Language B: Taken by fluent students

[Bishup]

I find it their problem if they take their mother tongue or their language they're fluent in at B level. It's more of an insult to them than anything else. It would be so uppsetting if I did that in Swedish or English. In the end those who take B and are fluent won't benefit in the end and will regret it.

[CommeDesEnfants]

My teacher was recently moderating individual orals for French B SL, and, en plein d'un practice épreuve 2, she holds up her tape-recorder and plays one of the orals she received. It was from this guy who was basically completely fluent in French; you could tell by what he said, his intonation, fluency, etc. My teacher was going on about how she would report the school and the teacher who had authorized oral in the first place. What's more was that the teacher didn't even give the student 30/30.

I guess it is pretty unfair when that kind of thing happens. However, there is somebody in my IB class who's Korean but has never taken French at all, and that's the only B option that's offered at my school, so he's taking Korean B SL self-taught. He has study blocks when we have French, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't even do anything with his self-taught Korean language, haha.

[bohemian03]

yea i guess it is really unfair. my school is getting complaints from the IB because we have so many native Spanish students taking B HL. So after the class of 2010, our school is not letting any native Spanish speakers to take Spanish B HL.

Edited May 16, 2009 by bohemian03

[Daniel Li]

In our school, you can do anything you want.

I have a Chinese background and I speak both Chinese and English at home. So I am pretty much fluent in both languages. I would want to take Chinese A2 but we don't offer it in our school

so

I am taking Chinese B HL and English A1 HL.

I don't think there's anything unfair/unethical about the system. IB attempts to train young people like you and me to be fluent or at least semi fluent in two languages.

When I first came to New Zealand, the lanugage barrier was a huge obstacle. Yes true, I did learn English back in China but I still could not communicate fluently. During my childhood years I had to learn an extra language. I presume when you were 7 or 8 you didn't have to learn another language, did you?

I already know two languages, so what's the point of learning a third?

I am taking 4 HLs including chinese. So if you take Chinese away then it's 3HL subjects. Also, I am doing an irregular diploma with 3 sciences. So it is safe to say Im not taking a short-cut.

My school is pretty much the same, i only quit french this year and took on mandarin B HL, but i didn't know about such thing as A2 until recently...

I only came to Australia about 5 years ago and struggled in enlish for about 3, now i'm just about fluent as the locals and that why i took on English A1 HL, but really speaking english or mandarin makes no difference to me

[biochem]

yea i guess it is really unfair. my school is getting complaints from the IB because we have so many native Spanish students taking B HL. So after the class of 2010, our school is not letting any native Spanish speakers to take Spanish B HL.

LoL. I had to laugh when I saw your post...not anything against you, but just thinking of all the things my teacher had said xDD It cracks me up.

She said they will take diploma, and if they fear you are too good on the oral they see if you have spanish influence in household. What mother in her right mind would say yes, take the diploma.

But its all good I guess. People are writing Language B Extended Essays, as if they are not fluent. And I think I might be part of that group this year. Writing a Serbian based EE from a B language perspective. Just like friends who are spanish, writing about coffee in Colombia.

All in good time.

Either way, I dont really think that 2 years of foreign language really helps. I have never, ever ever ever heard of a traditional school getting far with linguistics. Maybe those who take Spanish AP, but those are usually the Ib schools.

I feel like the language thing is really crap in the US. I was talking to a Japanese AP instructor and he said it was absolutely impossible to get a 5 to a new student. He says he is frustrated by it, and that he hasnt ever seen a monolingual person pass the class with anything but a 3 (or below of course).

The European + Asian countries are absolutely drilling, killing the language into the kids. English is a priority of ALL the students. You would think Spanish would be of equivalence to some of us here in the US, but really its not. Chinese should be taught for economic purposes of the continent, but its not. No wonder there is talk about standardizing the Chinese currency. The debate is no longer if, but when.

Oh well. I am set. Hopefully chinese will be a minor in college if possible !

[Pirat Havelund]

The general rule at my school is that you take your own language at A1, and either an A2 language if you can use it to some extent, and B if you're pretty much a newbie.

I was fortunate enough to be allowed to do English A1 and Danish B (there is no Danish A2 course) because I'm completely fluent in English.

[Dreamer94]

But then again Arabic in IB isn't the arabic I speak so it's not THAT easy.....

Yes definatly, what levela are you taking it?

I take A1 SL, and it is sort of demanding, for the same reason you mentioned. I did my arabic orals last week, and they sucked, because I just couldnt find the word Im looking for.

I think that is one of the problems with IB arabic, the normally spoken one is very different from the 'formal' one. Unlike other languages, especially french and english.

I know right! You'd think that since I am an Arab, I would be have perfect Arabic. The truth is, even though it is my 'first' language and I speak perfectly normal, I can't write a decent paragraph. In fact, they tell me my writing level for Arabic is that of a 3rd grader's (and I'm taking Arabic A2 next year )So yeah. Totally freaked out...

[veritas :)]

I'm not even sure what our school's view on this is....

There's one guy in our grade who lived in France for about 4 years I think, but he was allowed to take French B SL (mainly because he didn't have a clue about French grammar). There's another guy though, he speaks Spanish at home and lived in Chile, and he wasn't allowed to take Spanish B.... and as he would be the only one in an A2 class, they made him learn French Ab Initio.

I think it could possibly come down to individual school's resources... if there aren't enough students to take a particular subject the school just doesn't offer it...

[rrswong]

I think it is very vague, the whole differentiation between ab nitio, Language B and A2. I'm doing Language B SL Mandarin right now, and I could be said to be a 'fluent' speaker, but because my writing and reading aren't that good, I'm finding mandarin a challenge at school. I speak mostly mandarin at home, but I'm far, far better at English. To be fair, I'm not doing as much 'study' of it as I am say chemistry or physics, because I do have a background in it. The three other people who are in my class are pretty much in the same boat as me, I think - and we used to have twelve people in our class.

For this year's grade tens I think they're making them do Mandarin B SL Anticipated or Mandarin B HL - and I know some of them are pretty fluent all round speakers and stuff in Mandarin.

[Cubz]

This is quite interesting actually because my school will not let you take a language at HL (even B) unless you are semi-fluent. The only kids taking French B HL are either like me having done a 9 month exchange in the country or have gone to the French-Australian school down the road and were preparing to take the the French Baccalaureate.

Besides the fact that they don't offer it at A2, nobody else is allowed to even consider doing HL French. I know my french, and French B HL is relatively easy but come on i can barely do english at A1, A2 and B are really testing very different things, one is your knowledge of the language and the other is testing your ability to analyse literature.

To be honest, I don't see a problem with it,people will do what they do because it works out best for them and a 7 in French B HL is most definitely better than a 5 or lower in French A2.

[DJtheIBstudent]

my friend he does french B HL because though he speaks fluently the school has registered as an american which doesn't have french as a official language. in any other case he like most native french speakers registered under official french speaking counties would have to do spanish Ab initio. other than my friend it makes for a good system

[Wernie]

If this is considered reviving a dead topic, please tell me (forum noob here).

I think the most devastating part about having fluent people take B classes is that the teachers tend to take a hands-off approach to the class. (Well, I suspect they actually do this because majority of the weaker students are weak because... they don't care for the subject. Heh.)

Even though I have taken Chinese formally for about 10 years prior (Government's rules. /: ), I've only really been able to appreciate the subject the past 2 years. This leaves me at a novice's level of fluency (oh, my grammar... *cry*), while others are almost near-fluent... It can get discouraging at times.

But hey! Gotta keep at it. (:

[Kaneele]

In our school we have A1, which can be either our language - Latvian or English. No other language can be chosen as A1. Then as A2 we can chose, if I'm correct, English or Latvian.

And then, finally, B is either French, German or Russian.

This is so because we HAVE to study both Latvian and English and then another language. That is the usual way in Latvia overall - even regular school do English and LAtvia + either Russian or German. Our school simply offers French as well.

Some of my classmates that speak Russian in their families, still do an exam in Russian B. But it is not 'an easy 7' for them, because even though they are fluent, there is still the grammar and etc.

[Zuza]

Hey there

Im taking English B HL bc its impossible for me to take A2 bc at that time I have chemistry and its impossible to fit it in the time table. For me it is almost an easy 7 but I dont speak that language at home or anything. My parents are both Polish and so is my whole family. On the one hand Im very happy Ill get this 7 on the other I feel Im not improving my skills at all.. Also in my French class there is girl who takes French B HL and she is fluent bc shes Belgium, but the school didnt except her to A2 french because her writting skills are very bad.. She writes worst than me and Im on french b sl.,. So in all her orals she gets 7 but in the writting not really.. And I think it is good for her that she can take this french because she does learn something but it still anables her to get fairly good grade

[JoeG]

My school does NOT allow fluent speakers to take the language B that they are fluent in.

The only exception is my class; we didn't have a French B teacher, and that was the only other foreign language class besides Spanish B.

My school fixed this problem for the class under us though.

[meghan]

oh wow, that's kinda unfair, comparing to the fact i did starts my spanish in my 1st year of IB and done B SL.

I got 7 though.

I think IB should make new regulations about taking language B by people of the background of that lang.

[slft]

Well, you have to know that lang A is for mother tongue OR best language. But your mother tongue does not necessarily be your best language.

In my school, we all take English A1 and most students take Mandarin B, while we mostly have Chinese as our mother tongue. However, if you ask them to take Chinese A1, it would totally kill them because they grew up in an English environment.

Also, try to look at this from another angle. If the students really take lang B in their best language, then they have to study lang A in another lang. Isn't that more painful to them? So, it is actually a disadvantage for them.

[kingdomx]

This is exactly the same for my school, half the students taking Mandarin B are actually from China, and they always get 100% for every test, well the occasional 99%, and all they do is talk and play games in class. What a joke. Oh and not to mention, most of them are only doing SL. It should either be that they are just not allowed to take a language that they're fluent at in the first place, or place a restriction stating that they must take the subject at HL!!

This is exactly the same for my school, half the students taking Mandarin B are actually from China, and they always get 100% for every test, well the occasional 99%, and all they do is talk and play games in class. What a joke. Oh and not to mention, most of them are only doing SL. It should either be that they are just not allowed to take a language that they're fluent at in the first place, or place a restriction stating that they must take the subject at HL!!

[Peanut Butter Jelly]

This is exactly the same for my school, half the students taking Mandarin B are actually from China, and they always get 100% for every test, well the occasional 99%, and all they do is talk and play games in class. What a joke. Oh and not to mention, most of them are only doing SL. It should either be that they are just not allowed to take a language that they're fluent at in the first place, or place a restriction stating that they must take the subject at HL!!

This is exactly the same for my school, half the students taking Mandarin B are actually from China, and they always get 100% for every test, well the occasional 99%, and all they do is talk and play games in class. What a joke. Oh and not to mention, most of them are only doing SL. It should either be that they are just not allowed to take a language that they're fluent at in the first place, or place a restriction stating that they must take the subject at HL!!

sorry for bumping the old thread.

But this mandarin thing happens at my school too. Well, it happens for every subject, but for mandarin more.

Agree that its completely unfair. But its hard to regulate this sort of thing. People can say they arent fluent and give some excuse.

It's kind of sad that these kids breeze through this course, are actually proud of their 7, while the other students work 100 times as hard and still get worse marks.

[dessskris]

it happens everywhere.

many of the Indonesian B students at my school are pure Indonesians, yet some of them are getting 5s and 6s instead of 7s

but I also know of other Indonesians who don't even take Indo.

it's up to them I think. nobody will know anyway.