Skip to main content

A-level French entries and results

Here are grades and entry numbers for A-level French from 1993 to 2014.


Source: http://www.bstubbs.co.uk/a-lev.htm and JCQ figures for 2014 and 
2015 (http://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/a-levels).



French entries
            A*    A    B    C    D    E    N   Entries 
  2015      8.1 29.2                           10328
  2014      6.6 31.0                           10433                                     
  2013      6.5 32.0 30.3 17.9  9.1  3.4       11272
  2012      6.8 32.6 29.4 18.5  8.8  3.1       12511   
  2011      7.7 32.4 29.3 18.0  8.7  3.0       13196
  2010      7.7 31.4 28.5 18.2  9.6  3.7       13850
  2009          38.6 27.6 18.3 10.5  4.1       14333
  2008          37.3 27.7 18.9 10.6  4.3       14885
  2007          36.3 28.0 18.2 11.6  4.6       14477
  2006          34.7 27.4 19.5 11.8  5.3       14650
  2005          32.9 27.5 20.0 12.4  5.6       14484
  2004          33.4 26.8 19.8 12.6  5.8       15149
  2003          31.4 26.4 20.0 13.3  6.6       15531
  2002          29.3 25.2 20.9 13.8  7.7       15614
  2001          24.7 20.5 19.4 16.0 11.2  5.5  17939
  2000          23.5 21.5 20.1 16.3 10.5  5.6  18221
  1999          23.2 20.4 20.1 16.4 11.3  5.7  21072
  1998          21.6 20.7 19.6 17.3 11.6  6.2  23633
  1997          20.2 19.9 19.6 16.7 12.1  6.9  25916
  1996          20.9 18.0 20.3 17.3 12.5  6.9  27490
  1995          20.1 18.3 19.3 17.7 13.4  7.1  27563
  1994          19.9 17.7 19.0 17.4 13.4  7.8  28942
  1993          18.6 17.3 19.5 18.5 13.6  7.6  29886

In 2015 the issue of scarce A* grades was addressed to some extent, 
in effect by adjusting the balance of A* and A grades to a small degree. 
A* grades are still a little thin on the ground when compared with some 
subjects, notably maths. Modern languages remain amongst the hardest 
subjects in terms of grade outcomes relative to prior attainment.

The number of candidates for French continues to decline a little. How 
much further down can the figure go? German also declined, but Spanish 
saw an increase which more than compensated for the French and 
German figures. Overall MFL entries rose slightly, therefore.

It is hard to foresee any significant change in entries unless the government 
gets behind languages in the same way it has done for STEM. If languages 
become compulsory at GCSE, which now seems probable, we may see a 
modest increase in take-up at A-level. The revised A-level specifications are 
unlikely to make any difference to the popularity of MFL. Indeed, if AS entries 
fall as expected, there may even be a negative outcome.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is the natural order hypothesis?

The natural order hypothesis states that all learners acquire the grammatical structures of a language in roughly the same order. This applies to both first and second language acquisition. This order is not dependent on the ease with which a particular language feature can be taught; in English, some features, such as third-person "-s" ("he runs") are easy to teach in a classroom setting, but are not typically fully acquired until the later stages of language acquisition. The hypothesis was based on morpheme studies by Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, which found that certain morphemes were predictably learned before others during the course of second language acquisition. The hypothesis was picked up by Stephen Krashen who incorporated it in his very well known input model of second language learning. Furthermore, according to the natural order hypothesis, the order of acquisition remains the same regardless of the teacher's explicit instruction; in other words,

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,