Exam 3: Diplôme d'études en langue française (DELF) A2 French exam
This is the 3rd and pénultième exam in my language challenge and quite possibly the most difficult!
French has always seemed like a super interesting language to learn and I’ve always been really intrigued by the phonetics of it, but I was always discouraged from studying it as i am an absolutely atroshis terrible speller. Nevertheless, it’s a language that I’ve always said I’ll ~learn it one day~ and there’s no time like the present 💪
Having basically no prior knowledge of this language (apart from the basics I needed in order to get by when I was travelling through France a couple years back) it will be quite a challenge to go from zéro to A2 in less than a year but I’m very much looking forward to seeing just how far I can get!
I feel like I may have a slight advantage with French as there are a lot of similarities between it and Spanish, so knowing this language might help a lot in terms of vocab and learning the grammar a bit quicker. Here’s hoping I don’t just muddle them up or getting confused with false friends😅
🌟 when am i gonna do it ?
Depending on which center I end up enrolling in, I’ll either be taking this exam in mid September or early October. I feel like this will be a good time to take this exam as I’ll have plenty of time after the first two exams to focus on French while still being ahead of my birthday deadline in November 🥳🥳🥳
🌟 what will be on the exam ?
There are a LOT of things I’ll need to learn for this exam. Not only is there the huge range of vocab and the many many grammar concepts I’ll need to learn, I’ll also need to know about various socio-cultural practices in French, with a surprising amount of emphasis given to knowing about administrative practices
The format of this exam, especially as it’s for quite a low level, is fairly straightforward. It has the four main language components: reading, listening, writing, and speaking and lasts for just one hour and 45 minutes. According to this, each of these sections are given as:
Listening comprehension: 25 minutes wherein a handful of short recordings (max. 5 minutes long), are played twice, with topics about everyday life.
Reading Comprehension: 30 minutes of answering questions on four or five written documents about everyday life.
Writing: 45 minutes to write a letter or message to a friend or family member about a personal experience/event or a greeting card style note to express regret, or congratulate or thank someone
Speaking: a three part section: first, a guided conversation followed by an information exchange scenario and a role play exercise. This section is 20 minutes in total but as part of this I’ll get 10 minutes of preparation time so the actual time I need to speak is limited.
🌟 what will i need to do ?
As I’m basically starting from scratch here, I’ll need to build my way up to A2 just as I would with any other language and learn it all step by step. However, pne of the aspects I know I’ll need to work on the most with French (even more so than the other 3 languages) will definitely be pronunciation and spelling
I’ll start with this free! textbook which introduces French grammar and basic vocab
I’ll also be consulting a few youtube tutorials on French pronunciation to try and start off on the right foot and not end up with any bad pronunciation habits
I also have the absolute privilege of having a close friend who tutors French to high school students and has offered to help me on my journey! With regular practise I hope I can bring my speaking skills up to speed bientôt 😊
Hopefully once I get a grip on the basics I’ll be able to start tackling more challenging listening and reading exercises and be able to hold conversations! If there are any other French langblrs out there who’d like to practise in the future please give me a shout! Likewise any resources you might know if that could help me out are always super appreciated!
jusqu'à la prochaine fois !
~ ~ ~ 367 days to go ~ ~ ~
