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Aiming to contribute to the IB’s mission to create a better and more peaceful world, students  can develop a CAS project linked to the theme of “Experiences-Migration” in which they help a local refugee population with their integration journey. They can organize social events, fun activities for both kids and adults, and classes such as language and culture that will definitely contribute to the process of integration.

With this project the students will engage with members of a local refugee population and help them gain new experiences and new perspectives. Offering an opportunity for connection with the local culture, the students play an important role in creating a home with and for refugees.

The CAS project will enrich their involvement in language acquisition outside the classroom and enhance intercultural understanding through the active and purposeful use of the language they study within this specific real-life context.

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While exploring "the topic of stereotypes" under the theme of "identities"  the students were asked to do an online search for 'maps of stereotypes' by Yanko Tsvetkov, also known as 'Alphadesigner'.

After viewing a collection of national stereotype maps, the students held a discussion about why there are different views on countries and how stereotypes originate.

This discussion lends itself to investigating ideas from a TOK perspective answering the following questions:

To what extent is it ethical to use stereotypes to acquire knowledge?

How do our values and assumptions influence the language we use when stereotyping?

In what ways can language be used to influence, persuade or manipulate people’s opinions about stereotypes?

Do country stereotypes influence language learning motivation?

Another TOK moment was when we were discussing how our identities are shaped. The students answered some thought-provoking questions:

How values such as family, friendship or authority are encoded differently in different languages? How does that influence identity formation?

What is the relationship between language and thought? Do you think differently in different languages? If so, how might being bilingual or multilingual affect your identity?

These discussions helped them make connections between areas of shared knowledge and link them to personal knowledge.

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The complete stereotype map collection from Yanko Tsvetkov's international bestseller Atlas of Prejudice

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Being new to the DP programme I have no hands on experience yet; however, I have reviewed some essay proposals and concluded that well-defined topic objectives and research scope is of great importance as they give clarity to the study outcomes that are to be investigated. It might be helpful to write a statement outlining their broad approach first and then define a specific research question.

Another hands-on technique I would recommend for language acquisition students is to read and annotate secondary material written in the target language so that they study and learn vocabulary and expressions in the target language, which will considerably help when writing the essay.