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Are you looking for a job in the federal government or public service? You might need to take the SLE, or Second language evaluation, to prove you’re efficient enough in French. Indeed, to work in the federal government, you’re expected to understand both English and French. But fear not, Global Lingua’s teachers can help you prepare for the SLE.

Whether you’re totally new to French or already have a good level, online courses are a great way to improve your skills. Global Lingua offers personalized courses, which means you can tell your teacher you want to study for the SLE exam. To make the most of your classes, here is some advice.

Learn more about the Second language evaluation in the public service

First, you need to know what to expect when passing the exam. This way, you’ll be able to better prepare yourself and avoid any last minute stress. There are different tests for the SLE: oral proficiency, reading comprehension and written expression. Each test is different but your private teacher will be able to help you with all of them.

The oral test consists of 4 parts:

Part 1 - A quick discussion about work and other activities (2 to 6 minutes). You have to answer some questions about your work : brief and factual responses are expected.

Part 2 - Listening to short audio recordings and answering some questions. You will have to identify the reason for the call, what needs to be done or what help is being offered.

Part 3 - A talk with follow-up questions. You have to choose between three topics for a talk with the assessor. One minute and a half to prepare, two to three minutes to talk. Then, you will be asked to answer follow-up questions.

Part 4 - Listening and speaking in response to a longer audio recording. Finally, you have to listen to a two-minute recording of a work-related conversation happening during a meeting. Afterwards, you’ll be asked to give a brief summary of the conversation’s content and answer some related questions.

The reading comprehension test:

You will have to answer 60 multiple-choice questions (but only 50 count towards your score). There are two question types: “choose the best word or group of words to insert in the blank” and “answer a question about the text”. You will have 90 minutes to complete the test.

The written expression test:

You have 90 minutes to answer 65 multiple-choice questions (only 55 count towards your score). There are two question types: “fill in the blank” and “error identification”.

Trust your private teacher

At Global Lingua, we have plenty of teachers who specialize in language test preparation. They know how to prepare you for the big day, and more importantly, they will quickly assess the parts you’ll need to work on before taking the test. Don’t be afraid to express your fears or worries: they need to know the full picture to be able to guide you.

If you want to study between two courses, feel free to ask your teacher for homework or useful online resources. We also recommend the Babbel app, which can be helpful to stay consistent in your studying.

Be consistent when you study

Speaking of consistency: do you know about spaced repetition? It has been proven that the brain forgets about certain things if you don’t remind it from time to time. Some tools exist to help you better learn vocabulary: they recognize which words you struggle to learn and put them in your next lesson to help you. The vocabulary words you remember perfectly are put aside for a future lesson.

This system proves that if you want to be prepared for your exam, you need to work consistently on your French skills. Don’t hesitate to take a one-hour class twice a week, to study on your own and to watch some French movies.

With our SLE Preparation for Federal Government and Public Service, prepare easily for the Second language evaluation in the public service thanks to Global Lingua! You will be more confident on your exam day.