IST considering ab initio Chinese and Spanish classes

IST is considering opening new entry-level Junior School Chinese and Spanish classes for 2011/2012.

These "ab initio" classes would be mixed J1 / J2 groups for ages 5 - 8, meeting for half a day in Chinese or Spanish and following the school's regular timetable and programme structure. Students would still have Music, Physical Education, Field Trips, Visiting Speakers and so on. They would join a regular English class for the other half of the day, and of course would be able to participate in extra-curricular activities.

Ab initio classes would be aimed at students with little or no prior exposure to Chinese or Spanish. They would use the same Unit Titles as regular classes however, instead of following the usual IST curriculum, would have a much more explicit language-acquisition focus. For example, while studying "My Healthy Body", ab initio students would focus on related vocabulary and derived grammatical structures rather than investigating what it is that makes a body healthy.

In terms of IST's language programme, ab initio classes follow an "Language B" approach, however their goal is to enable students to acquire sufficient language skills to be able to enter a regular class in one or two years.

Opening ab initio Chinese or Spanish would require a minimum enrolment of students new to IST; students transferring from an existing class cannot be counted in determining viability. Parents interested in learning more about the possibility of enrolling their child(ren) in ab initio Chinese or Spanish are urged to contact the school.