LEVEL: Standard Level
LENGTH: Two-year course (DP1 & DP2)
RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND: No or very limited prior experience in Spanish
PATHWAYS: The arts, humanities, commerce, law, teaching, business.
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT: Bilingual dictionary
Language ab initio is a language acquisition course designed for students with no prior experience of the target language, or for those students with very limited previous exposure. It should be noted that language ab initio is offered at SL only.
Students develop the ability to communicate in Spanish through the study of language, themes and texts. They also develop conceptual understandings of how language works. Knowledge of vocabulary and grammar (the what of language) is reinforced and extended by understanding audience, context, purpose, meaning and variation (the why and how of language). The development of international mindedness is one of the key aims of the course. Students are exposed to a variety of authentic text types in relation to the prescribed themes and topics, and produce a wide variety of oral and written texts for audiences, contexts and purposes associated with academic and personal interests.
At the language ab initio level, a student develops receptive, productive and interactive communicative skills. Students learn to communicate in the target language in familiar and unfamiliar contexts.
Receptive: Students understand, both aurally and in writing, simple sentences and some more complex sentences relating to the five prescribed themes and related topics. They understand simple authentic and adapted written and audio texts and related questions in the target language.
Productive: Students express information fairly accurately, in both writing and in speech, using a range of basic vocabulary and grammatical structures. They communicate orally and respond appropriately to most questions on the five prescribed themes and related topics.
Interactive: Students understand and respond clearly to some information and ideas within the range of the five prescribed themes and related topics. They engage in simple conversations. They use strategies to negotiate meaning and foster communication.
The language ab initio syllabus is organised into five prescribed themes: identities, experiences, human ingenuity, social organisation and sharing the planet.
Assessment
| SL |
Internal Assessment |
| Individual Oral Assessment 7-10 minutes This component is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB at the end of the course. A conversation with the teacher, based on a visual stimulus and at least one additional course theme. (30 marks) 25% |
External Assessment |
| Paper 1 Exam | 1 hour Productive skills—writing (30 marks) Two written tasks of 70–150 words each from a choice of three tasks, choosing a text type for each task from among those listed in the examination instructions. 25% |
| Paper 2 Exam | 1 hour 45 minutes Receptive skills—separate sections for listening and reading (65 marks) Listening comprehension (45 minutes) (25 marks) (25%) Reading comprehension (1 hour) (40 marks) (25%) Comprehension exercises on three audio passages and three written texts, drawn from all five themes. 50% |