Selfstudy an A1 Language

[Aliquantus]

I have a question not really regarding myself, but I am interested to know.

Would it be possible for me to self-study a A1 language if my school does not have a teacher that speaks that language? For instance, no teacher at my school speaks Chinese, so could I self-study Chinese A1? I think there might arise a problem when it comes to the IAs.

[JUNIOR.W]

Sure,
I do Arabic A1 self study. and eng A1 "[u]not[/u][b][/b] self study" too ( you can do them both at the same time if you want )

However the problems you will face with self study are:
1. mostly there will be no one to help you inside school, when you need help they only say that you agreed to do self study and it is your responsibility.
2. You will have to choose all texts alone; you will have to choose similar themes. (ask your teachers for the world lit list, if they dont have it then you will have to buy it )
3. There will be no one to assist you so you will not know what level you are at!
4. When it comes to essays, you will have to research a lot to find what you need and it is hard indeed lol ( i copied the way my eng teachers set me lit work to pass this problem )
5. you will have to find Chinese lit books and buy them ( it is easier if you order them online.. )

So basically everything is your responsibility, but if you are up to all this then you will find no problem especially if you have connections with teachers or students who are doing the same language outside your school.

[color="#FF0000"]note very important[/color]: you have to ask your teachers if they [u]agree[/u] and if they are [u]able[/u] to provide a teacher who can review all your work and orals at the end of the secound year of IB and ask them for a guide to what you need to do and a list of what titels of texts poets you will have to study

Edited January 14, 2009 by JUNIOR.W

[Aliquantus]

Right, thanks for the reply! Very helpful.

[Vvi]

What Aliquantus said was all right. I started Finnish A1 self-taught, and then quit because I didn't have enough time to read 11 books for that, plus the usual 11 for English A1. I was forced into starting the whole thing by my mom, and then I got frustrated and quit.

I'm assuming your level of Chinese is native then. Doing A1 is not fun if you have never been taught in a school in the language you want to study. I bought extra books to help me learn the vocabulary in Finnish (like alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.) Which weren't enough to help me, since I just haven't written literary essays ever in Finnish.

I would suggest only doing it if you have to, like my German classmate is. If she wants to study in Germany, she has to do A1 German. But the grade doesn't count for your diploma point, although on your final diploma it will say that you earned a bi-lingual diploma.

My friend still has to have to German tutor mark her exams and give her lessons (I think this is just our school requirement). She also finds it very hard to ever actually do any work, since there is no one giving her deadlines.

But if you want it, go ahead.

[Aliquantus]

Well, as I said, I'm not asking for myself (or anyone I know). I was just interested to know if it was possible. I don't speak a word Chinese, that was just a far-fetched example. And I'm also just a few months away from graduating now.. I had a friend who in IB1 was seriously considering to self-study German A1 (instead of Swedish A1). But we managed to talk her out of it, which was, seen in retrospect, something very good. I certainly never would have bee able to self-study an A1 language, knowing the work-load it means.

Anyways, thanks for your reply, it was interesting nonetheless.

[Tilia]

In my year there's a lot of self-taught A1s, such as Polish, Chinese, German, Russian, Slovakian. I do have the impression that most of them do it because they don't speak two other languages well enough to take them.

Edited January 17, 2009 by Tilia

[kiauh]

I highly advise against self-taught! I am currently about to finish self-taught danish and it has not been what i expected. The worst part is that my level of danish is not competent enough for A1 SL... I thought it would be much easier. Now i am just looking to pass the exam.
Don't do it unless you were taught well in that class and have another a1 or a2 class to model your own studies according to (that is the only thing that helped me one bit.)

So to anyone who is thinking about a1 sl self-taught, be sure you are very good at the language and are willing to invest the time into it.

Edited March 14, 2009 by kiauh

[anuskina]

i am an ib self taught spanish student, and from the bottom of my heart i tell u please. please do not do it

you will procrastinate, and youll have to catch up with work the last two months of the ib

getting help is really hard, and having a teacher helps a lot, in particular because u could redo ur oral in case it went really bad, at least at my school

in case u decide to do it choose the books correctly, not like i did

good luck

[nudelstrudel]

yeah i have to agree with anuskina. im doing german self-taught and even though i have a tutor i see about once a month it just sucks. hes a university student and definately knows what hes talking about but of course he has no idea what IB expects. my oral commentary is in two weeks and i think i'm f****d. if you decide to do it, definately try to organize a tutor or talk to someone who knows something about the books youre reading when you go home.