All You Need to Know to Master the Discussion in the VCE French Oral Exam

The discussion section is your last opportunity to leave a strong impression on the examiners. Yet, in my experience, many students spend countless hours preparing for the general conversation and leave the discussion section for last-minute cramming. Don’t make that mistake! Your discussion is worth just as much preparation, especially because it gives you the opportunity to showcase your vocabulary, depth of knowledge, and ability to communicate spontaneously in French. In this article, I’ll share the main tips I repeat to my students every single year to help them feel more confident and prepared for the discussion section.

What is the VCE French oral exam?

The VCE French oral exam is the final speaking assessment for VCE French. It tests your ability to speak naturally and confidently in French. The exam lasts about 15 minutes and is divided into two parts:

1. General conversation (≈ 7 minutes): about you, your life, and interests.

2. Discussion (≈ 8 minutes): based on your detailed study topic.
   

This guide focuses on the second part: the discussion, where examiners ask questions about a francophone-culture topic you've prepared in advance. For this part of the exam, you are expected to bring a picture that relates to the topic you will be presenting. The examiners will be asking questions about both your topic and your picture.

PS: You can find my blog post about the first part of the oral exam (the general conversation) here.

Choosing a topic

Your teacher may give you some options of pictures/topics to choose from or you may have complete freedom. If you have complete freedom, here are the few tips I give my students:

1. Choose a topic you’re genuinely interested in. It will make the whole process of researching it much more fun and your enthusiasm will show during the exam.

2. Be (very) specific. For example, « French feminism » is too broad. Instead, narrow it down to something like:

   1. « The MeToo movement in France ».

   2. « The feminist movement Les Colleuses » (a movement that denounces femicide and domestic violence).

3. Test your topic using Bloom's taxonomy. Can you not only describe your topic, but also analyse it, compare it to other examples, and form a judgement or opinion about it? If you can only describe it, it's probably too surface-level — you'll run out of things to say after the first few minutes. If you can analyse, question, and evaluate it, you've got enough depth to sustain an 8-minute discussion.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Tips to ace the VCE French oral discussion

1. Contextualise your topic from the start
   

If there was only ONE tip I was allowed to give my students, it would undoubtedly be this one: contextualise your topic! You've probably spent weeks (or months!) researching your topic, writing and refining your script, and memorising key vocabulary. But keep in mind: the examiners know nothing. Your first 2–3 sentences should give a clear overview of your topic. Focus on:

• WHAT your topic is about

• WHERE it takes place

• WHO is involved

• WHEN it happens (time period or historical context)

A few extra tips to help you contextualise your topic:

• Identify and use your keywords: Your keywords are the backbone of your topic presentation. They carry the main ideas and help you structure your responses naturally. Make sure they all appear in the first few minutes of your presentation!

  
  

• Test your introduction in English: A great way to check whether your introduction is clear is to test it in English first. Try explaining your topic in one minute to a friend or family member. If they look confused or ask “Wait, what do you mean?”, you probably need to add more context. If they understand it easily, your structure is clear enough to translate smoothly into French.

• At first, focus on simplicity: Don't get into all the details and subtleties of your topic straight away. First, introduce it as if you were explaining it to a 10-year-old.

2. Frame your topic

Another important thing to remember is that you are allowed to frame your topic strategically. In other words, create a "fence" around the specific aspects you want to discuss (and, indirectly, the ones you don't want to focus on). Remember when we talked about being specific when choosing your topic? This is exactly why it matters. For example, instead of introducing an extremely broad topic vaguely, narrow it down clearly from the start:

« La Révolution française est un sujet très vaste, c’est pourquoi j’ai décidé de principalement m’intéresser à la période de 1793 à 1794, que l’on appelle la Terreur. »

This is helpful because examiners may already have some background knowledge or personal interest in your topic. Naturally, they might try to guide the discussion towards areas they know well or find interesting. However, these may not necessarily be the aspects you prepared the most thoroughly. By clearly defining your angle early on, you gently steer the conversation towards the ideas, examples, and vocabulary you feel most confident discussing.

3. Lead the conversation and use repair strategies

   
   

Many students don't realise that examiners can find it hard to come up with good follow-up questions, especially if your topic is very specific or technical. Guide the examiners where you want them to go. Think about the parts of your topic that you want to discuss most. Ask yourself:

"What do I want the examiner to ask me about?"

You can guide the conversation with phrases such as:

• Ce qui m'intéresse particulièrement avec ce sujet, c'est…

• Ce que j'ai trouvé vraiment fascinant en faisant mes recherches, c'est…

• Le plus intéressant pour moi, c'est…

  
  

This subtly signals what you'd like to talk about and helps the examiner choose relevant questions.

Similarly, if the examiner asks a question that isn't quite related or relevant to the topic, bring them back to your angle:

• C'est une question intéressante, mais pour ma présentation j'ai préféré me focaliser sur un autre aspect…

4. Refer to your picture (do NOT describe it)

This seems to cause a lot of confusion among my students. You shouldn't describe the picture per se, but rather use it to support your topic and refer to it when relevant (as proof of what you're saying).

Angèle's music clip for her song Balance ton quoi.

For example, this is a description ❌

• « Sur cette image, on voit l'artiste Angèle allongée sur l'herbe. Elle a des cheveux blonds et des yeux bruns. Elle regarde la caméra et a un petit sourire aux lèvres. Elle porte un haut jaune sans manches, … »

This is using your picture as a support to help your discussion ✅

• « Le mouvement MeToo que l'on appelle Balance ton porc en France a remis en question les dictats de beauté féminins traditionnels. Beaucoup de femmes ont dénoncé les représentations féminines superficielles qui montrent de belles femmes minces, toujours parfaites, avec de longs cheveux. D'ailleurs, on le remarque très bien sur ma photo où on voit justement l'artiste Angèle avec des poils sous les bras... »

5. Give your opinion and justify it

The VCE French discussion is not judged based on whether the examiner agrees with your opinion. You are assessed on how you justify your ideas and explain your thinking in French. The discussion is not meant to be a one-way presentation or a monologue. It's a discussion where you're invited to give your opinion. So I encourage you to reflect on your topic and prepare a few sentences with À mon avis… or Je pense que…

5. Prioritise clarity over complexity

In the VCE French oral exam, being understood comes before anything else. So keep it simple and accurate. Simple, short, and correct sentences are always better than long, messy ones. There's no benefit in using advanced grammar or idiomatic expressions if the examiner can't follow your meaning. If speaking French feels challenging, focus on clarity, not complexity. You'll sound more natural and avoid unnecessary errors.

5. Don't be afraid to repeat or paraphrase

Following up on the previous point: don't be scared to repeat yourself. Examiners are multitasking — listening, taking notes, thinking of follow-up questions, and assessing your grammar and pronunciation all at once. It's easy for them to miss small details. That's why repeating or paraphrasing key information is actually a smart strategy. It reinforces your ideas and ensures your message is understood, even if parts are missed.

Preparation tips

1. Spend as much time practicing talking about your topic out loud as you did researching it

There is no point being knowledgeable about your topic if you cannot share about it. I've had too many students who knew plenty about their topic, but their pronunciation and lack of oral preparation made it very hard to understand their presentation.

So don't spend all your time researching your topic and perfecting your scripts. Keep in mind that this is ultimately a French speaking exam, so spend an equal amount of time practicing in French out loud.

A friendly reminder that speaking is its own skill, and it only improves by … speaking. To talk in French, you need to train your mouth to create different sounds and sound combinations than the ones you do in English. It's the same as learning a new sport: everything feels difficult and unnatural at first, and your muscles aren't coordinated. The more you do it, the more automatic and easy it becomes.

2. Practice your topic with English-speaking friends and family
   

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that no matter how many questions you brainstorm for the discussion, examiners can still surprise you with something completely unexpected. That's why it's always worth sharing your topic with friends and family and seeing what questions they come up with — they'll ask things you'd never think of, precisely because they don't know your topic as well as you do.

One of my students chose a picture of a protest in Paris about the new measures introduced during COVID (picture below). He was extremely well prepared — he ended up scoring a raw 40 — and we'd brainstormed as many questions as we could think of. And yet, one examiner still asked something neither of us had anticipated: "What does the blue sky symbolise in this picture?" It didn't affect his score in the end, but it's a good reminder: when you're preparing potential questions, the more brains involved, the better.

A protest in Paris against the COVID measures.

Going from good to great

Aiming for top marks in the speaking exam? Show that you have reflected on your French learning journey and prepare a few interesting insights.

Here are some questions that can help you do that:

• While preparing your discussion, did something surprise you? For example, a cultural aspect of French culture that you hadn't learned about in class? Or, on the contrary, was there something you had learned in class that was contradicted in your research?

• While researching your topic, have you discovered new French words, expressions, or slang? Was there a difference in the language you learned in class and the language you encountered during your research?

Culture is an abstract concept — it shows up in small, specific ways once you know where to look. Ultimately, it comes down to one question:

What have you noticed that's different in France compared to Australia?

 Here are a few places cultural differences tend to show up:

• Language (formality vs. familiarity, politeness, slang, expressions)

• Food

• Clothing and uniforms (what's expected — or not — in how people dress at school or outside of it)

• Celebrations (what's celebrated, and what that reveals about what's valued)

• Humour (what's considered funny or not)

• Music

Want more?

If you're after more general oral exam tips, check out my other post: 👉 10 Tips To Ace Your French VCE Oral Exam.