A Study on the International Baccalaureate from the Perspective of Language Development
journal or
publication title
Hoshi journal of general education
number 25
page range 1‑13
year 2007
URL http://id.nii.ac.jp/1240/00000236/
A Study on the International Baccalaureate from the Perspective of Language
Development
Madoka Kawano
INTRODUCTION
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program offers a challenging two-year curriculum, aimed primarily at students aged 16 to 19. This program leads to a qualification that is widely recognized by many of the world's leading universities (http://www.ibo.org/diploma).
According to the International Baccalaureate Organization website, 2,145 schools in 125 countries (including 10 schools in Japan, most of which are international schools) offer the IB Diploma Program.
Learning languages is considered to be a key factor in the IB Program because students are required to study two languages. Depending on their interests, a student can even take up a third language if it is available. The IB program aims at encouraging students to contribute to a more peaceful world through multicultural understanding and respect for others.
In this paper, I will give an overview of the IB Diploma curriculum particularly from the perspective of language education, and then focus on three Japanese students who studied the IB curriculum. I wM attempt to probe how they developed their language skills and how they perceive their own growth through interviews and e-mail surveys.
OVERVIEW
The IB Diploma Program is offered in English, French or Spanish as a means of instruction. Students study six subjects selected from the subject groups: Language A1, Second Language, Individuals and Societies,
groupt laaeuaeeAl
groap 1 secomd lartguaee
group 4 experimental scie"ccs
eroup l individu"ls and societies
gr04S P S mathefnaticsand oompvter suetxe
eroupb
ttbe artsFigure 1, Programmodel
Experimental Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science, and the Arts.
Normally three subjects are studied at a higher level (courses representing 240 teaching hours), and the remaining three subjects are studied at a standard level (courses representing 150 teaching hours).
Language Al
Language Al is the study of literature in a student's including the study of selections of world literature. The o course is to develop:
. a personal appreciation of literature . skills in literary criticism
. strong written and oral skills
. respect for the literary heritage of their first language . an international perspective.
Language A2, B, Ab Initio
It is a requirement of the program second language. The main emphasis
that students of the second
first language, bjective of the
study at (modern)
least one language ,
courses is on language acquisition and use in a range of contexts and for different purposes. Three options are available to accommodate students with different backgrounds.
. Language ab initio courses are for beginners, i.e. students who have had no previous experience with learning the language they have chosen. These courses are only available at the standard leveL
'Language B courses are intended for students who have had some previous experience with learning the language. They may be studied at either the higher level or the standard level.
. Language A2 courses are designed for students who have a high level of competence in the language they have chosen. They include the study of both language and literature, and are available at the higher level and the standard leveL
A bilingual diploma is awarded when 1) a student takes two language Als, 2) a language Al is taken together with a language A2, 3) a group 3 or 4 subject is taken in a language other than his/her language Al, or 4) an extended essay in a group 3 or 4 subject is written in a language other than the candidate's language Al.
Other subjects and requirements
In addition to all these six areas of subjects, three parts of the core- extended essay, theory of knowledge (TOK) and creativity, action, service (CAS)-are compulsory and are central to the philosophy of the Diploma Program. Extended essay is a 4,OOO word essay on a topic of the studenVs choice, TOK is composed of reflection, discussion and essays, and CAS involves activities that are not academic in nature.
In comparison to the Japanese curriculum, the IB program puts more emphasis on languages. Most students in Japanese schools study 7 subjects for the Center Shiken, the nationwide university entrance exam.
Language courses, Japanese and English, occupy two sevenths of the entire curriculum On the other hand, a third or even a half (when a student takes a third language) of the IB curriulum are language studies.
In addition, students in the IB program constantly practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening in various aspects of their school life.
4
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND THE IB PROGRAM
So far I have described the overall view of the IB diploma program.
Here I will take a closer look at Japanese as Language Al and English as Language B, because it is a common combination of languages taken by Japanese students. I will analyze the curriculum and refer to the surveys conducted with three Japanese students who took Japanese Al and English B. They had spent most of their lives in Japan until they entered the IB programs abroad, Sl (female) and S2 (male) in Singapore and S3 (female) in New York. Both of the parents of these students are Japanese, and the students followed the curriculum of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology up to their first year of senior high schooL Eventually Sl and S2 were awarded IB diplomas, and S3 obtained certificates in some subjects. I conducted the surveys through e-mail and interviews in 2006 in Japan.
Japanese as Language Al
Taguchi, who has taught Japanese Al herself, reports on how the curriculum is formed and how different it is from Japanese language education in Japan (2007). The idea of requiring every student in the IB program to study his/her first language is derived from the belief that intricate expressions of masterpieces and the beauty of the language can be best appreciated in the student's first language. She states that, though the paradigm of Japanese language instruction at schools in Japan has shifted from appreciation of literature to communicative skills, the IB program aims to create and nourish a lifelong interest in literature for the students (p. 22). Studying Language Al encourages students to establish their identity and to maintain their language heritage.
There are no textbooks for Japanese Al. Students read a certain number of books from the recommended list of Japanese literature and world literature. For Japanese Al at the standard level, students read five pieces of world literature and six pieces of Japanese literature. Examples of Japanese literature are works by Hagiwara Sakutaro, Kawabata Yasunari, Genl'i Monogatari and so forth. The list of world literature
includes the Grapes of Wrath, Crime and Punishment, the Stranger, and the Metamorphosis (Appendix 2). The students' evaluations are based on their
written exams and oral presentations. The exam has a commentary section and an essay section. An example of the oral commentary presentation is to discuss the freedom in Sunna no Onna. Another assignment is to analyze how the freedom is defined by the characters in Crime and Punishment.
Students S1 and S2 took Japanese A1, while S3 took it as a self-taught subject, because there was no Japanese language teacher at her school in New York. Both S1 and S2 felt that their ability to understand the works, interpret the subtlety of the expressions, and analyze techniques in the works was improved. They said they needed four to seven hours to prepare for each class, and that as a result their writing ability improved remarkably. If they had not been in an IB program, it would have been very difficult for them to be constantly exposed to Japanese in a foreign country. They reflected on the Japanese classes they had had in Japan, and compared them with the IB Japanese curriculum. In Japanese schools, they felt that they concentrated on the meaning of the sentence, rather than the whole text, and that they were expected to agree with the author or to admire the author's approach. On the other hand, jn the IB program, they learned to read critically by comparing and contrasting different authors and the texts, and that they were required to generalize the themes of the works and extract the universal truth from the works.
Sl: In Japan, I was given an excerpt and superficial questions such as what the prepositions indicate and what the particular sentences in the excerpt meant. In the IB program, I analyze the whole work, scrutinize the author's attempt, and examine the characters.
S2: Ilearned many things thatIhad never been taught in Japan. Now I am learning how to compare novels and poems, and to analyze them from a wider perspective. I was passive while I was in Japan, while here I need to take initiative in everything we do in class. I have much more homework now, but spending hours on it is worthwhile.
English as Language B (English B)
Students Sl, S2, and S3 were enrolled in regular Japanese schools in Japan up to the first year of high school, and had level checks when they entered the IB programs. All of them took English as Language B. A syllabus of English B consists of personal and social ehange, language matters, and culture, politics and society. In each component, students learn to read extensively, conduct research, and make presentations in
class. Examples of research in language matters are language
interference, and the Singapore dialect of English. To study literature, students read works such as: To Kill a Mocleingbird, A SteP from Heaven, Make Lemonade, Time Machine, Catcher in the Rye, and so forth (Appendix 3). As for the assessment, 70SO}6o of the assesment is based on a written component while the other 30% is based on an oral component.
In English B, the three Japanese students felt that it was necessary to have a large vocabulary, skills to understand the texts accurately, and knowledge of grammar in order to keep up with the class. They spent more hours on English B than on Japanese Al; Sl and S2 spent three to four hours preparing for English, while S3 needed 13 hours on average. In particular, S3 worked closely with two tutors to comprehend the class and to finish her assignments.
According to the surveys with the three students, the IB English class was different from English classes in Japan. In Japan, accuracy in grammar was emphasized, though in the IB program, more attention was paid to the content and the message of the authors. The students were encouraged to form inferential interpretations and analytical views of the texts. In the IB program, they studied various types of texts including articles from journals, pieces of literature, business correspondences, and critiques. A sample activity is to write a newspaper editorial on a theme.
Sl: In the IB program,Ilearned how to interpret the text as a whole and read different types of texts, on the other hand, in Japan every word in a sentence seemed to have the same weight, and the emphasis was put on grammar.
S2: The biggest difference between the IB program and English classes in Japan is the volume of the texts that are covered in the course. In the
IB program, speaking and writing are also very important, and I learned communication skills in the classroom.
S3: I am working on a literacy essay on the Chronicle of a Death Foretold, which I found very difficult. I have to work with my tutors to finish it.
Gaining confidence in English B gave the students positive results in other phases of the IB program. As a practice assignment for TOK, students wrote an essay: "`Art upsets, science reassures' (Braque). Analyze and evaluate this claim:' Since they had been used to writing essays by that time, they could explore the difficult theme in English. In the IB program, it is imperative that students think creatively, stretch their mind freely, and express their thoughts effectively and clearly.
IMPLICATIONS
I would like to summarize the characteristics of the language programs in the IB program and discuss what implications it may have for language classes in Japan. First, it was found that studying literature is highly esteemed in the IB program. In Japan, there has been a criticism that teaching literature at school is obsolete and ineffective in language learning, and therefore should be replaced by more "communicative"
activities. However, the students that I interviewed were glad that they had studied literature, and they felt that their Japanese proficiency elevated. The level of the class was high and considered to be equivalent to first year university classes. Some higher level IB courses count as credits towards university. In Japan where there is a long history of literature, the use of novels, poetry, essays, and different styles of writings should be reconsidered as a resource for language programs.
Second, from a sociolinguistic view, the IB programs respect the first languages of the students and reassure the language rights of the heritage languages. A student in the study said that he had not imagined that he had to read so much Japanese at a school outside Japan. One of the other students said that her level of Japanese, including kanji, went up after, she had left Japan. Ages 16 to 19 is the period when students develop their language and cognition rapidly, and it is important that students have
8
opportunities to be exposed to their first languages. Continuing to learn their first language seems to help build up their identity and self esteem.
In Japan, there have been movements to establish immersion courses;
however, it is important to provide students with opportunities to explore in their first language.
Third, in the IB language courses, it was found that the students read more extensively than at schools in Japan, the volume of the reading assignments was much greater and there were more research projects in the IB program. The harder the students worked, the more their language proficiency improved. In Japan, comprehending the texts correctly is the goal of the language course, but in the IB program it is only the first step;
the students have to further examine the texts critically and creatively.
In Japan, it seems that students are not taught how to read books and analyze them. They are often given an assignment called "dokusho kansobun", or a refiection about a book during a long holiday. Not knowing what to write, the students usually end up with writing a summary of the book, or copying someone's comments from the Internet.
It is a pity that Japanese high school students are not taught approaches and strategies to appreciate great masterpieces of literature.
Fourth, in the IB program, language is connected to cognitive development. On an assumption that the students develop their concepts and language ability simultaneously, in the IB programs, students think and express their thoughts in their own words, whether it may be in their first language or their second language. In language classes in Japan, teachers tend to perceive language competence as discrete skills such as reading, listening, speaking, and writing. In such a situation, mastery is diMcult because students are not motivated intellectually and they are not working to their full potential.
In the IB diploma program, languages are taught across the
curriculum; students develop knowledge and language through
communicating with subject teachers as well as language teachers. In Japan, jt js hoped that language teachers incorporate the contents which are intellectually challenging to the students. At the same time, subject teachers should have some training as to how to teach languages through their courses. Language is related to all aspects of school life, and can beeffectively learned when the entire school as a learning community encourages the students to learn languages effectively.
REFERENCES
Peterson, A.D.C. (2003). Schools across frontiers: the story of the international Baccalaureate and the United VVorld Colleges, second edition. Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court.
International Baccalaureate Organization. (http:1/www.ibo.org/). retrieved on 2 November, 2007.
Tabuchi, M. (2007). Koleusai bakarorea seleai top leyoihu eno shotai [Internationat Baccalaureate: a ticket to the toP education in the world].
Tokyo: Shohakusha.
Sagara, N. & Iwasaki K. (Eds.). (2007). Kohusai Balearorea seleaiga mitomeru takuetsushita kyoiku Puroguram [International Baccalaureate: an educational Program of excellence lenown worldwide]. Tokyo: Akashi Shoten.
Tomase!lo, M. Åq2003). Constructing a language: a usage-based theoTy of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
APPENDIX A
Questionnaire Survey
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1.
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Diploma -if' c} - ) -C L N 6
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APPENDIX B
Examples of books of Japanese Al
'rtmanip rywt,s(di
llt4 gMkeJtl r.kk7iili,g
diD-ec
rtcetÅq6nÅqjliiJi1fig2fi rmetilpgirnir\eeg
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JifttXecEiSt
rsNs
ptJ/rienS rualÅíg2zlEE-fiij(DJ!F
Steinbeck TheGrapesofWrath
Dostoyevsky CrimeandPunishment
Camus
TheStrangerJoyce Dubliners
Kafka TheMetamoil)hosis
APPENDIX C
Examples of books of English B
13
HarperLee ToKillaMockingbird
AnN
AStepfromHeavenKazuoIshiguro APaleViewofHills
VirginiaWolff
MakeLemonade
MarkHaddon
CuriousIncidentoftheDogintheNight-timeH.G.Wells TimeMachine
RichardBach lonathanLivingstonSeagull J.D.Salinger CatcherintheRye AliceWalker TheColorPuTPIe
GarciaMarquez ChronicleofaDeathForetold Shakespeare Othelto
HermannHesse NarcissusandGoldmund
