International Baccalaureate (IB) Ab Initio Chinese

							International Baccalaureate
   (IB) Ab Initio Chinese
IB Ab Initio
 Oral component (30%)
   Individual Oral (15%)
   Interactive Oral Activity (15%)
 Written exams (70%)
   Paper I: Text Handling      (1.5 hrs) (40%)
   Paper II: Written Production (1.5 hrs) (30%)
         Section A: a short writing task
         Section B: extended writing task

 See notes for sample oral and written exams
                   IB Statistics for Chinese worldwide
May 2007               No. candidates awarded grades                      % of candidates awarded grades
                                                                                                                      Ave.
                                                                                                                      Gr.


                   1    2    3     4     5     6         7   Sum    1     2      3      4       5          6     7
Mandarin AB   SL   1    3   17    43   78     70        45   257   0%   1%     7%    17%     30%    27%        18%    5.27
KCS AB        SL             1                 3         1    5               20%                   60%        20%    5.60
Mandarin B    HL             2     8   29    110       104   253   0%   0%     1%     3%     11%    43%        41%    6.21
Mandarin B    SL        3   32    54   69    170       181   509   0%   1%     6%    11%     14%    33%        36%    5.80




                                                                                                                     Averag
May 2006           No. candidates awarded grades                        % of candidates awarded grades                    e
                                                                                                                         gr
                                                                                                                          a
                                                                                                                          d
                                                                                                                          e
                   1    2    3     4     5     6         7   Sum    1     2      3      4       5          6     7
Mandarin AB   SL             7     7   43     64        40   161   0%   0%     4%     4%     27%    40%        25%    5.76
KCS AB        SL                         3     4         0    7                              43%    57%               5.57
Mandarin B    HL                   6   33    127        76   242   0%   0%     0%     2%     14%    52%        31%    6.13
Mandarin B    SL            12    56   68    131       137   404   0%   0%     3%    14%     17%    32%        34%    5.80
                              汉语
             IB Marking Criteria: Written Response


                                                                          Comments
Achievement Level

Criteria A: Language                  (10 points)


1-2 The candidate’s language is generally unclear and difficult to
understand
3-4 The candidate’s language is often unclear and sometimes difficult
to understand
5-6 The candidate’s language is generally clear although basic
   • Some mistakes in characters, but these do not generally obstruct
understanding.
   • Good command of basic vocabulary necessary to carry out the
task.
   • Succeeds in the use of basic grammatical structures. Some
successful
      attempts at slightly complex structures.
7-8 The candidate’s language is clear and generally easy to understand
   • Characters are generally good; occasional errors do not affect
      understanding.
   • Ability to use a limited range of vocabulary is good.
   • Generally successful in the use of both basic and slightly complex
      grammatical structures.
Challenges
 Time: covering the syllabus in two years is
  difficult
 Level: considering that students are expected
  to come with no prior knowledge of Chinese,
  the syllabus is difficult
 Culture: ideally, one should incorporate
  cultural elements into the course; but due to
  the above-mentioned constraints, this is
  difficult
Yamin Ma and the IB
   The IB is “very challenging” and “teachers
    are under pressure to run the programme”
   Yamin Ma aims for students to attain 5
    points out of 7
   Students require “more than two years to
    learn the IB syllabus”
   Currently spends 5 years preparing non-
    native speakers for GCSE, from year 7
Selection
 At IB level, enrolment has been largely self-
  selective
 Some students have dropped after the taster
  classes or a few weeks / months into the
  Autumn Term
 Changing to another language should be
  done as early as possible
The unlikely Sinologist
 Enrolling for the wrong reasons
      eg. parental pressure, lure of business and
       wealth
 Poor organisational skills
 Poor time-management skills
 Difficulty with tones / musicality
 Finds other languages challenging / dull
The likely Sinologist
 Highly motivated
 Good organisational skills
 Good time-management skills
 Passionate, driven, curious, independent
 A good ear for tones
 Firm grasp of another language
 Students who have studied a non Indo-
  European language appear to have an
  advantage
Arriving at KCS from Mumbai, Sumanth dedicated a considerable amount of time over the summer
holidays learning some basic Chinese.
The following two pages are excerpts from Sumanth’s notebook: he has broken the characters down
into strokes and practised the stroke order, and he has written some sentences, using the phonetic
pinyin system as a form of transliteration.
Contact with the examiner
 We have sent letters to the Chinese examiner
  and to the Ab Initio co-ordinator
 Our letters seem to have been taken into
  account; the grade boundaries were adjusted
  considerably for the May 2006 exam

 See notes for letter to examiner
Questions?