• FRENCH / ARABIC ABINITIO
• GRADE 11 / GRADE 12
Introduction
The ab initio programme is a foreign language learning
programme designed to be studied over 2 years at
subsidiary level by students who have no previous
experience of learning the target language.
Objectives
Candidates should be able to:
1. Understand and respond appropriately to the spoken
language (for example, in announcements,
instructions, requests, in the form of monologues or
dialogues)
2. Engage in conversation in order to deal with
everyday situations
3. Understand short written passages on the
defined topics, recognize essential notices
(timetables, menus, signs, advertisements) and
be able to extract specific information from texts
such as brochures, guides, letters
4. Carry out writing tasks such as short messages
(postcards, lists, letters, e mail, short
composition)
5. Show an awareness of the culture of the target
language
Syllabus Outline
A - The Core syllabus:
• Sets out the topics which are to be studied.
• Is the same for all ab initio languages.
The core syllabus consists of seven topics…
1. The Individual
2. Education
and the working
world.
3. Cities and services.
4. Food and drink
5. Leisure and tourism
6. Environment
7. Health and emergencies.
B. The language specific syllabus
This syllabus, which is different for each ab
initio language, comprises the grammatical
and lexical syllabus
Most of the language used in the examination
will be based on items listed in the language
specific syllabus
The core and the specific syllabuses are
complementary and are to be integrated in
order to form a coherent program
Arabic
We will start with Arabic grammar
then we will study the core syllabus
included in lessons that discuss
certain topics.
French
Grammar will come together with
vocabulary included in the lessons.
We will use “Le nouveau sans
frontières”.
Teaching material
 Text books.
 Visual displays:
posters, advertisements
etc….
 Correspondence:
letters, emails, post
cards etc….
ASSESSMENT OUTLINE
External assessment
70%
Paper 1
40%
1h30m
• Texts: exercises based on a series of 4 written texts
(32%)
• Candidate is required to write a short paragraph based
on the 4th text (a minimum of 40 words)
(8%)
Paper 2
30%
1h30m
• Section A:
• Short writing task (a minimum of 60 words)
• Section B:
• Long writing task (a minimum of 120 words)
Internal assessment
30%
• The oral component consists of a minimum of
4 activities conducted during the final year of
the course and assessed by the teacher
• Only the last one is recorded and sent
• The grade is divided as follows…
1. Individual oral
(recorded in march )
15%
2. Interactive oral activity from the 3 activities
done during the year.
15%
Examples of oral activities
Role play
Dialogues
Class presentations
Debate
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
• Paper 2:
3 criterias have been identified:
 Language
 communication (message)
 presentation
• Internal assessment
3 criteria have been identified:
 Language
 Communication
 Interaction
Only whole numbers should be acceptable.
Internal assessment is conducted during the
second year of the program. Dates are as
follows:
October
Individual oral
December
Role play
February
Debate
March
final, recorded, individual oral.