DEFL – DALF : What do a lot of students need to be better prepared?

I help students to pass mainly the DELF B2 or the DALF C1 and if with  practice they improve their writing skills, manage to differentiate  between opinion, argument and example, succeed in writing and understand  the purpose of finding a problématique  for a text, they often waste a lot of energy trying to grasp the  meaning of some press articles in the textbooks I use to prepare them.  Here, I don’t talk about the meaning of the words, because sometimes  they can understand almost all the words of a given text, but do not  grasp why French people act or think as it is described. 

The  point is: how to have a better understanding of the texts and, at the  same time, be better prepared for the conversation with the examiner. 

Before  deciding to prepare yourself for this kind of examination, it seems to  me that you should read, listen, watch everything you can about France  and French. First, do it in your mother language, then in French. I  won’t make a list of newspapers or radio programs because you can find  these things on the web to get information in French about France, but I  will give you one tip: you should read articles from www.theconversation.com  in French. Why? Because scientists or university professors write the  articles, not only journalists. It’s an essential component. 

I hear your next question: we already do that! How do we do it more efficiently?

Find  the list of topics included in your examination (DELF B2:  https://communfrancais.com/2017/01/13/les-themes-du-delf-b2/). When you  have this list, look for press and science articles, podcasts, TV  programs or whatever about the method that French institutions use to  solve problems. It’s always a matter of solving problems. How do they  manage it? Why do they fail? Where do they find inspiration or models  for improving French society? Conduct your own investigation.  

Sometimes,  you can find a key article which allows you to understand the origin of  a problem and the limit of the solution applied, like this one about  the current crisis with Les gilets jaunes in The Conversation: Gilets jaunes : le bleu Macron rentre dans la zone rouge (https://theconversation.com/gilets-jaunes-le-bleu-macron-rentre-dans-la-zone-rouge-107153). 

Anyway,  don’t worry. If your level in French is good or very good, and with an  experienced teacher to guide you, coach you and help you to save your  time, you’ll be able to succeed. But the time you’ll spend preparing for  this examination should give you the opportunity to develop your own  method or discover something about a different way of thinking because,  ultimately, unfortunately or fortunately, nobody thinks like the French!