More Languages!

Hello you busy bees!

This week we are going to continue on languages, hope you don't mind. We are still yet to cover French and German as an B language and Self Taught (an independent subject, whaaaat?). We will also probably cover Visual Arts and Chemistry, but because our class weren't fortunate enough to get these classes we will have to interview some fellow IBers soon. Of course, these are not THE only IB subjects, but these are the ones that are offered on our radius. You can always find out more on the IB site -> www.ibo.org.

B-LANGUAGES: FRENCH

We're just gonna start now with French B as a language choice of the two you are obliged to pick. Actually, this choice really does mingle well with studying English Literature, believe it or not. We were too unfortunate not to be offered this subject as on a Higher Level, but we will try our best to supply you with the information you need. Three of our Four Musketeers; Tilda Rose, SusanMoreen and Nelli,  have French B as an Standard Level subject and we have to say, it is not a bad subject to have at all not to mention that it is indeed the diplomatic language, which is always good to know. Basically, the Higher and Standard Levels are different only by the recommended teaching hours, the depth of syllabus coverage, the required study of literature at Higher Level and the level of difficulty and requirements of tasks and criteria. 

We have three required core themes: communication and media, global issues and social relationships which is quite a nice balance, don't you think? Oh, and in addition, at Standard and Higher Level, teachers will pick two more themes from five options that are given to them and finally, two works of literature are studied at Higher Level only. All this actually applies to all B languages that you can choose, we only chose French here because it seemed relevant and we can talk about it from experience.

Alright, so here are a few things you should know about B Languages and how you will be assessed during the two years:

1. Your interactive, productive and receptive skills will be honed through contextualized study of language of your choice, texts and themes.
2. You will be exposed to a variety of authentic texts and you produce work in a variety of communicative contexts
3. Your key goals will be intercultural understanding and plurilingualism
4. You will be assessed both internally and externally
5. External assessment at Standard Level consists of exercises to demonstrate understanding of texts
6. External assessment at Higher Level consists of exercises to demonstrate understanding of texts based on the core themes, two writing exercises and one based on the core and the other based on the options, and finally a written assignment based on one of the literary texts
7. Internal assessment at both Standard and Higher level tests your abilities in listening and speaking in a conversation format: consisting of an individual oral based on the options and an interactive oral based on the core ( three classroom activities assessed by your teacher )

Now. The Finals slash exams. From the previous post on Languages, the overall percentage of the Final exam was 25%, the same goes for French once again. Just as in all the other languages, in the subject of French we have two papers; Paper 1 and Paper 2 and also an Oral assessment  that will be performed

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The Oral assessment is recorded via cassette tape recording or digitally via a CD recorder. You are expected to speak for 3 to 5 minutes on a subject of your choice the followed by a question period between your teacher and you for about 2-3 minutes. The question period has been made as a way for you to show your level of depth in the French language, so that's pretty cool. The best tip for this oral assessment that we can come up with is to practice your French accent, but indeed that is not all; choosing a topic related to the French Culture would be most helpful for your assessment grade and additionally a topic that is of your keen interest, something that would make you enjoy and have fun while talking about it ‘in French’. Naturally.

Paper 1 is intended to test your reading comprehension and the time given to you is approximately 1.5 hours.  Basically the test consist of a text and exam questions of about 50 questions, some are true or false questions, fill in the blanks or matching synonyms. Having a strong understanding of French vocabulary and grammar is good because, obviously it really helps your understanding of the text. For example, we just had a test a few months back and we had this reading comprehension test, oh my goodness we tell you. We hadn't practiced too much of the everyday vocabulary and we did not understand much what the texts were talking about. These tests can be pretty tricky and we cannot emphasize how much it helps you if you read columns or articles in French during your free time just to get yourself adjusted and ready for these things. Everything you need to know is not necessarily covered in school, especially vocabulary. 

Paper 2 is also a 1.5 hour performance and  basically, it tests your writing skills, a very important skill for you to master in the IB French system. A list of choices is given to you and you must choose only ONE and write a minimum of 250 words on it the topic of your choosing. You can always write a bit more, maybe 100 more but keep in mind that you can be penalized for too many extra words or the examiner may choose to just assess your work until the word limit, in which case maybe he or she will not read your conclusion which is one of the most important parts of any essay that you write. So, just keep that in the back of your brain during the Paper 2 exams. 

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SELF-TAUGHT.

Next up we are going to talk about Self Taught as an independent subject which is an A language of your choice and you cannot choose this as a Higher Level subject. Of course you have to be quite fluent in this language because this is a demanding choice especially because you are doing it independently. However, it doesn't have to be your mother tongue, for instance one of our beloved classmates has chosen Mandarin Chinese even though he is a full Finnish citizen but he has lived in China for a long time. If you choose this subject you have to read literary works throughout the two years, write all assessed components and perform oral examinations. And these works obviously have to be done in the language you chose as a self taught subject. Even though this subject may be quite difficult at times, we are sure it will pay off later especially if you enjoy this language and want to excel in it. We encourage you not to forget your -possibly- mother tongue so that it has a strong presence in the rest of your studies. Maybe it will give you a new twist to studying, who knows?!

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 Last up we thought it would be a nice idea to put up this demonstration of the groups you have to choose your subjects from, even though this is given to you in almost any IB-related talk or meeting but anyway, here it is. 

And a few links for you to lighten the mood a bit and give you a good and solid- maybe slightly blown out of proportions, not by much though - idea of what you are getting yourself into. This all is to encourage you to be an international and knowledgeable student!

Some facts about being and IB student.. -> http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/27-sure-signs-you-were-in-the-ib-program

That's all for now and next week we are going to dig deeper into the subject of Theory Of Knowledge (a.k.a TOK), all the little thing that comes with it like the Extended Essay and possibly we will we talking a little more about Visual Arts and Chemistry. 

Sayonara,

Tilda Rose, SusanMoreen, Nelli & Heidi