Help Language B syllabus

[eaownz]

So I'm currently doing Portuguese SL which my school doesn't offer (Im doing it outside the school). I have a tutor and everything ready.

I'm just wondering is the school suppose to provide me with the syllabus that i have to know for Portuguese SL? This isn't a big issue as i speak fluent Portuguese....

Thank-you

[TykeDragon]

Hey there! if it's the same as my Language B syllabus, then you need to know:

Core:

(Communications and Media) = advertising, internet, media, stories etc

(Global issues) = the environment, disasters, volunteering, resources, etc

(Social Relationships) = religious events/celebrations, education, relationships, social behaviours.

Options:

Cultural Diversity

Customs and Traditions

Health

Leisure

Science and Technology

Assessment will be:

Paper 1: (Worth 25%) A reading paper, based on the core. You'll get a text booklet with 4 texts labelled A-D. They tend to increase in difficulty. You'll get a mark out of ~40 (2012 Japanese was /40, my mocks were /39, my actual 2013 paper 1 was /45.) You'll have to answer questions on each text (about 10 marks per section) with question types such as fill the blanks, multiple choice, choose the correct ending for the sentence, and also questions where you have a statement and write True/False, with a reason. You need both correct for the mark. Also, sometimes there are just standard questions that require you to write an answer. Therefore this paper marks kinda like a science/maths paper as either you meet the markscheme or you don't. I found paper 1 to be the hardest part, but that's because Japanese in particular has 3 alphabets including one with many thousands of characters and an IB student is only expected to know a few hundred so me (and everybody in my class) had to play it really smart, use context, and think the answers through using the 20% of the damn paper we COULD read - and sometimes even the question can't be understood. My real one went alright though, thankfully.

Paper 2: (Worth 25%) The writing paper, based on the options. You'll be given 5 or so questions, about things like health. You'll get a paragraph as each question, which will tell you stuff like 'you're a student, you love sport, your friends hate it, before school tomorrow morning you have to give a speech to them about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.'' (that was pretty much my 2013 japanese paper 2) and you need to write an essay (I think of minimum 250 words, as I had to do 500 characters, and I remember it was halved for words). You get 10 marks for your Language (accuracy, fluency, impressive grammar, etc, for Japanese the extra dimension was added of how many of the complex kanji have they managed to put in instead of the normal basic alphabets of about 50 characters each yes i'm bitter ), 10 marks for content (how relevant is it, how good is the content of the essay, have they conveyed everything in the question?) and 5 marks for how good your text type is (eg if it is a newspaper, then put it in columns, write formally/in a formal language style, do headlines and pictures, and japanese would have it written vertically not horizontally.)

Written Assignment: (Worth 20%, but still /25 like Paper 2) Based on the core. (Mine was about environmental issues.) For language B you'll get given a few sources to look at, i think you get 4 hours or so for the whole task. Spend a good hour going through the sources and you have to decide a unique text type/content combo - eg I did a speech about pollution. It needs a main essay and a rationale in which you say what you did, link it to the sources, say why you did what, what you're pleased with/what could be better. Main essay has to be 300-400 words (600-800 characters) and the rationale has to be 100 words (200 characters) but I was (hopefully correctly) informed that the rationale word count wouldn't be penalised, and so I went slightly over it and did 230. The criteria is: 8 marks language (for some reason, 8 marks at written assignment does not = quality of 10/10 paper 2 language, it just cuts off at the criteria below for 8 at paper 2), 10 marks content (organisation, use of the sources, how good/relevant is it all) 4 marks text type, 3 marks rationale (with 3 being for a clear and coherent rationale that is well linked to the sources.)

Orals/IA: (30%, 30 marks) split between /20 for individual oral (this is assessed and sent to IB for moderation) and I'm not sure if this is up to the school how it is done but the other 10 marks were done in class as group oral activities, this was not recorded and will not be changed by the IB. I'm glad for this cos I got 10/10 in that oral my 17/20 may get marked down though.. there are two criterias for the orals (each /5 for group and /10 for individual), these are Criteria A: language (top marks for fluent production of language, with VARIED and ACCURATE grammar and vocab) and Criteria B: interaction (top marks for basically holding a fluent conversation, understanding and responding to and with complex ideas and stuff)

An example of what would be needed for a 7 (when the grade boundary is usually about 85%) would be:

Paper 1 - 32/40

Paper 2 - 22/25

Writt. A - 22/25

Oral IAs - 26/30

would for example get you 85-86%.

Hope this helps! The above is pretty much what I'm hoping for in Japanese (though I don't think my paper 1 will be up to it.)

PS: Why not be an IB risk taker and take a B language you aren't already fluent in... people like you are the reason the grade boundaries are 85-90% haha, I say that but I would have gladly done ab initio japanese and pushed up the grade boundaries mercilessly if I'd had the option

[IBfreakingout!]

Thank for the info! But just wondering, You are referring to Language B Continuers right?

Also, I was wondering where the Written Assessment happens (in class or in the examination hall), but I suppose that's a stupid question because it is not under the IA heading, and hence I'm assuming that it is externally marked. 4 hours seems like a really long time!

And do u really have to count the words you have? That will take sooo much time! And I almost always go over :/

I am doing Hindi at the moment and the teacher has never taught IB before so now I actually know what she is meant to be teaching!

Although I speak hindi at home (so im pretty fluent), and it's meant to be my mother tongue, it is still pretty hard!

Edited June 9, 2013 by IBfreakingout!

[TykeDragon]

Hehe well if you're near enough fluent, you should be fine - noone in my class was near fluent in Japanese and we have a spattering of 4s-6s there were one or two people who were thought to be of level 7 standard (these students were actually able to get 30/40 in the paper 1s unlike anyone else!! (yes I think the overall grade boundaries for japanese are too harsh) ) but they doubt they got one overall.

Yes, you do have to count the words I'm afraid! Psh, at least you aren't counting characters. I had to count up to about 777 for my Japanese written assignment. As for how it is carried out, I don't know how it should officially be done, but I know how we did it. I don't think it's supposed to be in an exam hall, but maybe. The way it was done for me was this:

- Four lessons (these were not back to back and had to fit with my normal schedule: I had Japanese one lesson on tuesday morning and two friday afternoon.)

- First lesson I was given my own folder and all the sources, I basically spent the first lesson reading it, and making my very rough plans eg a brainstorm of ideas and text types and things. This then developed into more detailed plans and ideas of what to write in my rationale, how to structure/use sources in my main essay, etc. I then wrote a rough draft for my main essay and rationale over lessons 2 & 3. Lesson 4 was spent copying these up in ultra neat, send-to-IB quality. At the beginning and end of each lesson, all of my notes and sources etc were all put into this folder and taken away so I did not have access to it outside of controlled conditions. All paper had an IB watermark so I couldn't go home, make notes, and bring them in. (Don't know why you'd bother though, we were allowed dictionaries anyway, and the IB also permits some basic helpsheets such as a list of grammar structures, and the criteria, etc.)

The only thing they can't really control though is whether I would go home, attempt to look for the sources, or even plot some sample sentences etc outside of school - I just couldn't bring them in. Same way it is possible I guess to plan and rehearse your English IOP (wish I cared about my IOP back when I started IB and did it within months... ) but can't bring in a script. The teacher is allowed to provide 'brief oral feedback' and the IB was very vague on this but my teacher interpreted it as my classmates being able to summon him to read a sentence and he may say something like 'check that grammar particle' etc as opposed to saying 'okay x was wrong how about y?'