The French paper is the most talked about exam paper after the Advanced Level Examination each year. Students offering French are aware of the fact that the knowledge they accumulate during two years is simply insufficient to answer the "high standard" A/L paper. Each year they come out of the exam centres with grim faces. Skimming through the result sheets, one can observe that most students obtain high grades for other subjects and merely manage to pass or sometimes even fail in French. One may argue that a couple of candidates still manage to get "A" passes for French. Most of the time, these privileged candidates have lived in a Francophone country for some time or have spent long hours at the Alliance Francaise for many years. One cannot expect every student offering French at the A/L exam to have had such experience.

A new French syllabus was designed by the National Institute of Education (N.I.E.) a few years back. The N.I.E. was prompted to do so, I assume, to replace the old syllabus which was no longer used as a guide by the persons responsible for the preparation of the A/L French paper. The new syllabus has its own flaws (i.e. the recommended text), yet it is much better than the former. It enables a student to develop all four language skills. The students who studied the new syllabus sat the exam for the first time in 1999. The persons who set the paper continued the trend of setting questions outside the vocabulary limit of the syllabus. Therefore, the real problem lies not in the syllabus but in the setting of the exam paper. The syllabus precisely states that "Seen and unseen passages are to be of the same level as those recorded in the recommended text" for comprehension and "An unseen text where the language level is equal to that of the recommended text. The students were shocked to see language of a far higher level at the exam.

Persons who set the French paper, who may have passed the local A/L French paper when it was set at a very low, elementary standard, must take into consideration the following facts: French is neither our mother tongue nor our second language. It is only a foreign language which we scarcely hear and have the least opportunity to read unless one goes to the Alliance Francaise; and then how many can afford to go there.

Our students are unable to use English well after thirteen years of study. Therefore, how can one expect a high standard in French after just two years. Some of the essay topics are so complex that a student may not even be able to write the essay in Sinhala.

I personally believe that an essay topic should be an open and creative one where a student can exhibit his or her knowledge of the language and not be tied down to facts. British students study French for over six years before they sit the London O/L (G.C.S.E) exam. Yet the standard is not as high as ours. The vocabulary is limited to a number of topic areas.

If the authorities do not act prudently and quickly, there will not be a need to set a French paper, for the number of students who wish to learn French is rapidly declining. It is a shame if such a lovely language meets that fate due to a couple of people who are either selfish or want to boast of their knowledge.
Samantha Liyanage