Year 11 IB Subject Guide 2020

IB – ab initio ITALIAN

Subject Summary: Ab initio Italian is offered to students in Years 11 and 12 as part of the International Baccalaureate Programme. Unlike other Diploma subjects, the IB Italian exams are conducted in May of the students’ Year 12 year. In addition to the summative IB assessment tasks in Year 12, students complete compulsory formative assessment tasks in Year 11. The Senior ab initio Italian course commences in Term Four of Year 10, with students required to attend one–hour tutorial sessions twice a week after school. This is to ensure that students are adequately prepared to sit for the IB exams, which are held earlier than normal Year 12 assessment. After the completion of the IB exams in May, Diploma students then cease to study the language and will be given time to work on their other Diploma subjects. The ab initio Italian course is a beginners’ course (no prior experience with the language is assumed, nor is it allowed under the guidelines of the IB. For this reason, students who are already proficient in Italian are not eligible to enrol in ab initio Italian). The main focus of the course is to allow students to develop communicative proficiency in Italian. The four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking are treated equally, with students becoming competent at dealing with Italian in a variety of contexts. As an IB subject, ab initio Italian is by nature an extremely challenging and demanding course. However, it is also very rewarding in that it offers students the opportunity to develop proficiency in the Italian language in a relatively short period of time.

Assessment Outline: • Term Four Year 10 – students complete a Reading and Writing Test.

• In each term of Year 11, students are tested in the skills of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. In Year 12, students complete a Grammar Test, the IB Speaking Examination and then in May, the two final IB examinations (Paper 1 – Written Production; Paper 2 – Listening and Reading Comprehension).

Subject Outline by Semester: Semester One Topics: • Personal Descriptions, Personality and Relationships • School • Food and Dining Out • Geography and Climate Semester Two Topics: • Travel and Transport • Hotel Accommodation • Health and Welfare Semester Three Topics: • The Environment • Services – Health/Telephone/Post Office/Bank • School and Student Exchanges • Part–time Work

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