A whole world of words
Language is central to the IB philosophy, but what’s the best way to teach it? Here are four different perspectives on learning from across the globe
Anna Chiara Forti - teacher, International School of Modena, Italy
Independent learners
Having taught at the International School of Modena since 2001, I’m used to meeting bilingual and trilingual children, and helping them learn new languages. In my lessons I promote collaborative work, to give children of different levels the opportunity to share ideas and learn from one another. I try to make units of work reflect real-life situations that are relevant to students’ lives, to inspire them to grasp the language.
But it’s as a parent that I’ve truly realized how effective this inquiry-based approach can be in helping children develop language skills. My son Federico, whose first language is Italian, hadn’t said a word until the age of two and a half. When he started school aged three with no English at all, I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be at ease communicating in English with friends and teachers after just seven months. Yet, just 14 months after his first word in Italian, my shy and grumpy child is a very confident communicator, and almost bilingual.
I believe the turning point for Federico has been the unit of inquiry ‘My School’. The children explored the school, asking questions, taking notes and drawing pictures. They even gave tours for visitors (mainly relatives), explaining different staff’s roles.
Federico’s teacher always tries to find the link to the outside world, exposing children to as many activities, materials, games and ideas as possible. The topics they explore are relevant to their age, and they gain a deeper understanding than they would from just completing photocopied worksheets. Their experiences generate questions, and they are all eager to continue to explore.
With her pace and passion, Federico’s teacher has created a class of inquirers, risk-takers and communicators. They are independent and love to take the lead. They have their own reading diaries, where they write the titles of the books they choose themselves from the class library. Through learning in a relevant and interesting environment, and being responsible for their own learning, they overcome language barriers and become lifelong learners.
Jacqueline Roubinet - former chair, former IB heads advisory committee
Hard work lies ahead
Pourquoi les langues ont-elles de l’importance? (why are languages important?) is the French title of this issue of IB World. I couldn’t be more involved in the debate, having spent more than 30 years working in education in an international and bilingual school.
For 20 years, I was in charge of the École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel, an international school in Paris, having previously worked there as a French teacher. The school brings together more than 60 nationalities, and English is taught from infant classes onwards. From secondary level, teaching in English also has a big part to play in the official French programmes.
As well as English, several other languages are offered, including German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. Finally, there are all the mother tongues of the pupils from around the world, who have the right to maintain their natural ties, including Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Thai.
To me, languages are very important because they go hand in hand with the development of the mind. They are also invaluable for understanding others – their culture, roots, way of thinking and way of life – and today, in our global world, someone who speaks only one language is almost ‘incapacitated’. Learning another language should begin before the age of six, as a young child’s brain needs to be developed and is extremely malleable. Children learn languages effortlessly. Bilingualism does not slow their abilities, but actually enhances intelligence and versatility. This is where communication between different nations begins.
I was lucky enough to witness the initial setting-up of the IB in Europe; I was a French representative for the administrative body for 10 years, from 1984 to 1994. The language programmes had already been fully developed. Since then they have evolved, with educational applications for every level. But if we want our pupils to learn, speak and write languages, and to show them that languages are a useful – if not essential – qualification for 21st-century men and women, we cannot afford to lose time in paving the way for them.
Ania Prawdzik - Spanish and French teacher, International School of Lusaka, Zambia
Local citizens first
Global citizenship begins with local citizenship, and local citizenship is possible only with local language skills. I’ve worked at four IB World Schools, including two that were bound by their host country’s legal system to include the national language in the curriculum. It concerns me that students at my current school – even if they live in a state where it is largely possible to go about daily life speaking only English – are not learning a local Zambian language.
The languages I teach, English, French and Spanish, will help students become global citizens and probably get better jobs. But by not giving them at least the choice to learn an indigenous language at school we are depriving them of the opportunity to become active members of their local community. While observing a group of Diploma Programme students struggle to communicate with street children at a transition centre in the capital’s Kalingalinga township, I realized what a gap there is between my students and a great part of the local society they live in. The only student who managed to make a connection with his new ‘compound’ friends is also the only one trying to learn Bemba from them. Alarmingly, only a few of my hundred or so students speak a local Zambian language. Yet more than half have lived in Zambia all their lives.
Learning a language and being able to practise it in their immediate environment builds students’ confidence and gives them greater motivation to learn other languages, like the ones I teach. The promotion of indigenous languages can also combat ‘linguistic imperialism’ by conferring recognition and importance on languages and cultures that may be looked down on by some speakers of ‘international’ languages.
In my opinion, all international schools should incorporate their host country’s culture and language into the curriculum, even if it means choosing one local language over dozens of others. Even a compulsory conversation class once a week can help open students’ minds to a deeper understanding of their surroundings, leading to the end of ‘them and us’ and the beginning of ‘me and you’.
Mónica S Dulcic Ferraris - Spanish teacher, Zurich International School, Switzerland
Living the language
As a Spanish teacher at IB World Schools and non-IB schools, I’ve found the best way to teach a foreign language is to make students live it. One way to do this is to make everyday situations part of the lesson. Asking permission to go to the bathroom, telling the date and the time, making comments on the weather, taking attendance, greetings at the beginning and the end of lessons, civilities like ‘thanks’ and ‘sorry’ – every interaction is an opportunity to get students using the language. Learning is reinforced automatically. When a student sneezes, I say salud! or jesús! (bless you). The first time they hear this expression, they do not understand it; the second time, they recognize the word; by the third time they will answer with gracias! (thank you).
This approach may sound challenging, but it is real communication with real people, born out of real communicative needs. After a while, students grow accustomed to this, and it reaches a point where they ask me for translations of common words.
Other opportunities to live the language also arise in relating the course syllabus to the world outside the classroom. There may be resources (artistic, commercial, institutional) in the local area that could provide culturally relevant field trips, or visitors to the classroom who speak the language.
Actually living the language supports intercultural awareness and sensitivity to different perspectives, helping students develop international-mindedness. As many linguists have asserted, language influences our thoughts and the way we see the world. I firmly believe that learning a foreign language helps students to really understand other people’s worldview.
