June 2026
The 2025 VCE French Exam Report showed that listening comprehension was not simply about understanding the general topic.
Students needed to hear precise information, preserve the relationship between ideas, and express the answer clearly in the required language. This mattered in both Section 1 Part A, where students answered in English, and Section 1 Part B, where students answered in French.
The listening texts themselves were not designed to reward vague comprehension. They required students to identify motivations, reasons, preparations, meanings and future plans.
Where did Nicolas go?
Why did his parents move?
What problem did the move solve?
How would they earn money?
What kind of race is the Vendée Globe?
How exactly is Chloé preparing?
Why did she name her boat Vers l’horizon?
These questions all required students to listen for specific meaning.
In VCE French, approximate understanding can feel reassuring, but it does not always earn marks.
English answers still required precise French comprehension
Section 1 Part A required answers in English. That can make the task appear easier because students do not need to produce French.
But the comprehension still depends on French.
In Question 1a, students needed to identify that Nicolas had recently been in France and that he had been helping his parents or giving them a hand.
This was a straightforward question, but it established the standard for the section. Students needed to answer the actual question, not provide a loose summary of what the text was about.
The response had to include both place and purpose.
A partial answer was not enough.
Motivation was not the same as action
Question 1b asked why Nicolas’s parents decided to move back to France.
One required detail was that they had been inspired by a television series about living in a château. The report noted that many students missed this and instead incorrectly answered that the parents had bought a château.
This is a subtle but important distinction.
The television series was part of the motivation. Buying or living in a château was not the reason being asked for in that part of the question.
This kind of error often happens when students hear a familiar noun and build an answer around it too quickly. They hear château and assume the answer must be “they bought a château”.
High-scoring students listen for the full relationship.
Who did what?
What caused the decision?
What was the inspiration?
What was the result?
In listening comprehension, nouns alone are not enough.
Problems and solutions had to be matched
Question 1b also required students to identify the problems Nicolas’s parents had with Melbourne: they were fed up with city traffic or crowds, and they lacked social connection because they did not know anyone.
Question 1c then asked how moving to France resolved those issues.
Students needed to explain that there was less traffic, that they lived near a small village with fewer people or no crowds, and that everyone knew each other in the village. The report noted that students needed to mention village at least once.
This question required students to match problems with solutions.
Traffic was resolved by less traffic.
Crowds were resolved by living near a small village with fewer people.
Lack of social connection was resolved because everyone knew each other.
The task was not simply to describe life in France.
It asked how the move resolved the earlier issues.
That relationship mattered.
Specific words carried marks
Question 1d asked how Nicolas’s parents planned to earn money in France.
The correct response required two ideas:
They would rent or hire out the large rooms or halls of the château for weddings and birthdays.
They would make money from wine or sell wine.
The report noted three common errors.
Some students did not correctly translate louer, which means to rent or hire out. Some confused anniversaires with anniversaries, when the context required birthdays. Others wrote that the parents would make wine without explicitly linking it to earning money.
These are not tiny errors.
They changed the answer.
If students misunderstand louer, they may miss the business model. If they mistranslate anniversaires, they produce the wrong event. If they mention wine without the money-making link, they do not fully answer the question.
Listening questions reward exact vocabulary in context.
Students needed to avoid inference beyond the text
A common listening risk is filling gaps with plausible guesses.
For example, if students hear about a château, weddings and wine, they may infer a whole lifestyle or business. But the answer must come from the text.
The report’s comments on Question 1d show this clearly. Saying that the parents would “make wine” was not enough unless it was linked to earning money. The question asked how they planned to earn money, so the answer needed the commercial purpose.
Students should avoid writing what seems likely.
They should write what the text supports.
That is especially important in Part A, where the answer is in English and students may feel free to paraphrase more loosely.
French responses needed verbs, not key words
Section 1 Part B required students to answer in complete sentences in French.
This changed the task.
Students needed to understand the listening text and express the answer clearly in French. The report explained that relevant information expressed clearly in French received full marks, and that separate marks were not awarded for content and language. This means comprehension and expression worked together.
Question 2b asked how Chloé prepared for the Vendée Globe.
Strong answers could include:
Elle fait du sport cinq jours sur sept.
Un médecin vérifie sa santé régulièrement.
Elle est aidée par une nutritionniste pour son alimentation en mer.
Elle fait de la méditation.
Un psychologue l’aide à contrôler ses peurs.
Son équipe technique a vérifié chaque partie du bateau.
The report noted that some students did not include appropriate verbs or verb formations.
This is a major lesson.
In French responses, key nouns are not enough. Students needed to say what happened.
Sport alone does not answer the question.
Médecin alone does not answer the question.
Nutritionniste alone does not answer the question.
The verb creates the meaning.
Similar-looking words caused problems
The report noted that some students wrote médecine instead of médecin.
This is a common language-learning issue.
Un médecin means a doctor.
La médecine means medicine.
The words look related, but they do not function the same way in a sentence.
A correct response would say:
Un médecin vérifie sa santé régulièrement.
Writing la médecine vérifie sa santé would not communicate the intended meaning.
This matters because VCE French often rewards students who can use familiar vocabulary accurately, not just recognise it passively.
Accuracy is part of comprehension when students answer in French.
Preparation details needed to be categorised
Chloé’s preparation for the Vendée Globe included physical, medical, nutritional, psychological and technical preparation.
This made Question 2b a good example of multi-point listening.
Students needed to capture several categories:
Physical: she does sport five days out of seven.
Medical: a doctor checks her health.
Nutritional: a nutritionist helps with food at sea.
Mental: she practises meditation and a psychologist helps her control her fears.
Technical: her team checks the boat.
A high-scoring answer did not need to write excessively complex French. It needed to communicate the preparation clearly.
This is the skill students should practise.
Hear the category.
Capture the action.
Write the point clearly.
Complete sentences helped communication
The examination instructions for Question 2 required complete sentences in French.
This is not a formality.
Complete sentences help preserve meaning and relationships.
For example:
Elle fait du sport cinq jours sur sept.
is clearer than:
sport cinq jours
Similarly:
Un psychologue l’aide à contrôler ses peurs.
is clearer than:
psychologue peurs
The second version may show partial comprehension, but it does not convey the information accurately enough.
Students should practise turning notes into sentences quickly.
The notes area is for capturing information. The answer space is for communicating it.
The meaning of a name required two linked ideas
Question 2c asked why Chloé named her boat Vers l’horizon.
The answer required two ideas:
The name represents the potential of youth.
It refers to the foundation or charity she supports.
The report noted that many students did not correctly translate soutenir. Some students said Chloé supported young people directly, rather than recognising that she supported the foundation or charity.
This shows why relationship control matters.
The foundation may have been connected to young people, but the support relationship was with the foundation. The name referred to that foundation and the potential of youth.
A high-scoring response needed to preserve that chain accurately.
A small shift in who supports whom changed the answer.
Students needed to know when to translate and when to preserve
In listening, some words can be safely translated broadly. Others need careful preservation.
For example, Vers l’horizon is the boat’s name. It should be preserved as the title. But students also needed to explain its meaning in French.
Similarly, Vendée Globe is the race name. Students did not need to translate the name. They needed to identify its characteristics: it goes around the world and it is a solo race.
For Question 2a, a clear French answer could be:
C’est une course à voile qui fait le tour du monde et c’est une course en solitaire.
This sentence preserves the race’s key features without overcomplicating the language.
Students should avoid wasting time trying to translate proper nouns unnecessarily.
The mark is usually in the explanation.
Listening notes needed to become answers
The exam allowed students to make notes during the listening texts.
This is important, but notes are not assessed. Students need to turn them into answers.
A good listening note might look like:
sport 5/7, médecin santé, nutritionniste nourriture mer, méditation, psychologue peurs, équipe bateau
But the final response should be written as sentences:
Elle fait du sport cinq jours sur sept. Un médecin vérifie sa santé régulièrement. Une nutritionniste l’aide avec son alimentation en mer. Elle fait de la méditation. Un psychologue l’aide à contrôler ses peurs. Son équipe technique vérifie chaque partie du bateau.
This movement from note to sentence is a skill.
Students should practise it before the exam.
Why listening errors happen
Listening errors often happen because students try to answer from fragments.
They hear château and write that the parents bought one.
They hear anniversaire and write anniversary instead of birthday.
They hear louer but do not recognise rent or hire out.
They hear soutenir and attach support to the wrong object.
They hear médecin and write médecine.
They hear a noun but forget the verb.
These errors are avoidable.
Students need to listen for the whole clause, not just familiar words.
Who is doing the action?
What is the verb?
What is the object?
What is the reason?
What is the consequence?
That is the listening discipline.
High-scoring listening responses were not necessarily complicated
The strongest listening responses did not need advanced grammar.
They needed clarity.
For Part A, clear English mattered. Students needed to translate accurately and answer the question directly.
For Part B, clear French mattered. Students needed complete sentences, appropriate verbs and relevant information.
A simple correct sentence is better than an ambitious unclear one.
For example:
Elle fait de la méditation.
is perfectly effective.
Students should not overcomplicate responses when the question requires direct information.
What future French students should learn from 2025
The 2025 VCE French exam shows that listening preparation needs to focus on precision.
Students should practise:
- identifying the purpose of a question before listening
- capturing verbs as well as nouns
- distinguishing motivation from action
- matching problems with solutions
- translating vocabulary in context
- avoiding plausible guesses not supported by the text
- writing complete French sentences in Part B
- using correct verb forms
- distinguishing similar vocabulary such as médecin and médecine
- preserving relationships between people, actions and objects
- converting listening notes into clear responses
- proofreading French answers quickly
These skills make listening responses more accurate and more mark-worthy.
Listening is not only about hearing French.
It is about conveying the exact meaning of what was heard.
How ATAR STAR approaches listening in VCE French
At ATAR STAR, listening is taught as exact meaning extraction.
Students learn to identify the question demand, listen for verbs and relationships, avoid mistranslation traps, and turn notes into clear English or French responses. They practise answering with enough detail to satisfy the mark allocation without adding unsupported inference.
The 2025 Examination Report confirms why this matters. High-scoring students did not simply understand the general topic.
They captured the exact detail.