- Secondary
- Subjects
- Spanish
Spanish
The aim of the Spanish Department at BISJ is to encourage students’ confidence and curiosity about the Spanish language.
The course also aims to offer insights into the culture and society of countries and communities where Spanish is spoken, thus encouraging positive attitudes towards speakers of other languages and a sympathetic approach to other cultures.
We strive to embed listening, speaking, reading and writing necessary skills to form a sound base of these skills so, when they leave BISJ, students have the language and attitudes required for progression to work or further study, either in Spanish or another subject area.
The Middle School curriculum provides a seamless progression to IGCSE. Resources used give our students a real taste of Spanish culture and bring language learning to life. They also establish good Spanish pronunciation and spelling, as key sounds of Spanish are introduced using phonics.
The syllabus in the IGCSE Spanish course gives students opportunities to develop and apply a wide range of language skills. Throughout the two-year course students can read and understand a variety of written and spoken texts on familiar topics, write in Spanish on familiar, everyday topics, and to speak the language by taking part in everyday conversations.
The content is organised in five broad topic areas which provide contexts for the acquisition of vocabulary and the study of grammar and structures while enables students to gain an insight into countries and communities where Spanish is spoken.
- Everyday activities
- Personal and social life
- The world around us
- The world of work
- The international word
Spanish is offered in Years 12 and 13 as Language B, at Standard or Higher Level, for students who have studied it before, and as ab initio, at Standard Level only, for students who are new to the language. In both courses students learn to communicate in familiar and unfamiliar contexts, and to understand how the language works.
The courses are built around five prescribed themes: identities, experiences, human ingenuity, social organisation and sharing the planet. Students describe situations, narrate events, make comparisons, explain problems and give and justify their opinions on a wide variety of topics, using texts from across the Spanish-speaking world. At Higher Level, students also read and discuss two literary works originally written in Spanish.
Both external and internal assessments are used. Examiners mark the listening, reading and writing papers, and the individual oral, a conversation with the teacher based on a visual stimulus (Standard Level and ab initio) or a literary extract (Higher Level), is marked in school and moderated by the IB. Spanish is an official language in around twenty countries and is widely used in business, tourism, diplomacy and the media.