Two Surveys, One Slide
Maëlys is preparing a three-minute oral for Unit 2 on French eating habits. She has two sources. Source A: a 2019 survey of 1,200 adults in Paris, which found that 68% usually dine after 8 pm. Source B: a 2021 national survey of 3,000 adults, which found that 45% usually dine after 8 pm. Her draft sentence reads: 'Les Français dînent tard, à 68%.' Her teacher has warned her against overgeneralisation and requires one statistic, one comparison with Australia and one caveat in the oral. Maëlys wants to keep the higher figure because it sounds more interesting. She has 45 seconds for this section of the oral.
1. Which source should Maëlys cite, and why? Consider sample, date, geography and the teacher's constraints.
Read the worked answer
She should cite Source B.
- Geography: Source A is Paris-only, and large cities often have later dining habits than regional towns or rural areas. Using it to say
les Françaiswould overgeneralise from one city to the whole country. - Sample: 3,000 adults is larger and more robust than 1,200.
- Date: 2021 is more recent than 2019, so it is more likely to reflect current habits.
- Teacher's constraint: the task explicitly warns against overgeneralisation, and Source B supports a national claim with a caveat.
Source A is not useless: it could be cited only with explicit qualification, e.g. à Paris, 68 %.... But the higher figure is not automatically the better figure; representativeness matters more than impact.
2. Rewrite her draft sentence in French so that it is accurate and properly attributed.
Read the worked answer
Selon une enquête nationale de 2021 menée auprès de 3 000 adultes, 45 % des Français dînent habituellement après 20 h.
Reasoning:
Selonattributes the claim to a source rather than presenting it as universal truth.enquête nationalesignals the scope and blocks the Paris-only inference.menée auprès de 3 000 adultesgives the sample size, which supports reliability.45 %replaces68 %with the representative figure.habituellementsoftens the claim: the statistic describes a usual pattern, not every individual.
The original Les Français dînent tard, à 68 % is inaccurate because it generalises from Paris and presents the figure as a property of all French people.
3. Propose one French sentence comparing Australia and France and one French sentence adding a caveat, using appropriate comparative and hedging language.
Read the worked answer
Comparison:
Alors qu'en France 45 % des adultes dînent après 20 h, en Australie beaucoup de familles dînent plus tôt, souvent avant 19 h.
Caveat:
Il faut toutefois nuancer ces chiffres, car les habitudes varient selon l'âge, la région et le jour de la semaine.
Reasoning: Alors qu' sets up a contrast without claiming that one habit is better. beaucoup de familles and souvent avoid turning an Australian impression into a statistic. The caveat uses toutefois and varient selon to signal limits, which meets the teacher's requirement and protects Maëlys from overgeneralising in either direction.