LANGUAGE POLICY

The Pupil International School believes that language is a fundamental element of identity and culture and that it is the basis for thinking, communicating, learning about, and viewing the International.

Stemming from these two beliefs, The Pupil International School believes that the mother tongue of each student is important and must receive support at the school in the course of the student’s learning another language.

To foster international-mindedness, The Pupil International School believes that all students should learn at least two languages: English, as it is commonly accepted as a language of communication in the country, and one other language.

Given the status of English in the country and in the school, The Pupil International School believes that all teachers are language teachers, so that students gain proficiency in the language across a range of disciplines, and that students should receive equal opportunity to access these languages.

The school also believes in according a high level of respect to the host language of our country India (Hindi) and the state, Tamil Nadu, whose official language is Tamil, since the two are different from each other.

The Pupil International School’s Mission statement is to create a new generation of world citizens who transcend the boundaries of ego, religion, and nation, in their quest for equitable and sustainable development of Mother Earth.

II. LANGUAGES AT THE  PUPIL INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL:

At The Pupil International School, English is the operational language across the PYP. English is used as the language of instruction for all subjects except other languages where the target language will be used primarily with English used as a scaffolding technique.

Outside of the classroom teachers and students are free to express themselves in the language/s of their choice. As a school, we are in the process of developing a spelling protocol for consistent use of either US or British spelling. In no case, the school will allow the mixture of both US and British spelling to be used by students.

In the primary years, students develop the ability to think, reason, analyse, communicate, express ideas, feelings and act rationally, through the medium of instruction, which is English. A language is an effective tool required to organize and express our thoughts and opinions. This is why we inspire our students to hone their language skills to the maximum by providing them with a rich range of language learning opportunities.

III. LANGUAGE OPTIONS FOR THE STUDENTS OF THE PUPIL INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL :

In our mission to create world citizens, open to the richness of other cultures and languages, all the while instilling a sense of pride in their own, we offer foreign language programmes, which enrich and open new horizons.

At The Pupil International School, the students have several languages to choose from. The students of grades 1 to 3 will study Tamil (as deemed compulsory by the State Government )and in addition, choose between Hindi or French. Students from grade 4 and above can choose to specialize in any one of the three languages offered.

Hindi
Tamil
French

Entry and exit points for additional language – PYP

The language combinations offered are:

IV. LANGUAGE PROFILES AND ADMISSION POLICY:

At The Pupil International School, we have students of two nationalities, with their primary language of communication as English. All students applying to The Pupil International School should sit for an admission test that checks their language proficiency in English.

V. LANGUAGE PRACTICES: 

• The Pupil International School supports language development in a holistic, student-centered manner within a positive and caring environment.

• As language is fundamental to learning, all teachers are language teachers: all subject teachers provide prompt feedback on language in their respective classes.

• The school provides access to as many languages as practically possible through an active teaching and support program.

• Language learning at The Pupil International School is developmentally appropriate and differentiated to meet the needs of the individual student.

VI. HOST COUNTRY LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

India being a country with diverse languages, the school promotes the use of the mother tongue through special events like school assemblies and annual events like Independence Day and Rashtra Bhasha Diwas.

Festival 1 – Independence Day celebration:
[Performances in different languages to showcase India’s linguistic diversity]

Festival 2 – Hindi Utsav / Rashtra Bhasha Celebration:
[Festival to celebrate the Hindi language – a prominent language of the country]

Festival 3 – Language Day Celebration:
[Festival to celebrate the language of the state]

Efforts are also made to integrate the language of the host country or the region with school events, e.g.: Commentary for Sports Day may be done in Hindi/Tamil and English.

VII. LANGUAGE SUPPORT FOR ENGLISH AS SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL)

STUDENTS:

The school will ensure that a comprehensive English language support system is created for students whose second language is English. To this end, the school will take the following steps:

● Provision of dictionaries (both online and offline) for students to convert their language (for eg. Korean) to the English language and vice versa.

An English as a second language (ESL) section will be created in the library with ample resources (paper, video and audio) to support the needs of students.

● Allocate a dedicated time slot for students to read and write (literacy), view and present in English.

● Develop a detailed and stepwise plan with subject teachers led by the English teachers for ESL students to ensure focused attention on the language skills (command terms, text-type and subject-specific language conventions such as structure and register) required for each subject.

The plan will be for all ESL students with some customization for individual students as per their requirements.

● Students will be provided a range of resources and practice sheets to help build their vocabulary and language skills.

● Buddy system to be introduced where ESL students are clubbed with students who are studying English as a first language for informal but regular language immersion.

The language support is provided to students in the following ways:
● Differentiated learning through customizing the difficulty level of content, providing customized worksheets and extended time for completion of assignments.

● Peer learning – Students are divided into mixed groups where they support each other for ensuring better understanding and effective learning.

Language Support Material available in School library:
● Hindi Magazines

● French Magazines – Nat Geo and Phosphore

● Hindi Newspaper

● Short Storybooks, Novels in Hindi

● Dictionaries – Hindi, Tamil, French, Korean

Role of the library at The Pupil International School :
The library is fundamental to the language programme at The Pupil International School. The library provides a learning space and an environment to promote love for reading, books as well as a place for research.

The Early Year Program Section of The Pupil International School has a library corner in each classroom.

The library at TPGS for Grades 1-5, is resourced with fiction, non-fiction, picture books, board books, pop-up books, big books, multicultural books, world classics, autobiographies, multilingual books, reference books, encyclopedias and media that are accessible to all students and staff. The school sees the library as a valuable resource to promote the international-mindedness aspect of the IB programme.

The library is also seen as a place that makes a strong statement that all languages are celebrated and supported. The library has a collection of bilingual books, books in regional languages of India and the school continues to add to this collection.

The library also provides resources for collaborative planning, researching and teacher professional development. Our school board is aware of the need to expand these resources and there are plans to continually add to the same.

The school is in the process of developing an information literacy and media literacy curriculum that will support the language curriculum of the school and help develop research skills in students.

At the PYP level, teachers conduct classes in the library with prior information. The librarian as well as homeroom teachers conduct book discussions, read aloud, help conduct research and help students browse and pick up books. In addition to using the school library, every class also has a class library.

The library team also conducts various events throughout the year like author week, poetry month, celebrating an author’s birthday, etc. to promote reading as school culture.

The librarian incorporates multilingual books for the students; however, most of the books are in English. In addition to our school library, the staff has access to guided reading collections for classroom instruction. A series of books are available to cater to their year-level specifications to expand the depth and breadth of language. Teachers collaboratively make decisions on what resources to purchase every year and submit the list to the librarian. This largely depends on the programme of inquiry.

The librarian has been able to put together the books for the Programme of Inquiry for all the year groups.

Books in English, Tamil, Hindi and books on culture and other resources are also available in the library for the students to use.

VIII. PARENTAL AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:

Parents are an intrinsic part of The Pupil International School’s community of learners and they provide crucial support for language learning. Parents also volunteer in classrooms and throughout the school, helping provide support for mother-tongue support learners and students with learning support needs.

Parents also volunteer during the Language Day celebrated at The Pupil International School.

IX. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

At The Pupil International School, we believe that all teachers are language teachers, and those subject teachers are responsible for teaching domain-specific vocabulary and language skills. To accomplish this, the school has the following activities:

● Teacher training on text forms for all teachers

● Teacher training on reading and writing strategies

● Subject teachers collaborate with language teachers to integrate language learning into their lessons.

X. MOTHER TONGUE SUPPORT

Though the school views all teachers as language teachers, it acknowledges that some teachers are more proficient in their mother tongue than in the language of instruction in the school.

The school takes responsibility for ensuring that such teachers are appropriately trained to teach in the language of instruction. Further, they are encouraged to use their mother tongue in interaction with students where there is a resource of relevant background knowledge encoded in their (the teacher’s) mother tongue.

 The mother tongue programme plays an important role in developing and affirming the student’s personality and identity.

Adhering to the belief that when a language one uses in daily communication is denigrated, a part of him or her is also being denigrated, there are no discipline procedures that impact students or teachers on the use of their mother tongues in classes.

However, there is a danger of using the mother tongue as a crutch while expressing and in the process, suppressing the development of English language fluency. Therefore, the guideline for use of the mother tongue in the classroom is that it should be used as a support language –inter-lingual translation should be used wherever the teacher feels the need and sees value in its use. An example of this could be: activating prior knowledge of students, recording anecdotes of students in Early years verbatim, exploring cultural beliefs and values, etc.

The school organizes many events wherein there is always an integration of the mother tongue and the host country’s language as one of the areas of performance and presentation.

Festivals and morning assemblies are conducted in the Host country language as well as the Regional and English languages.

XI. COMMUNICATION OF THE POLICY:

The Pupil International School’s Language Policy is available to the Pupil International School community through multiple pathways including The Pupil International School’s public website and The Pupil International School’s internal shared drive.

New staff will be familiarized with the document during the orientation programme. The printed copies of the policy are available for the Admissions Department and for reference in each school section.

LANGUAGE POLICY REVIEW PROCESS:

The Language Policy Steering Committee comprising the Director, Principal, PYPC (Primary Years Programme Coordinator), the Curriculum Coordinator, and the Language department will meet twice a year to review the policy.

The last Review is done in March 2021
Next Review in March 2022