Curso Intensivo De Lengua B Bachillearto Internacional

A PREPARATION COURSE FOR “LANGUAGE B” (INTERMEDIATE LEVEL) OF THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE DIPLOMA PROGRAMME











Gemma Suñé Minguella, PhD

United Nations International School, New York, NY


















CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………...………. p. 5
2. COURSE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS ………………………………………. p. 6
1. NEEDS ANALYSIS……………………………………......................... p. 6
2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OUTLINE …………………………………. p. 8
3. SELECTION AND GRADATION OF CONTENTS.………………...… p. 9
4. SELECTION AND GRADATION OF ACTIVITIES AND
MATERIALS……..……………………………………………………… p. 11
5. DEFINING METHODS OF ASSESSMENT………………………….. p. 13
3. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………… p. 14
4.BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………..…….. p. 15
























1. INTRODUCTION
We intend to design an intensive biweekly “Preparation Course for Language B of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme”. Our objective is to offer the students of an International School in the United States the possibility of an intensive summer course, which will consolidate andenhance the knowledge and skills acquired up to the tenth grade.
The courses in Language B of the International Baccalaureate Programme are biannual for students who have some prior knowledge of the target language and can continue to the higher levels - the Intermediate and Advanced-Proficiency Levels. Apart from learning and mastering a foreign language, the students will have theopportunity to explore the culture or cultures, in which the target language is spoken, by means of a series of core and optional subjects ranging from Global Issues, Media and Social Relations to Leisure Time, Science and Technology. Moreover, at the Advanced-Proficiency Level, two literary works are studied.
As to the learning methodologies, a balance is sought between those which are teacher-centered(activities and assessment conducted in the classroom by the teacher) and those which are student-centered (activities designed to let the students take the initiative, which can also involve participating in the assessment of their own learning process). Whenever possible, teaching of linguistic structures is carried out in the context of other activities, for example, speaking or reading.However, when this approach is not possible or appropriate to be followed, formal and systematic teaching of these is to be considered.
The primary purpose of the Language B Programme is to contribute to the development of students’ linguistic competence and intercultural understanding as well as foster an interest in global issues and relate them to their own responsibilities at a local level.For the course development process, we shall follow H. Taba’s[1] guidelines, as following:
1. Needs Analysis
2. Aims and Objectives Outline
3. Selection and gradation of contents
4. Selection and gradation of activities and materials
5. Defining methods of assessment


2. COURSE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
1. NEEDS ANALYSIS
The needs analysis, which is necessary to becarried out in order to initiate the course, will include an analysis of the objective and subjective needs. In the first case, the levels of competence in the target language should be borne in mind - both the current one (before starting the course) and the one desired to be achieved. In this regard, we shall set the A2 level of the CEFR as the minimum required level to reach. As to thesubjective needs, we shall consider students’ learning styles, their “learning capacity” (strategies) and some cognitive and affective variables.
For the analysis of objective needs we shall rely both on the summative and formative assessment marks given by each tenth grade teacher and on the results from the Benchmark[2] exam, which takes place every year at the end of the course precisely with...