Carol Van Vooren, Chun Lai, Sue Ledger, Ángeles Bueno Villaverde and Verónica Steffen
This study focuses on additional language (AL) teaching and learning in a range of diverse Primary Years Programme (PYP) settings. It explores aspects and practices in relation to school language policies, cultural influences, teacher beliefs and pedagogical strategies, professional development, assessments, and student learning outcomes as well as their alignment with PYP principles and practices in language and learning. The qualitative case study design provided an opportunity to collect rich and meaningful data in six PYP schools in six different countries: two from the IB Americas region; two from the IB Asia–Pacific region; and two from the IB Africa, Europe, Middle East region. The research findings provide insight into the effectiveness of AL teaching and learning in PYP schools, demonstrate how language-related curriculum documents can be used to support AL curriculum planning and implementation, and inform the development of policy documents and support materials to provide guidance to IB schools and teachers.
