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Language B for fluent speaker


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Hey everyone,

I'm writing this as my school does not allow me to take my first language (French) as a B language while all other subject classes for B languages contain native speaker in them.

to give a bit more informations I was born in France where I stayed and studied until Year 2 when I then moved away. From there I studied in a bilingual system where half my classes where un French and the other half in English, this lasted until Year 6. From there I completely stopped French and moved to a full English school where I once again did not study French. Last year I then joined the native French class to improve my French which with time has gone down hill. I did not even sit the GCSE exam due to my level being too low for it (getting Ds). Now my school allows Mandarin students who took native classes and pass successfully with great results to take B Mandarin while I can't do French? Only my speaking is better than other students while my writing is at an awful state and needs a lot of work even for B level.

do you think I should be allowed to take French B?

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It is frustrating but the rule is this:

- If any of your education (primary, middle school, high school) was done in a Bilingual/French/Italian, etc. school, you can't take that language for level B.

Therefore, if you went to a French/bilingual middle school, you can't take French level B. The Chinese students you mentioned were not enrolled in a bilingual (Eng-Chinese) or Chinese school, they just took Mandarin classes at a native level in an English-speaking school.

You cannot take French because you went to a French/bilingual school at some point. It is unfair, but there is nothing you can do about this (unless you take level A, which can be a disaster if your grammar and conjugation are not excellent).

I hope this will help. 

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On 8/24/2017 at 7:41 AM, amelf said:

It is frustrating but the rule is this:

- If any of your education (primary, middle school, high school) was done in a Bilingual/French/Italian, etc. school, you can't take that language for level B.

In my experience, this is not true. I have heard plenty of explanations that it increases grade boundaries and can therefore make the course harder for non-native speakers. However, I don't think the IB has any written rules against enrolling in language B/ab initio. Just by looking on the internet I've heard of people enrolling in language B/ab initio in a language they're fluent in to get easy marks. Even in my own school (keep in mind, a bilingual country) where a lot of people have done bilingual programs since the beginning of elementary school do language B for their second language.I think these rules are probably for individual schools and not from IB.

So, @UnknownStudent, I don't think IB has anything against enrolling in language B but you'd have to obey your school's rules anyway. If you aren't able to convince your school to let your enroll in lang B French your only option would unfortunately be ab initio or transferring to another school that might let you do it.

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@Lord of the Pickles Well my school has refused to allow me to take French B so I had to take Spanish ab initio. Honestly this enjoys me so much as all my fluent friends are allowed to do their language as a language B but I'm not? Anyways i contacted the IB to see what they think and hopefully I'll get permission from them to follow the course. 

This is so unfair as now my chances of getting a high score have drastically decreased in all my subjects as I know have to learn an entire new language. I get that it may not be really fair for other people who take French B but this is not fair for me.

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