International Baccalaureate Coaching
The challenging IB cursus trains international citizens and opens the door to the most prestigious universities around the world.
Standard Level
Students broaden their knowledge of the language. Specific vocabulary and complex sentence structures are required to reach a top grade.
Ab Initio
Students get only two years of practise to integrate unfamilar grammatical concepts and reach flow level. The learning pace is fast.
IGCSE French
The friendliest exam! Students who can navigate a range of daily life situations with healthy grammar foundations will score points easily to get that coveted A*.
DELF exams
Taking the DELF exams is a fantastic training to build up students’ confidence. The certification is recognized worlwide and by future employers.
IB FRENCH Standard Level
Rigorous. That is the adjective used by IB to describe this exam.
How to prepare for it? We work simultaneously on 2 axes.
Vocabulary
Students must master new specific vocabulary to develop ideas and rationale covering all 5 themes of the syllabus: Identities, Experiences, Human Ingenuity, Social Organization, and Sharing the Planet. This includes idioms and current expressions. Let’s not forget that language is organic, and it evolves. IB requires that you speak like a French Gen Z, not like a French book from 1985.
Grammar
At Standard Level, students arrive with a foundational knowledge of grammar, syntax, and other elements within the French language. First, we strengthen their understanding, and then we address any weak foundations. Then we build on to add complex sentence structures and the dreaded subjonctif mode to reach the top of the assessment criteria.
IB FRENCH Ab Initio
Intensive. Ab Initio students learn in 2 years what middle schoolers
learn in 4 years. How to train? We work simultaneously on 2 axes.
New Grammatical concepts
French grammar has the reputation of being difficult because the grammar of Latin languages is more sophisticated than English grammar. Anglophone students dive into unfamiliar concepts such as gender & number, agreements, and complex verb conjugations. Moreover, in IB Ab Initio, this learning curve needs to be fast and precise.
Vocabulary & Pronunciation
Communication is at the core of the IB assessment. Still, many students make serious pronunciation mistakes that hinder clear and effective communication. Vocabulary acquisition is key; the best strategy is to build lists for each topic, and practise using them contextually in speaking and in writing.
IB FRENCH Ab Initio
The IGCSE French exam is the epitome of positive marking. ‘Examiners are required to award ticks beside each substantially correct marking unit. Errors are not to be indicated.’
Students should be able to communicate fluidly on topics related to their everyday life and also to develop ideas on health and the environment, both in writing and in speaking. They need to master a core set of vocabulary (level A2), and when they demonstrate their knowledge of trickier points (such as irregular future, confident conditionnel with imparfait complex clause), it triggers the scoring machine.
DELF exams
French Ministry of Education
DELF, Diplôme d’Études en Langue Française (Diploma in French Language Studies), is administered by the French Ministry of Education.
It offers four levels of examination: A1, A2, B1, and B2, which align with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
The DELF exams provide a great opportunity for students to assess their performance in an authentic French environment, usually l’Alliance Française, with native speaking examiners in a real examination situation.
The DELF A2 exam corresponds to the IGCSE level. The DELF B2 exam corresponds to the IB SL level. The four components of the exam each account for 25% of the total score: written comprehension, written production, oral comprehension, oral production.
Because DELF is an internationally recognized qualification, it offers valuable credibility in language proficiency and a place of choice on students’ resumes.