucoup!

[big mac]

A . would have suficed after Merci beaucoup. Good luck

[bbad]

It really depends upon the exam that you are writing. The reading ou comprehension is the easiest of the three. The answers are fairly straight forward - though I've heard the new exam is fairly long

The grammar exam ou ecrit is more difficult. After having written it, I can tell you that I did a huge number of preparatory exams and the only thing that I can say is - if the answers looks too obvious, it's probably not correct. They will use a lot of anglisigms that will trick you up. An example would be : to take advantage of a situation

a) je prends d'avantage d'une situation
b) je profite de l'ocassion.

The correct answer is b).

A lot of anglophone will chose a) because it's a literal translation. If you see a literal translation, more likely it's going to be wrong.


You cannot study for the oral. They will ask you situational questions about work - i.e. describe what you do, how you deal with situations. If they think you're an advanced student, they will start to ask you Qu'en pensez-vous - What is your opinion of something.

If you have other questions, I might be able to help.

JB

[jonf]

Thanks for the tips. I actually feel quite reassured. Written questions like the one you presented are the type I feel I can do quite well on. It's things like accents and gender that I was worried about as I haven't really done any writing in French since high school.

[golfott]

the written exam will focus a lot on gender. Since gender is not in the English language for objects, it is one area where anglophones have a big problem. You will certainly need to understand gender to receive the B that is likely needed.

[jonf]

Interesting that you said 'understand gender'. I 'understand' the grammatical theory behind gender. I realize that the gender of a noun will affect the ending of corresponding adverbs, adjectives etc. My trouble is knowing which nouns are feminin and which are masculin. When I learned it in immersion, we just learned based on memorization/repetition, so I am a bit out of practise having not used it. Are there actually specific rules for which types of nouns will be masculin and which are feminin?

[golfott]

there are really no rules for gender. some teachers will provide what hey call rules, but then each rule has many exceptions, so the rules are just as difficult to "learn" as just rote memorization. More what there are are tricks to reading a sentence and looking for the tip to what the gender is. I would suggest if you are really serious, and you have a solid background in french, that you contact a school like knowledge circle (or one of the other ones) and try to get some coaching. most of the schools will provide refresher packages, even if just 3-6 hours, to help get ready.

[bbad]

I've found this site: http://www.languageguide.org/francai...nder/rule.html

helpful from time to time; though I try and learn them by using the following adjective.

An example would be: une bonne idée, un bon changement, un bon avion (avion est une exception de la règle).

the site won`t help you with the exceptions, but ìt`s better than nothing.

As for accents, I didn`t find that they try and trick you with accents, but they will try and get you with gender for concordance avec les verbes.

You should also bone up on prepositions. An example are:

1)
Correct: C'est la personne avec laquelle je travaille.
Incorrect: C'est la personne que je travaille avec.

2)
Ce dont j`ai besoin est un café.
Ce que j'ai besoin est un café.

Though the second phrase is said by almost 100% au Québec, it`s actually wrong.

they also will use incorrect prepositions with a verb. Such as:

Je commence de faire mon devoir.
Je commence à faire mon devoir.

Second one is correct. They will also play with pronouns.

Je doit la penser (une idée)
je doit y penser (une idée).

Penser à une idée, so you have to use `y`for the pronoun.

BTW: the best site I`ve found on the net is wordreference.com.

[jonf]

Thanks very much for all the tips. Some very good info in there. I will just have to cram this week and hope that it brings back all the French I did in school. Hockey games will definitely be watched on RDS.

[jonf]

Wow....talk about a miserable day to be stuck inside writing French tests for 5 hours.

[Hacker]

How did it go Jon?

[jonf]

Actually, the test is at 1, so I'm just completing my last minute cramming. I just hope the room doesn't have windows, or i might go crazy looking at the beautiful weather.

[Hacker]

it is clouding over here will be raining by supper time I'm sure

[jonf]

Wooh....made it to the next round of testing (grammar and arithmetic ), which means I at least got the BBB level necessary (won't find out for a month exactly what my mark was). Thanks for all the tips...certainly helped make me feel prepared going in.

[mpare]

Congratulations and best of luck on the remaining challenges.

Wooh....made it to the next round of testing (grammar and arithmetic ), which means I at least got the BBB level necessary (won't find out for a month exactly what my mark was). Thanks for all the tips...certainly helped make me feel prepared going in.

[Chambokl]

Jonf,

I just found what I was looking for.... Might be a bit late but could help others.

métaux et corps chimiques élémentaires -- masculin
ex.: le fer, le cuivre, l'or pur, etc...

les langues -- masculin
ex.: le français, le chinois, etc...

le nom des jours, des mois et des saisons -- masculin
ex.: le lundi, le printemps, un février très froid, etc...

le noms des arbres -- masculin
ex.: un chêne, un sapin, etc...

les noms qui se terminent par —ier, —in, —isme, —oir -- masculins
ex.: un cahier, un coussin, le capitalisme, le pouvoir, etc...

le nom des sciences -- féminin
ex.: la biologie, la chimie, etc...

les noms qui se terminet par —ade, —aie, —aine, —aison, —ence, —esse, —ille,
—ise, —tion, —ure -- sont féminins
ex.: une bêtise, la vitesse, une coupure, une liaison, une craie, une quille, etc...

Hope this help!

[golfott]

now if you learn that you will know half of it, then you have to learn the exceptions that apply to each and everyone of those rules. really they are more guidelines that can help, but following those can actually provide more problems as you might just think they are hard and fast rules