June 2026
The 2025 VCE French exam showed that reading and responding was not just a test of vocabulary.
It was a test of source control.
In Section 2 Part A, students worked with a written text and a listening text on overtourism. Some questions required information from the article. Some required information from the conversation. Some required students to combine both.
This made the section demanding in a particular way.
Students needed to know where each piece of information came from, what the question was asking, and how specific the answer needed to be. A response could be generally relevant to overtourism and still miss the mark if it came from the wrong text, lacked the required detail, or mistranslated a key phrase.
In VCE French, comprehension is not only about understanding the theme.
It is about selecting the right information for the exact question.
The article defined the problem of overtourism
Text 3A introduced le surtourisme as the saturation of tourist sites by growing numbers of visitors.
The article presented overtourism as a problem with environmental, cultural, economic and social consequences. It referred to the deterioration of cultural heritage, destruction of animal habitats, overuse of natural resources, pollution of soil, water and air, and loss of biodiversity.
This mattered for Question 3a, which asked about the impacts of overtourism on the natural environment.
Students needed to identify environmental impacts specifically.
Strong answers included:
- destruction of natural animal habitat
- overuse of natural resources
- pollution of soil, water and air
- loss of biodiversity
The question was not asking for every problem caused by overtourism.
It was asking for impacts on the natural environment.
That category mattered.
Cultural and environmental reasons had to be separated
Question 3b asked why it was necessary to limit the negative effects of overtourism.
The report indicated two key reasons:
to protect the planet or minimise environmental impact
to preserve cultural heritage or patrimony sites of countries
This required students to separate two kinds of reasoning.
One reason was environmental.
The other was cultural.
A response that only mentioned protecting the planet was incomplete. A response that only mentioned cultural sites was also incomplete.
This is a common VCE French issue: the text may include several related ideas, and the question may require more than one category.
Students should always look at the mark allocation.
If a question is worth two marks, it often needs two distinct ideas.
Responsible tourism required behaviour, not just attitude
Question 3c asked what a responsible tourist does, according to Jacques.
The report indicated that a responsible tourist is respectful or considerate of local people and respects the environment, including taking rubbish away.
This question required behavioural detail.
It was not enough to say that responsible tourists are “good” or “careful”. Students needed to identify what respect looked like in practice.
They respect local people.
They respect the environment.
They take their rubbish with them.
The strongest answers translated the idea into concrete action.
This is useful for students because many reading and listening questions ask not simply for a value, but for how that value is shown.
Advice needed to be specific
Question 3d asked what Jacques advised Claire to do to avoid contributing to overtourism.
Strong answers included:
- go when there are fewer tourists
- go to less popular or more authentic places
- do internet research to organise the trip
- take the train
The report noted that some students incorrectly answered public transport or tram instead of train.
This seems small, but it shows how specific VCAA expected students to be.
The text did not merely say to use transport generally. It specified the train.
That distinction mattered.
Students should not overgeneralise when the text provides a specific noun.
If the text says train, write train.
If the text says tourist sites, write tourist sites.
If the text says village, write village.
Specificity protects marks.
Local effects required both texts
Question 3e asked how overtourism affects local people according to both texts.
This required students to combine information.
From Text 3A, students could mention that overtourism increases the cost of living, increases noise pollution, causes friction within the local population, or benefits only businesses linked directly to tourism, such as hospitality, accommodation and cultural site visits.
From Text 3B, students could mention that rubbish is left for locals to take care of or pick up.
This question rewarded students who understood the relationship between sources.
It was not enough to rely on the written article alone if the question asked for both texts. It was also not enough to give a vague answer about locals being unhappy.
Students needed to gather the right points from the right places.
“Friction within the local population” was often misunderstood
The report noted that some students incorrectly wrote that overtourism caused friction between tourists and the local population.
The text’s point was different.
The friction was within the local population itself, between businesses that benefit from tourism and local people who experience its negative effects.
This is an important comprehension distinction.
Tourism can create internal community tension because not everyone experiences it in the same way. Some benefit economically, while others face higher living costs, noise, rubbish or disruption.
A high-scoring response needed to preserve that idea.
If students shift the conflict from within the community to between tourists and locals, they change the meaning.
“Les nuisances sonores” needed contextual translation
The report also identified les nuisances sonores as a common translation issue.
Many students translated it awkwardly as “noise nuisance” or “sound disturbance”. The expected meaning was noise pollution.
This is where dictionary use and contextual judgment matter.
Students are allowed to use dictionaries, but they still need to choose the translation that fits the topic. In a text about overtourism and its harmful effects, noise pollution is the natural English expression.
This is a valuable lesson.
Literal translation is not always accurate translation.
A strong response communicates the meaning in appropriate English.
Measures to limit overtourism required precision
Question 3f asked students to list the measures some cities had taken to limit overtourism, using information from both texts.
Strong answers included:
- a tax to enter a city or village
- a tax or surcharge on entry tickets to tourist sites
- a quota on the number of tourists
- compulsory advance booking of accommodation
The report noted that the most common error was failing to specify that the tax or surcharge on entry tickets was for tourist sites.
This shows again that broad answers were not always enough.
“Tax on entry tickets” is incomplete because it does not say what the entry tickets are for. The question required the specific measure.
Students need to carry the full noun phrase into the answer.
Not just tax.
Not just entry tickets.
A tax on entry tickets to tourist sites.
Reading comprehension rewarded exact selection
Text 3A contained many ideas. Not all of them answered every question.
This is why students need selection skills.
For example, the article mentioned:
- cultural heritage
- animal habitat
- natural resources
- pollution
- biodiversity
- entry taxes
- tourist quotas
- seasonal and geographic concentration of tourism
- cost of living
- noise pollution
- business benefits
- local friction
- protests
- tourist behaviour
- sustainable tourism
A student who tries to summarise the whole article may include irrelevant information. A high-scoring student identifies the exact part of the text that answers the question.
This is a different skill from general comprehension.
It is targeted retrieval.
Combining reading and listening required memory organisation
Because Section 2 Part A involved both a written text and a listening text, students needed to manage information carefully.
The reading text remained visible. The listening text did not.
This means students should use the notes space strategically during Text 3B. They should capture details that are likely to answer comparison or “both texts” questions.
Useful notes might include:
responsible tourist = respect locals + environment + rubbish
advice = fewer tourists / less popular places / research / train
locals = rubbish left for them
measure = accommodation booking
The aim is not to write full sentences during listening.
It is to capture accurate details that can later be turned into complete English answers.
The wording “according to” mattered
Several questions used wording such as according to the article, according to Jacques, or using information from both texts.
Students should treat these phrases as instructions.
According to the article means the answer should come from Text 3A.
According to Jacques means the answer should come from the listening text.
Using information from both texts means the answer must combine sources.
Ignoring these instructions can lead to otherwise plausible but uncreditable answers.
The source matters because the exam is assessing comprehension of specific texts, not general knowledge of the topic.
Students needed to avoid importing outside knowledge
Overtourism is a familiar topic. Students may know about overcrowding, housing shortages, cruise ships, environmental damage or anti-tourism protests from outside the exam.
That knowledge can help comprehension, but it should not replace the text.
VCE French answers must be based on the texts provided.
If the text says that some cities introduced entry taxes, quotas and compulsory advance accommodation booking, those are the measures to write. Students should not add unrelated examples unless they appear in the text.
Outside knowledge can make an answer sound plausible, but it will not earn marks if it is not text-based.
English expression still mattered
Even though Section 2 Part A was answered in English, expression mattered because the answer needed to convey the French accurately.
Students needed to write clear English equivalents:
noise pollution, not “sound nuisance”
friction within the local population, not “conflict with tourists”
tourist sites, not just “entry tickets”
train, not “public transport”
take rubbish away, not just “be clean”
The response did not need to be literary.
It needed to be precise.
In comprehension questions, English is the vehicle for demonstrating French understanding.
Why reading and listening errors happen
Errors in this section often happen because students:
- answer from the general topic rather than the text
- include information from the wrong source
- translate too literally
- omit part of a required phrase
- overgeneralise specific details
- miss whether the question asks for the article, Jacques, or both
- confuse internal local friction with tourist-local conflict
- fail to connect a measure to its object
- ignore the mark allocation
These are avoidable with careful task reading.
The strongest students slow down before answering.
They identify the source, the category and the level of detail required.
What future French students should learn from 2025
The 2025 VCE French exam shows that reading and responding requires source control.
Students should practise:
- identifying whether the answer comes from the reading text, listening text or both
- selecting environmental, cultural, social or economic details accurately
- using mark allocation to determine how many points are needed
- translating phrases in context rather than literally
- preserving specific nouns such as train, village and tourist sites
- avoiding outside knowledge not found in the texts
- distinguishing conflict within a group from conflict between groups
- using notes strategically during the listening component
- writing clear English that conveys the French meaning accurately
These skills make comprehension responses more precise.
They help students turn understanding into marks.
How ATAR STAR approaches reading and responding in VCE French
At ATAR STAR, reading and responding is taught as source-based comprehension.
Students learn how to identify the exact question demand, locate relevant information, distinguish between texts, translate in context and avoid overgeneralising details. They practise using both written and listening material to construct answers that are accurate, specific and supported by the stimulus.
The 2025 Examination Report confirms why this matters. High-scoring students did not simply understand the topic.
They controlled the sources.