Hello, I’m writing this post because my school did not allow me take IB Spanish because IB does not allow native speakers in IB. Can anyone confirm or deny that this is IB policy? I just think it’s unfair to those who are native speakers but would like to improve or perhaps speak broken Spanish like me. I was raised speaking Spanish but it was more Spanglish. I constantly struggle with my Spanish so to deny me entry to the IB course really upsets me.
What my kids did was take Spanish for Native speakers, during one summer and then they later took the AP Spanish test. The kids that “bombed” the AP test, took the AP class and test again.
(The Spanish for Native Speakers was harder than the AP class!
Lots of Spanish authors and literature, poems, etc.)
They then were given the option of taking another language or ASL class.
The schools realize that the native speakers have a distinct advantage. You know you do:-j
Additionally, I think my children’s transcripts stood out with those courses.
I think this is a school policy. A person who has a home language but is not literate in the language should be allowed to take the language. I think you and your parents should push back on this. You are not someone who was raised and educated in the Spanish language. This sounds like a policy decision at your school and I think you should contact ibo.org for help.
(TBH even if you are literate in the language, you should be able to take it.)
The more I think about this, the angrier I get! My kids are bilingual and biliterate, and I expect them to take the IB language course in their second language. Their school is set up for kids to do this. I think the policy at your school was created by a misguided administrator and you can find support from the ib. Being able to speak the language but not read or write it is not helpful - they should be encouraging kids who speak the language at home to take the class!
I thought you took A in your native language and B in any other. Are you taking English A?
At my D’s school SL Spanish has Native Speaker kids (IB or not), IB kids, and AP kids in class together. IB kids tend to read and write Spanish better and Nativer Speakers tend to speak better, so the two groups challenge each other. The IB students can take the AP test and the SL test, everyone else takes the AP test.
@VickiSoCal Usually, the school’s normal language is the only one offered at Language A. There might be a few choices at Language B, usually not the one taught at A.
OP - This is a school-by-school policy decision, so that’s where you should take your complaint first. Have you had practice with any other languages up to this point? If so, it would make sense to jump into that language instead. Otherwise, you will have had to have at least three years before you take AB initio, so if you haven’t taken another language besides Spanish, that’s your only choice.