3K–Grade 5
Language Learning A Family Guide
According to the research by Thomas & Collier, dual language students often appear to perform behind English-only peers in the early years because their brains are processing a significantly larger linguistic repertoire. However, a convergence typically occurs between 5th and 7th grade for most learners. By then, the cognitive advantages of bilingualism kick in, and these students consistently surpass their monolingual peers in both literacy and math. At this time, they’re leveraging the patterns and function of language and generalizing to new learning - the goal of an IB/concept-based program!
Why do we value a multilingual approach? At AIS, we ignite curiosity through language, which brings one of our learning principles to life: multilingual learning enhances cognitive flexibility, transfer, and cultural understanding. This approach is the heartbeat of our IB Primary Years Programme (PYP). One way we develop international mindedness is by allowing students to literally see the world through a different cultural lens, with language as the vessel. The educational benefits of a bilingual approach supported by research are growing as we become better at studying the brain. Bilingualism/multilingualism provides significant cognitive advantages, such as enhanced cognitive flexibility and better focus, which lead to stronger academic performance in areas like math and abstract thinking. When comparing our students to monolingual peers, it is important to look at the whole trajectory of AIS or the bilingual pathway.
Language Padlets Our Language Learning Leaders (LLLs) have worked hard with their teams to gather resources to support language learning at home, and these Padlets also include information about the benefits of bi/multilingualism.
Chinese
English
French
German
Spanish
Language Learning A Family Guide | 3K -Grade5
Why do we value a multilingual approach? A common misconception about bilingual education is that students spend their day simply learning a language as an isolated subject. At AIS, language and content are taught together. This means our students, whether in our Chinese, German, French, or Spanish pathways, are using two (or more) languages as a tool to deepen their conceptual understanding.
Our Outcomes as a Whole: The Goal of Bilingualism When viewed as a whole, our language and literacy outcomes are designed to move students from language acquisition to true bilingualism. We don't just want students who can get by socially in a second language; we want students who can think, create, and solve problems across the four domains: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Our language and literacy outcomes are intentionally aligned vertically and can be found in each grade's curriculum overview on the Parent Portal. Below are some general examples:
Interpretive (Listening & Reading): We move from identifying non-verbal cues in ELC to following the general flow of ideas and nuances from different viewpoints in Grade 5.
Expressive (Speaking & Writing): We move from 5K letter strings (grouping letters into words) and roleplay to Grade 4 students who can speak with a rate and tone easily understood by an audience and interact with them through peer feedback.
Intentional Scaffolding for All Learners Our curriculum differentiates for heritage (L1) and non-heritage (L2) speakers in all five of our language programs (English included). We recognize that a student who speaks Chinese or Spanish at home has different milestones than a student experiencing the language for the first time. While the outcomes are related to a skill or concept, they have varying levels of depth. For example, in informational writing in grade 4:
Heritage Speaker Outcome (L1): I can generate a main idea with significant details that will keep the reader engaged.
Non-Heritage Speaker Outcome (L2): I can include an increasing amount of details to support ideas and information in a simple text.
By providing specific outcomes for both L1 and L2 paths, we ensure that every child, regardless of their starting point, is appropriately challenged. This aligns with our learning principle of Tailored Support - We learn in different ways at different rates and need different levels of support and challenge. Over time, through our robust language instruction and scaffolding, students who regularly maximizing their learning and show strong engagement with their languages can work within the Heritage Speaker outcomes - it is a part of how we regularly differentiate based on the needs and abilities of our learners.
Language Learning A Family Guide | 3K -Grade5
Language Through the Lens of Inquiry At AIS, we balance explicit instruction with inquiry. While our students dive deep into big ideas through the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), our teachers also provide targeted instruction in the mechanics of language: phonics, grammar, character strokes, and/or sentence structure. To see this in action, we can look at some examples of how our learning outcomes across the grades connect to the PYP Transdisciplinary Themes:
5K
Sharing the Planet (5K): While exploring how the waste we produce affects our environment, a 5K student works on Listening skills. A heritage speaker (L1) is expected to respond with actions to multi-step instructions, while a non-heritage learner (L2) is scaffolded to respond to simple multistep directions.
G1
How We Express Ourselves (Grade 1): During a unit on storytelling, unpacking the central idea that every culture has its own stories, our Grade 1 students focus on Interpretive Reading. Both L1 and L2 learners work to identify and explain the basic structure of a story, including the beginning, middle, and end, with different levels of proficiency.
G3
How the World Works (Grade 3): In an inquiry about continuous changes of the Earth’s surface and its impact on the lives of people, Grade 3 students develop Interpersonal Speaking. We specifically teach L2 students to use circumlocution (the ability to describe a concept when they are unsure of the exact vocabulary), ensuring that their communication and inquiry continue even when they hit a linguistic wall.
G4
How We Organize Ourselves (Grade 4): When researching systems with a focus on how people’s actions can affect changes in communities, societies, and government, our Grade 4 students focus on writing. An L1 student is challenged to use an organizational pattern that fits the specific topic and audience, whereas an L2 student might use a simpler organizational pattern to ensure their message is clear and followable.
Language Learning A Family Guide | 3K -Grade5
Why do we value a multilingual approach? When you walk into an AIS Primary School classroom, you will see a vibrant, active environment where language is treated as a vehicle for inquiry. Following the IB Approaches to Teaching, students are actively developing their communication and thinking skills to solve real-world problems. Language is alive!
A Balance of Input and Output
What Learning and Teaching Looks and Sounds Like
Our teachers use intentional planning to balance what is known as input (Listening/Reading) and output (Speaking/Listening). Before we ask a student to speak or write (output), we immerse them in rich opportunities of storytelling, reading, and listening to topics related to their Units of Inquiry. This ensures they have a bank of sounds and linguistic structures to draw from.
Because we learn in different ways and at different rates, our classrooms are multimodal. This means we engage all the senses. To keep the language learning accessible, even when the language is new, we use a variety of scaffolds (temporary supports):
Sensory Scaffolds:
Graphic Scaffolds:
Interactive Scaffolds:
You might see a teacher using realia (real-life objects like fruit or tools), physical gestures (Total Physical Response), and multimedia to help students build meaning.
Classrooms are filled with visual anchor charts, graphic organizers, and infographics that help students organize their thoughts and see the patterns of the language.
Much our learning is socially constructed. Students work in pairs or small groups, practicing language to build confidence, make connections, and develop key grammatical features.
Differentiated Stations & Academic Language Our most frequent approach to supporting language development is through the use of differentiated stations. During a single lesson, you might see one group working with the teacher on explicit phonics, another group researching through a text, a third group playing a collaborative language game with sentence starters, and a fourth group matching vocabulary, with activities thoughtfully adjusted based on the acquisition level of the group.
ACTIVE MULTIMODAL DIFFERENTIATED
Language Learning A Family Guide | 3K -Grade5
The Role of Feedback In an inquiry-based classroom, feedback is the fuel for growth. Because our classrooms are highly interactive, teachers provide immediate, actionable feedback during small-group stations and one-on-one conferences. Rather than just correcting a mistake, teachers guide students to notice patterns. This timely feedback helps students refine their language and transfer to future attempts.
Metalinguistic Awareness in Action English and Spanish
A student might notice that many words share the same Latin root (cognates), realizing that if they know "curiosity" in English, they already essentially know "curiosidad" in Spanish.
English and French
Students might compare sentence structures, noticing how French often places adjectives after the noun (e.g., le ballon rouge) while English puts them before (the red ball), helping them apply patterns in more complex sentences.
English and German
A student might discover the logic of compound words, noticing how German builds complex ideas by joining smaller words together, similar to English words like "bookshelf" or "raincoat."
English and Chinese
Students might contrast the phonetic nature of the English alphabet (letters representing sounds) with the logographic nature of Chinese characters (symbols representing meanings or objects).
Building Metalinguistic Awareness At AIS, we value a translanguaging approach where we help students to build metalinguistic awareness: teaching students to think about how language works. When a student steps back from using the language to analyze it, noticing patterns and connections between their languages, they are building a superpower that allows bilingual students to learn faster.
Language Learning A Family Guide | 3K -Grade5
How do we measure/assess student language learning? At AIS, we view assessment as a photo album rather than a single snapshot. A high-stakes test, like a Polaroid, captures a single moment that may or may not reflect a child's true ability, and less likely, their ability within real-world contexts. Our photo album approach captures the evolution of a student’s language journey over time, showcasing growth across different contexts and subjects, from social language to academic language.
Assessment For, As, and Of Learning To build this album/portfolio, we use three distinct types of assessment that function together within the IB PYP framework (Scan code for video):
Assessment FOR Learning (Formative)
Assessment AS Learning (Self-Reflection)
Assessment OF Learning (Summative)
Teachers use daily observations, check-ins during differentiated stations, and small-group interactions to see how students are handling language in realtime. If a Grade 4 student struggles to articulate the main idea of a story during an inquiry into How We Express Ourselves, the teacher adjusts the scaffolding immediately to support that specific need.
We want our students to be active participants in their own growth. Students reflect on their own language learning and set short-term goals. This can happen after watching themselves read in a Seesaw video or completing a checklist after writing.
At the end of a unit, students demonstrate what they have learned through transdisciplinary projects or actions. Whether it is a 5K student presenting their findings on waste for Sharing the Planet or a Grade 4 student writing a report on government systems, we are assessing their ability to communicate (language) their understanding (content). We also formally assess non-heritage speakers’ oral language growth over time using the SOPA rubric in response to prompts and tasks.