Here's my story. I must warn it's a long read.
I never gave Express entry a thought until January 2019. By then, I was already 37. I wrote ielts in february and maxed out at first trial. However in spite of my success at ielts, 9 years work experience as a lawyer, and a masters degree, my crs score was 430 (this of course included my husband's ielts). For lawyers, the hope of getting pnp was almost nil. Although I lived in an anglophone country, the only option open to me was to become bilingual. Luckily, I had 4months maternity leave which commenced in February (I wrote ielts a week before delivery). On the first day of April, I decided I was going to learn French and sit for TEF Canada. I searched for a TEF focused french school but found none in my neighbourhood.
Eventually, I settled for a school where they taught different languages which was about 30mins drive. It happened however that I was the only french student. I had an amazing teacher who was dedicated. I attended classes 3 times a week. Each class lasted 2 hours. My mum helped with the baby. I did a lot on my own at home beyond the class assignments. I learned the numbers on my own for example. Learning the conjugations was a struggle at the beginning. I downloaded the Michel Thomas french audio and listened to all the parts. From there, I developed the confidence to say simple, short sentences. But there were no audio listening sessions in school. The teaching method adopted was purely traditional. I knew I was going to have a problem later on with listening. So I downloaded several beginner/intermediate french conversations on YouTube and would listen to them over and over again. I also got the Echo A1, A2 text and audio for myself.
By the end of May, I had completed A2. I could introduce myself, ask for directions, make simple requests, describe briefly things I could see around me. However, I couldnt describe my experiences.
By the end of A2, I knew I had to change school, not because my teacher was not good enough but rather for two reasons. First, I needed a well-structured curriculum that would later help me to develop the four competences needed to be successful in the TEF exam- listening, reading, speaking and writing. Second, my maternity leave had ended and I had to resume.
Before resumption, I frantically searched for a school that met the criteria I had set. Luckily, i got information there was a small school within walking distance from my office. I made enquiries and joined the B1 class after passing the entrance test. Their test included a listening test. I didn't do so well in the listening because it didn't form part of my learning at the first school.
At the new school (it's called IEF), texts were studied in detail including the accompanying audio. They were DELF texts. The classes were small and interactive. I attended classes everyday Mondays to Fridays after close of work. As a nursing mother, I could close 2hrs before others. I tried to maximize my time at work (no social media, checking of personal mail, no office gossip) to avoid spill-over tasks.
I concluded B1 in July and wrote a DELF-styled exam at the end of the class. The 4 competences were evaluated. We had a week break.
I started B2 second week of August. My teacher had complained about my speaking. He said I needed to improve. I took up the challenge and searched frantically for a speaking buddy on the Speaky app. Before then, I had an hour paid conversational sessions on Saturdays with a student studying french at Unilag. I subscribed to prepmyfuture and we would treat the Express orale questions on the site. He advised me to get a bluetooth speaker which became my companion while driving in Lagos traffic and while doing chores. I listened to podcasts, coffee break french, french radio especially RFI and RTL. I watched Les Maternelles d'Afrique on TV5. How I love the programme! Driving to Unilag soon became tiring as I often had to drive there with my 3kids in tow. I did that for a month (July) and stopped.
I was lucky to meet a wonderful Tunisian guy who spoke French via the speaky app. We became very good friends. He would call me for one hour in the evenings. He was very dedicated. He also wanted to improve his English skills so we struck a deal. He would teach me French and after the TEF exams, I would teach him Engish. Seemed like a fair deal. Each day, I would describe what I did and tell him my plans for tomorrow. I mastered my conjugations this way. I no longer reviewed the notes I took in class, I practised them.
By the end of September, I had improved significantly. Of course, I still searched for words sometimes but I had some "fillers" that made it less obvious. I paid for TEF and informed my teacher I had paid. The B2 class had ended.
My classmates had different dates in mind for the exam. I was the only one who wanted to write at the end of October. So the class became a TEF class. I joined the facebook group "comment se preparer pour Tef". There is a wealth of information on that page. Members posts their TEF experiences as well as questions they had in the exams. There are also study materials for the TEF exam on the page. I learnt how to write fait divers from examples posted by members. I would write and my teacher would correct them. For the letter writing part, we were taught the form of a letter and what each paragraph should contain. My listening had improved significantly. I practised some of the listening questions on the Facebook group. My teacher focused on the speaking. He knew that was my weakest point. We simulated scenarios every day. I repeated the same scenarios with my Tunisian friend afterwards. We no longer discussed banalities. We practised Expression Orale questions.
Did I mention that I joined the Duolingo Lagos forum? Yes I did. The group meets once a month, Sunday evenings usually. I also went for movie screenings at Alliance Francaise, Sunday evenings also. They never clashed though. Both afforded me the opportunity to learn from others. I joined the Nairaland TEF thread too where I learnt from others who had written TEF in the past.
My teacher also provided french songs from time to time. It added fun to the learning.
I sat for the exam 26th October and had LWRS c1,c1,c1,b2. Result released 14th November 2019. That score gave me 45 points. My previous score of 430 had become 425 on my birthday in September. Score is 470 now. I'm hoping for the best.
Worthy of mention are materials for French learning posted by Ludmila Ustinova on vk.
I'm working on having a YouTube channel t further describe my experiences.
