Course Offerings -- World Languages

World Languages Department

Students taking IB French and IB Spanish will be encouraged to purchase their novels from our bookstore so that they are able to highlight, underline and take notes directly on the text.

French Beginner 7410, or Spanish Beginner 7411

Prerequisite: 5 and/or below

Length: One Year Credit: One full credit

Description: This course is an introduction to the study of either French, Spanish and its culture. The emphasis is placed upon the development of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing within a given context extending outside of the classroom when possible. There is a general introduction to the culture, its products, perspectives, and practices. This course also provides students with opportunities to further develop their core skills and to participate in more advanced conversational situations. Students will be able to compose simple and more advanced sentences, which narrate, describe, and summarize familiar topics. The focus is placed on using the language and communicating in a concise and organized way, both in speaking and in writing.

French Intermediate 7430, or Spanish Intermediate 7438

Prerequisite: Successful completion of French Beginner, Spanish Beginner

Length: One Year

Credit: One full credit

Description: This course allows students to expand their core skills as they create with the language and become familiar with short novels, authentic materials and various forms of media. Students begin to expand their communication and social interaction demands as they explore more complex topics within the target culture. They begin to actively practice communication strategies for listening, reading, oral interaction, writing, and interactive skills. They identify the main ideas and significant details in discussions, presentations and written texts.

French Advanced 7440 or Spanish Advanced 7442

Prerequisite: Successful completion of French Intermediate or Spanish Intermediate

Length: One Year

Credit: One full credit

Description: The focus is on the revision and expansion of more complex grammatical structures in order to increase the communication of more complex ideas and comprehension of more difficult texts. Authentic topics such as global issues, communication & media, and social relations are integrated into the units and students will begin to explore a wider and greater range of authentic materials and will be reading short novels as well as some literature. They continue to actively apply communication strategies for listening, reading, oral interaction, writing, and interactive skills and are more successful at doing so. The student is expected to complete a wider variety of written tasks than previously expected.

IB French Ab I 7433/ IB French Ab II 7446 (may be offered via the IB's online content provider "Pamoja")

Prerequisite: No more than two years of French study Length: Two Years

Credit: One full credit per year

Description: This two-year IB course provides an opportunity for highly motivated students to begin the study of language and reach a High-Novice/Intermediate level by the end of the second year. The course moves quickly and covers a vast number of IB topics (and vocabulary related to those topics) while focusing on building written communication, spoken interaction, and reading for meaning and understanding skills. Using a whole range of French authentic resources and texts as a stimulus for communication, students are asked to actively learn and use communicative strategies to be successful. During the first year and second year, students are introduced to IB ab initio level texts and exam questions in preparation for the success on the IB examination.

IB Spanish Ab I 7436/ IB Spanish Ab II 7448 (may be offered via the IB's online content provider "Pamoja")

Prerequisite: No more than two years of Spanish study Length: Two Years

Credit: One full credit per year

Description: This two-year IB course provides an opportunity for highly motivated students to begin the study of language and reach a solid High-Novice/Intermediate level by the end of the second year. The course moves quickly and covers a vast number of IB topics (and vocabulary related to those topics) while focusing on building written communication, spoken interaction, listening comprehension and reading text-handling skills for meaning and understanding. Using a whole range of Spanish authentic resources and texts as a stimulus for communication, students are asked to actively learn and use communicative strategies to be successful. During the first year and second year, students are introduced to IB ab initio level texts and exam questions in preparation for the success on the IB examination.

French B SL I 7432/ IB French B SL II 7447

IB Spanish B SL I 7435/ IB Spanish B SL II 7443

Prerequisite: Successful completion of either French III or Spanish III Length: Two Years

Credit: One full credit per year

Description: This two-year IB course is designed for motivated students with some previous experience in the language and provides an opportunity for students to reach a more advanced level of proficiency. The course moves quickly and covers a vast number of IB topics (and vocabulary related to those topics) while focusing on building written communication, spoken interaction, listening comprehension and reading text-handling skills for meaning and understanding. Using a whole range of French or Spanish authentic resources and texts as a stimulus for communication, students are asked to actively learn and use communicative strategies to be successful. During the two-year program, students actively work with IB standard- level texts and questions to achieve communicative competence in a range of situations.

IB French B HL I 7434/ IB French B HL II 7441

IB Spanish B HL I 7437/ IB Spanish B HL II 7445

Prerequisite: Successful completion of either French IV or Spanish IV Length: Two Years

Credit: One full credit per year

Description: This two-year IB course is designed for highly motivated students with extensive experience in the language. and provides an opportunity for students to reach an advanced level of proficiency in a wider range of situations. The course moves quickly and covers a vast number of IB topics (and vocabulary related to those topics) while focusing on building written communication, spoken interaction, and reading for meaning and understanding skills. Using a whole range of French or Spanish authentic resources and texts as a stimulus for communication, students are asked to actively learn and use communicative strategies to be successful. During the two-year program, students actively work with IB standard- level texts and questions to achieve communicative competence in a range of situations. This higher-level course differs in that students are exposed to a larger variety of literary texts and are expected to write in more depth with a wider breadth of language.