Six avoidable mistakes in the reading aloud part of the French, German and Spanish GCSE exams

MFL teachers and GCSE students really need to stop making these 6 avoidable mistakes in the reading aloud part of the speaking exam.

1. Not understanding the text, which leads to pronunciation errors. This is particularly true in French, where pronouncing the -ent ending on third person plural present tense verbs (aka ils/elles) is considered a 'major' error, and reduces your mark to 3/5 immediately, if you're a higher candidate. 

My advice? Get students to translate the text, either written or just in their heads, during the prep time. This way, they should be able to identify if it's a verb or adverb (for example) and pronounce it accordingly.

2. Reading too fast. Students don't get any marks for fluency of reading - in fact, if they read too fast, they can actually lose marks because the examiners can't hear what they're saying. 

My advice? Be more tortoise and sllooowwwww dooowwwwnnnn 🐢 This part of the exam has nothing to do with how good a candidate is at French, German or Spanish - it's all about showing off how well they've learnt the phonics. Plus, reading slowly will hopefully prevent the avoidable mistake of missing out words in the text, which also counts as a major error and caps their score at 3/5 (higher).

3. Stumbling along and not self-correcting. Candidates are allowed to stop and restart the text as many times as they want, and only the last attempt will be marked by the examiner, so they don't have to just push on through the text if they know that they've mispronounced a word.

My advice? When you practise reading aloud in class, turn it into a bit of a (admittedly slightly annoying) game, where you press a buzzer every time they mispronounce a word and they have to start the sentence again. Only do this with a class you know well, and with students who can take the 'criticism' in front of others!

4. Giving minimal answers for the four follow-on questions. These questions are worth 10 marks - that's double the marks for the actual reading of the text. AQA have actually made it super clear what needs to be included here: "at least 2 answers have an extended response and at least one other is developed well". They also clarify that an extended response is three clauses e.g. I go to the cinema with my friends / and we watch action films. / I love action films.

My advice? Tell students that they need 3 sentences for these answers and give them the time to process the questions and give extended answers. Think of it as a mini "general conversation" halfway through the exam!

5. Not understanding question words in the target language (TL). If students give 3 sentences, but the answer is irrelevant because they haven't understood the question word (eg who, what, where, etc), then they won't score any marks.

My advice? Practise unseen questions with a variety of question words every week, if not every lesson. Do a quick starter or plenary with 3-5 questions on the board in the TL and students have to write out 'extended' answers. Or, when they've packed everything away at the end of a lesson, do this as a speaking activity before they're allowed to leave the classroom.

6. Deviating from the script during the follow-on questions. If you don't read the question EXACTLY as it is on the teacher's card, you could be costing your candidates marks. If they don't understand the question, you still need to repeat it exactly as it is on the card. Do not, under any circumstances, rephrase or change the question.

My advice? Er, read the script?!