AURA LANGUAGE POLICY

AURA Language Philosophy

“Language is so tightly woven into human experience that it is scarcely possible to imagine life without it” (Pinker, 1994, p. 17).

Since language is central to learning, all teachers are,    in practice, language teachers with responsibilities in facilitating communication (“Guidelines,” 2008, p. 1)

The purpose of AURA’s language learning program aligns with that of the IBO: to develop life-long language learners who exemplify the learner profile, who are compassionate, internationally minded learners. Multilingualism is essential to developing an international mindset and is a “right, a fact and a resource for learning”(IB PSP 2020). AURA’s philosophy is to use English as the medium of instruction and to provide language acquisition courses for other languages, as well as resources in the library and classrooms for familiarity with a wide range of languages and cultures. Appropriate communicative activities will be provided in-class and in the community to that end. We are blessed with being in a multicultural environment where nearly every language is represented offering opportunities to respectfully engage and serve. In particular AURA recognizes the important role of Spanish in Southern California, Vietnamese as a heritage language of many students, and Tongva as the indigenous language of the area. As part of AURA’s mission to provide a means for students to serve as global citizens, the following languages were identified to be taught in our language acquisition classes: Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Latin and Mandarin. Currently, we have started the Arabic Language acquisition classes and will be adding further languages as the school grows.

IB Standards for Language Development

AURA staff and faculty will ensure adherence to the following standards provided from the IB Standards and Practices 2020 document in reference to language development:

• Student support 1.6: The school maintains a functioning and active library consisting of adequate combinations of people, places, collections and services that aid and extend learning and teaching. (0202-01-0600)

• Culture 4.1: The school implements and reviews a language policy that is aligned with IB language policy guidelines. (0301-04-0100)

• Culture 4.2: The school describes in its language policy the way that the school recognizes multilingualism as a fact, a right and a resource for learning. (0301-04-0200)

• Culture 4.4: The school clearly describes in its language policy the rights and responsibilities of all members of the school community and what constitutes good practice within the school context. (0301-04-0400) PYP 1: The school ensures that students learn a language in addition to the language of instruction (at least from the age of seven). Multilingual programmes, where students are learning in at least two languages, can but are not required to offer additional languages. (0301-04-0411)

• Lifelong learners 2.3: Students understand the connections between the IB learner profile and international-mindedness. (0402-02-0300)

• Lifelong learners 5.2: Students demonstrate a commitment to service with and for the community throughout their learning, in accordance with programme documentation. (0402-05-0200) MYP 1: Students take opportunities to develop, act and reflect on MYP learning outcomes for service in each year of the programme. (0402-05-0221)

• Lifelong learners 7.3: Students take opportunities to develop their language profiles. (0402-07-0300)

AURA leadership will provide adequate staffing, resources, and scheduling to fully implement the above policies and the requisite IB standards.
Students who are neurodiverse or need other accommodations to develop their language adequately will be supported.

The AURA library shall provide access to a variety of materials to support English language and literature and the languages being acquired.
Students will be able to articulate the connection between life-long language learning, the IB learner profile, and international-mindedness.
Students will be able to use their languages in service to the community.

Each student’s language profile will be documented and students will have opportunities to develop their profiles.
 
Roles in Language Planning

Language planning is the process of designing and carrying out language policy. Language planning can be classified into three main types: status planning, corpus planning, and acquisition planning. Status planning deals with the allocation of functions and roles to different languages in a society, such as official, national, or minority languages. Corpus planning involves the development and standardization of linguistic features and resources, such as orthography, vocabulary, grammar, or dictionaries. Acquisition planning focuses on the promotion and facilitation of language learning and teaching, such as curriculum design, teacher training, or assessment. At AURA, the following roles and responsibilities are defined in respect to language development:

Governing body: Provide for the timely allocation of resources and faculty to support language development

Head of School and IB coordinator: Plan, monitor and manage high quality language acquisition instruction and assessment on a continuous basis through the middle years and diploma program.

Teaching Faculty: Provide language acquisition instruction in the allocated language in adherence with IB criteria at a high quality. In the case of other subject teachers, provide English language development opportunities as well as familiarity with mother tongue or other languages and cultures as much as possible.

Support Staff and Librarian: Encourage use of library resources and familiarity with multimodal texts in multiple languages. Ensure students have access to resources in their mother tongue languages and languages being taught as a second language.
 
Policy Review

This policy was first written collaboratively in October 2023 by the language steering committee. The first draft was shared with all stakeholders and suggested feedback was implemented. This policy was reviewed by the leadership team in December 2023 and again in February 2024. Policies will be reviewed annually or updated as the need arises.

References

• IB (2008). Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme Guidelines for developing a school language policy
• IB (2020). Programme standards and practices.