Interpersonal and Presentational Communication
Domain 3 tests interpersonal and presentational communication in French. Interpersonal tasks require spontaneous exchange-asking, responding, clarifying, negotiating meaning-while presentational tasks require planned, connected discourse in speech or writing. Scoring typically weighs task completion, comprehensibility, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, register, and cultural appropriateness.
Core rules and concepts
- Choose and maintain register: tu with peers, friends, and children; vous with strangers, superiors, and formal contexts. Mixing them within one exchange signals control problems.
- Use interaction strategies: openings, turn-taking, requests for clarification (Comment ? Pouvez-vous répéter ?), circumlocution when a word is missing, and repair.
- Organize presentational discourse with an introduction, developed points, transitions, and a conclusion. Use cohesive devices (d'une part... d'autre part, en outre, pourtant, en conclusion).
- Know written conventions: formal email opens with Madame, Monsieur or Monsieur le Directeur and closes with Cordialement or Je vous prie d'agréer...; informal messages use Salut and À bientôt.
Worked example
Task: decline a friend's invitation and propose another time. Model: « Merci pour ton invitation, mais je ne pourrai pas venir samedi soir : j'ai déjà un engagement. Dimanche midi te conviendrait ? » Reasoning: it acknowledges the invitation, declines politely, gives a reason, and proposes an alternative-all required functions-while keeping tu consistent. For a formal version, switch to vous and use Je vous remercie de votre invitation.
Traps that cost marks
Failing to address every bullet in the prompt; translating English idioms literally; writing long but disconnected sentences; using tu and vous inconsistently; going silent instead of paraphrasing; ignoring the difference between spoken and written conventions.