BHS students score well in national French contest

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) — Some advanced French language students at Binghamton High School performed tres bien in a recent national exam.

For the first time in the school’s history, four students in Diane Phelps’ International Baccalaureate French 4 class participated in the National French Contest. The online competition is in four parts and requires the students to answer questions from French text and videos of native French speakers.

Junior Colin McGovern finished first in the Central New York region and was in the top-two percent among the nearly 45,000 students who took the test nationwide. McGovern credits the conversation-based approach to learning that Phelps employs.

“It definitely better prepared us, especially for the listening portion of the test. Just because I felt a lot more confident in understanding what the native French speakers were saying in the test from the conversations we’ve had in French in our classroom,” McGovern said.

Fellow juniors Ethan Beauzile, Wren Bigelow and Celia Hemenway also performed well on the test. They all plan to take part 2 of IB French 4 next year.

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