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 Key Stage 3 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
In the IB Diploma course, students further develop their ability to communicate in the target language through the study of language, themes and texts.
At both standard and higher levels, students learn to communicate in the target language in familiar and unfamiliar contexts. They describe situations, narrate events, make comparisons, explain problems, and state and support their personal opinions on a variety of topics relating to course content. In doing so, they also develop conceptual understandings of how language works, as appropriate to the level of the course.
Both external and internal assessments are used in the Language Acquisition IB course. Examiners mark work produced for Listening, Reading and Writing external assessments. Work produced for internal assessment is marked by teachers and externally moderated by the IB.
The internal assessment takes the form of the individual oral assessment, which is a conversation with the teacher, based on a visual stimulus (Standard Level) or a literary passage (Higher Level), followed by discussion based on an additional theme.