La Conversation Dirigée - Introduction

Important Information

Hopefully you have reviewed all the information about the simulated conversation.

Did you study the vocabulary for the learning activities preceding this conversation dirigée?
Did you review previous student samples found on the CollegeBoard AP French Language and Culture exam website?
Did you review the AP French scoring guidelines and how GaVS adapted those guidelines to a scoring rubric?
Are you clear about the expectations for completing this task well?

You will complete a conversation dirigée like the one you will encounter on the AP French exam. The topic of this conversation dirigée is related to la vie contemporaine.

Handouts and Resources

Download the AP French Exam - Simulated Conversation handout and review the document carefully. Additionally, download the AP Simulated Conversation Rubric for information on how this exercise will be assessed on the AP Exam.

Equally important is for you to review the resources provided by the CollegeBoard. On this site you will find free-response questions and student samples that the CollegeBoard has released. It is imperative that you review these released exams extensively along with the student samples. You need to know what to expect when you take the exam.

What to expect - the simulated conversation

The graded assessments in the AP French course mirror the learning objectives and assessments of the AP French Language and Culture exam. The exam is divided into two sections that each count 50% of the exam grade. Section I is comprised of multiple-choice questions on print and audio texts and lasts about 95 minutes. Section II is free-response questions and this portion of the AP exam takes about 80 minutes.

The simulated conversation is your second encounter with the free-response part of the French Language and Culture.

The simulated conversation ( conversation dirigée ) is an interpersonal mode characterized by active negotiation of meaning between two people. The student engages in the spoken exchange of information, opinions and ideas in a variety of time frames in INFORMAL situations (use tu , not vous ).

In order to complete this task:

Be sure that you have a headset with a microphone. The headset microphone is really important! A built-in microphone will probably give you an echo in your recording and diminish the sound quality.
You will need to make an audio file. There are many options for doing this, so please use software that you are comfortable with. The software needs to be able to output an audio file in either .wav or .mp3 format.
An audio file will be provided for this exercise. Save this file to your computer in a location that you can easily access. You will upload this audio file later into the software of your choice to complete this assessment.
Questions? Please contact your instructor.

Bonne chance !