French (Higher Advanced)

Listening Can understand standard spoken language, live or broadcast, on both familiar and unfamiliar topics normally encountered in personal, social, academic or vocational life. Can understand and identify the main ideas of propositionally and linguistically complex speech on both concrete and abstract topics, using academic listening & note taking strategies. Can follow extended speech and complex lines of argument provided the topic is reasonably familiar, and the direction of the talk is sign-posted by explicit markers. Speaking Can give clear, detailed descriptions and presentations on a wide range of sub-jects related to his/her field of interest, expanding and supporting ideas with subsidiary points and relevant examples. Can orally summarize, paraphrase, elaborate, and clarify information and meaning from a variety of academic sources. Can incorporate source material into presentations using clear, convincing, unified, plagiarism-free speech. Can participate actively in discussion using strategies like asking for clarification and interrupting. Reading Can critically read, take notes, make inferences and analyze to determine meaning and make connections between text and background knowledge. Can analyze and evaluate an author’s position, purpose, audience and tone using evidence from the text. Can read a popular novel intended for native speakers. Can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts and purposes, and using appropriate reference sources selectively. Has a broad active reading vocabulary, but may experience some difficulty with low-frequency idioms. Writing Can write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to his field of interest, synthesizing and evaluating information and arguments from a number of sources. Can produce a simple essay with an introduction, conclusion, coherent idea development or argument, and reference sources. Can write an essay which presents a convincing position supported by source materials. Can use varied vocabulary, but makes some word choice and word form errors. Can use a wide variety of grammatical and sentence structures to express themselves in writing.