English ab initio Language-specific syllabusethicandeffort.weebly.com/.../language_specific_syllabus_ab_initio.pdf · English ab initio: Language-specific syllabus 1 Anglais ab initio:

English ab initio: Language-specific syllabus 1 Anglais ab initio: Programme spécifique Inglès ab initio: Programa de Estudios Específico

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011 © Organisation du Baccalauréat International 2011 © Organización del Bachillerato Internacional, 2011

English ab initio Language-specific syllabus

Anglais ab initio Programme spécifique

Inglés ab initio Programa de estudios específico

English ab initio

Language-specific syllabus

First examinations 2013 Premiers examens 2013

Primeros exámenes 2013

Diploma Programme Programme du Diplôme

Programa del Diploma

English ab initio: Language-specific syllabus 1 Anglais ab initio : Programme spécifique Inglès ab initio: Programa de estudios específico

Introduction This language-specific syllabus must be read in conjunction with the Language ab initio guide published in March 2011.

The following themes and related topics provide a framework for the acquisition of the target language. Each theme and topic listed in the guide must be taught; however, the depth to which the teacher covers each theme and topic will vary to reflect the interests and needs of the students. All details related to the topics need not, therefore, be studied. Teachers are encouraged to introduce additional details as required.

Themes, topics and aspects to cover within a topic are represented in this syllabus as follows.

Theme

Topic • Aspect to cover: suggestions

Since intercultural understanding is at the heart of the language ab initio course, teachers are also encouraged to approach the themes and the related topics in such a way that students can describe them and compare and contrast cultural aspects in their own culture with those of the target culture.

Suggestions are provided for some of the aspects. These suggestions are not exhaustive and are an indication of what the teacher may cover for that particular aspect.

Theme: Individual and society

Appearance • Body

• Clothes

• Physical appearance

Character • Attitudes

• Feelings

Daily routines • At home

• At school

• In the workplace

• Social interaction: greetings, table manners

• Week

• Weekend


Education • Clothes

• Educational systems

• Equipment

• Examinations

• Extra curricular activities: creativity, action, service

• Facilities

• School calendar

• Students

• Subjects: theory of knowledge, extended essay

• Teachers

• Timetable

• Uniform

• University: course, career

Food and drink • Cooking instructions

• Culinary traditions: ingredients, special dishes, special events

• Groceries

• Health and diet: vegetarianism

• Kitchen appliances and utensils

• Markets

• Meals

• Quantity

• Restaurants

• Types of shops

Personal details • Address

• Age

• Date of birth

• House: rooms, furniture

• Languages

• Nationality

Physical health • Accidents: first-aid, emergencies

• Body

• Doctor: check-ups, appointments


• Health: lifestyle, diet, fitness

• Hospital and clinic: personnel, buildings

• Illness

• Medicines

• Prescriptions

Relationships • Animals

• Community

• Family

• Family celebrations

• Friends

• Partnerships

• Pets

• Stereotypes

Shopping • Credit

• Customs and traditions: bargaining, sales

• Environmental concerns: packaging, sources

• Money

• Shopping on the internet

• Shops

• Transactions

Theme: Leisure and work

Employment • Career

• Job training

• Professions

• Qualifications

• Studies

• Unemployment

• Work conditions: salary, schedule

Entertainment • Cultural and special events: festivals

• Excursions

• Leisure activities


• Leisure facilities

• The arts

Holidays • Accommodation

• Activities

• Local customs and traditions

• Regional and national foods

• Tourist office and information

• Transport

• Types of holiday: city, beach, family

• Weather and seasons

Media • Advertisements

• Celebrities: lifestyle

• Internet and social network sites

• Press: news, reporting

• Radio: types of programme, schedule

• Television: types of programme, schedule

Sport • Clubs and teams

• Special events: regatta, Olympic games

• Sport equipment

• Sport on TV: social interaction

• Sport venues: stadium

• Sportswear

• Traditions: national sport

• Training: activities, places

• Types of sport

Technology • Cyber relationships

• Filming and photography

• Internet and music

• Internet shopping and banking

• Leisure: interactive games

• Social networking: mobile telephone, internet

• Use of technology: school, work


Transport • Breakdowns

• Directions

• Driving: speed, alcohol

• Emergencies

• Environmental issues

• Hazards

• Highway code: road signs

• Means of transport

• Travelling: fares, return tickets, commuting, reservations

Theme: Urban and rural environment

Environmental concerns • Climate change

• Endangered species

• Global warming

• Green issues: recycling, organic foods

• Natural resources: water, oil

• Types of pollution: environmental, visual, sound

Global issues • Aid organizations

• NGOs (non-governmental organizations)

• Peace

• Poverty

• War

Neighbourhood • City: suburb

• Directions

• Local or community events

• Neighbours and local community

• Public buildings and monuments: town hall, youth centre

• Types of housing

• Village

Physical geography • Countries and regions

• Countryside


• Maps: north, south

• Mountains

• Nationalities

• Seaside

Town and services • Facilities: banking, postal, recycling

• Malls

• Markets

• Public transport

• Purchases: food, goods

• Recreational facilities: swimming pool, library

• Shops

Weather • Climate

• Events and celebrations: Thanksgiving, harvest

• Impact of weather on customs, traditions, daily life

• Natural catastrophes: flooding, drought

• Seasons

• Weather conditions and forecasts


The following is an illustration of some of the ways in which the topic of food and drink may be taught:

Theme: Individual and society Topic: Food and drink

Topic details Situation Function Classroom activity

Text types Grammar and lexical items

Groceries: quantity In the shop Purchasing Role play Lists, advertisements Bread, wine, cheese Kilo, litre, numbers Imperative, conditional

Types of shops/markets In the street Giving advice and directions

Role play Maps Butchers, department store

Kitchen appliances and utensils

At home Describing Presenting a picture

Visual stimuli Washing machine, cooker

Cooking instructions At home Giving and following orders

Demonstration Recipe/cookery book Menu, short video clip

Imperative: mix, stir, boil

Meals* At the restaurant, at home

Describing, comparing, contrasting

Producing a menu

Email, invitation, menu Time, course

Restaurants At the restaurant Ordering a meal Role play Leaflet Conditional tense, future

Culinary traditions*: ingredients, special dishes, special events

Describing, comparing, contrasting

Oral presentation on special event

Short video clip, leaflet Imperative, conditional

Health and diet*: vegetarianism

Giving and asking advice

Role play Guidelines Impersonal verbs, forming a question

*Aspects of the topic that could lend themselves well to the written assignment:

• Meals: order and number of courses; times of meals; main meal of the day/week; eating utensils; etiquette

• Culinary traditions: special meals; family cooking; ingredients; influence of the climate

• Health and diet: comparing diets from different parts of the world; benefits of healthy eating


Grammatical syllabus In addition to the themes and related topics detailed above, teachers are expected to integrate the following grammatical syllabus into the ab initio course at appropriate stages.

Examples are given below for some grammatical elements but the list of examples is not exhaustive.

Adjectives • Position of adjectives

• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives: more + adjective + than/adjective + -er +than; as + adjective + as; less + adjective + than; the most + adjective/the adjective + -est; the least + adjective; irregular comparative and superlatives: better/best, worse/worst

• Comparison of quantity: to show difference: more, less, fewer + than; to show no difference: as much, as many, as few, as little

• Possessive adjectives: my, your, his

• Demonstrative adjectives: this, that, these, those

• Quantifiers: many, much, enough, some, any, all, few, little, somebody, anybody, something, anything

• Distributives: each, every, either, neither, all, both, half

• Difference words: other, another

• Interrogative and exclamation words: which, what, whose

Adverb • How to use them

• How to form them

• Irregular adverbs: well

• The use of adjectives as adverbs: fast, hard, late

• Comparative and superlative of adverbs: more + long adverb/short adverb + -er; most + long adverb/short adverb + -est; irregular forms: better, best

• Adverbs of manner: well, badly, slowly

• Adverbs of place: everywhere, outside, inside, nowhere

• Adverbs of time: today, yesterday, tomorrow, sometimes, often, never, last year, now, soon, immediately

• Adverbs of certainty and uncertainty: certainly, probably, definitely, perhaps

• Adverbs of degree: almost, very, extremely, quite, hardly

• Interrogative adverbs: why, where, how, when

• Viewpoint and commenting adverbs: personally, clearly, honestly, surprisingly

Conjunctions • Conjunction of coordination: and, but, or

• Conjunction of subordination: because, though, when, where, before, after, until, if, while, as, so, unless, since


Connectors/linking words • For sequencing: at first, first of all, firstly, secondly, then, lastly, finally

• For expressing a consequence: consequently, therefore, as a result, so, then, thus

• For giving a reason: because, because of, for, due to, since, as

• For contrasting ideas: however, while, whereas, though, in spite of

• For adding information: and, also, too, besides, moreover

• For summarising: in short, in brief, to conclude, in conclusion

Distance • Continents, countries, regions, towns, distances, speed, directions

• Means of transport

Modal verbs

• Can, must, may, will, would, should, could, might

Negative • How to form it

• Contractions: doesn’t, can’t, don’t

• Negative words: not, never, no more, no longer, nothing, nobody, neithernor, not at all, nowhere

Nouns and articles • Noun gender

• Plural of nouns

• Countable and uncountable nouns

• Compound nouns: policeman, dining room

• Proper nouns: people, titles, geographical nouns, feast days, nationalities

• Definite article: the

• Indefinite article: a, an

Numbers • Cardinal numbers

• Ordinal numbers

• Fractions and percentages

Orthography

• Use of the apostrophe

• Possessive form of nouns: Paul’s book, the girls’ room, at the grocer’s, in a year’s time

• Inflection rules: for example, a bus → buses, to try → he tries, to carry → carrying

Prepositions • Time: in, at, for, during, since


• Place: on, in, under, above, near, far

• Others: with, without, from, to, against, by

• Prepositions and verbs: to listen to, to apologize for, to agree to

• Prepositions and adjectives: afraid of, different from, angry with

Pronouns • Personal pronouns: subject pronouns: I, you, heand object pronouns: me, him, us

• Intensive/reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, ourselves

• Possessive pronouns; mine, yours

• Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those

• Relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that

• Interrogative pronouns: who, which, what, whom, whose

• Indefinite pronouns: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, little, much, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, other, somebody, someone, something, all, both, few, many, several

Quantity • Units of measurements: for example, kilos, pounds, dollars, meters, kilometres, miles

• Adjectives of quantity: many, much, enough

• Expression of quantities: a slice of, a bottle of, a packet of

Sentences • “If” sentences

• “When” sentences

• Interrogative sentences

• Question tags: he doesn’t work, does he?

• Negative sentences

• Word order

Time

• Date, seasons, months, days of the week, the time

• Adverbs of time: today, yesterday, later, often

• Conjunctions of time: when, as soon as, until

Verbs • Simple present: he works

• Present continuous: he is working

• Simple past: he worked

• Past continuous: he was working

• Present perfect: he has worked

• Present perfect continuous: he has been working

• Past perfect: he had worked


• Past perfect continuous: he had been working

• Immediate past: he has just left; he had just left

• Simple future: he will work

• Future continuous: he will be working

• Future perfect: he will have worked

• Future perfect continuous: he will have been working

• Immediate future: he is going to work

• Other future forms: we are to leave, he is about to speak

• Conditional: he would work

• Present continuous conditional: he would be working

• Perfect conditional: he would have worked

• Perfect continuous conditional: he would have been working

• Present participle: working

• Past participle: worked

• Infinitive: to work

• Continuous infinitive: to be working

• Perfect infinitive: to have worked

• Perfect continuous infinitive: to have been working

• Affirmative imperative: go, let’s go

• Negative imperative: don’t go, let’s not go

• Auxiliary verbs: to do, to have, to be

• Phrasal verbs: to put up, to put down, to get on

• Common irregular verbs

• Impersonal verbs: it is cold, it rains, it is necessary

• The passive form


Instructions for written examinations

Paper 1 These are the instructions that will be used in paper 1.

1. Answer the following questions. Base your answers on the text.

2. Choose the correct word or phrase to complete the sentence/answer. Base your answers on the text.

3. The sentences below are either true or false. Tick [] the correct answer. Justify your answer by using words from the text. Both parts are required for one mark.

Example: Seeing a midwinter sunset at Stonehenge can be quite strange.

Justification: It’s very spooky.

4. Choose the most appropriate response from the options below. Write the letter in the box provided.

5. Questions x refer to paragraph X. For each number/gap, fill in the missing word. Choose your answers from the words given in the box below. Each one can be used only once and an example has been given. Note: there are more words than you need.

6. Complete the table below. Base your answers on text X. An example has been given.

7. Choose the most appropriate response from the options below. Write the corresponding letter in the box.

8. One/two of the following sentences is/are true. Write the letter(s) corresponding to the correct answer(s) in the box(es). An example has been given.

9. Choose the sentence in the right-hand column which best summarizes each of the [number] paragraphs of text X. Write the appropriate letter in the box. An example has been given. Note: there are more sentences than you need.

10. Based on the information in the text/in paragraph X, match the first part of the sentence with the appropriate ending on the right. An example has been given. Note: there are more endings than you need.

11. The words in the left-hand column are taken from the text/paragraph X. Find the word in the right-hand column which is closest in meaning to one of the words on the left. An example has been given. Note: there are more words than you need.

12. Match the words with the pictures. An example has been given.

13. In line X, to whatto whom does X refer? An example has been given.

14. Each of the words below refers to someone or something in the text. In the space provided, indicate who or what they refer to. An example has been given.

15. Match the questions with the paragraphs. Write the appropriate letter in the box. An example has been given. Note: there are more questions than you need.

16. From the list below choose the word that best fits each gap in text X. Each word must be used only once. An example has been given. Note: there are more words than you need.


17. Fill in the gaps. Choose from the words/phrases in the box. An example has been given. Note: there are more words than you need.

18. Replace the gaps in the summary below with exact words from paragraph(s) Y and Z of text X. An example has been given.

19. Complete the following sentence: “John went to X because…”

20. From statements A to E, select the two that are true according to text X. Write the appropriate letters, in any order, in the boxes. An example has been given.

21. This text is (identify the correct text type from a choice of four).

Paper 2 Section A

Answer only one of the following two questions. Write at least 50 words.

Section B

Answer only one of the following three questions. Write at least 100 words.

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