Foreign Languages Department: English and German

The BELS Foreign Languages Department is dedicated to providing students with quality instruction, which helps them to become better thinkers and problem-solvers in English and German.

Recognizing the need for a combined English and German department, we have increased our resources along both languages to provide our students with a dedicated structure of learning. We direct our efforts towards student-centered learning and differentiated learning strategies, which combine to increase fluency. We believe in current trends in education and recognize and maximize our students’ diverse learning styles.

The English language is the focal language of BELS. Our goals are:
-To promote a culture of English
-To use the English language effectively and precisely
-To demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of texts and literary
pieces
-To carry out projects that create opportunities to expand English language
awareness and ability
-To develop an international consciousness in terms of today’s rapidly globalizing
world
-To require outstanding English skills for both academic and social commitments.

BELS students in Grades 11 and 12, follow the IB Diploma Programme course in Language A: English Language and Literature at either Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL) or Literature and Performance at the Standard Level only. These courses are designed to fully support future academic study by developing a high social, aesthetic and cultural literacy, as well as effective communication skills.
For both courses, the focus is directed towards developing an understanding of the techniques involved in literary criticism and promoting the ability to form independent literary judgments. In particular, the Literature and Performance course is an interdisciplinary synthesis of literature and theatre, which generate interactions between literature and performance through performance skills and the transformation of literary texts.

German in the Middle School 

We started working with the MYP Curriculum in German this year and we transferred our German framework/ Curriculum according to the MYP standards . Starting next year we will fully implement the program.