- Ta-1/41, Corner of 64th St & 103rd St, Chan Mya Thar Si Township Mandalay, Myanmar
Mission
To provide the inspirational teaching and caring for our children, give every opportunity to explore, flourish, grow and understand their world.
Our mission statement is the foundation for our language policy. As language forms the basis for all learning, this policy is critical for helping the school to achieve its mission. The language policy aspires to fulfill each aspect of the mission statement as follows:
While English is the language of instruction, the language policy allows for students to inquire in the mother tongue and aspires to multilingualism. The school is committed to providing as much diversity of effective language instruction as possible.
The language policy validates the equal status of all languages. It endorses an awareness of the host country’s culture and language by teaching English at all acquisition levels throughout the school. The mother tongue programme in each section of the school reinforces literacy and cultural identity and reflects the multilingual society we live in. The modern foreign languages programme develops understanding and respect for other cultures.
The language policy recognizes the transfer of cognitive skills from the mother tongue to English and vice versa and the acquisition of additional languages. This process encourages the acquisition of higher order thinking skills and development of multiple perspectives. The policy also recognizes the importance of all teachers differentiating instruction for students at different levels of language acquisition.
The language policy supports the shared responsibility of all teachers, students
and parents for all students’ language development. All teachers and students
are encouraged to assume the responsibility to be language learners.
The language policy promotes life-long learning. Developing language learning skills gives students the capacity to solve problems, think critically and act creatively. Language empowers students to understand, interpret and respond to ideas, attitudes and feelings. Information literacy and technology also provide a gateway to life-long learning and a rich range of language learning opportunities.
Purpose Of The Language Policy
This language policy is a working document developed by the staff and administration of KVIS. The policy is consistent with the stipulated principles and practices of the National and International Curriculum Program. This document outlines our school’s linguistic and academic goals and defines the programme designed to help our students attain these goals.
This policy is intended to provide an overview and guiding principles for language learning at KVIS which permeates the entire school curriculum through authentic contexts in a culturally rich and diverse environment. Our policy is a statement of agreement—one to which the staff and our community are asked to commit to so our school can achieve its mission.
Philosophy
KVIS aims to nurture an appreciation of the richness and diversity of language. Language does much more than promote cognitive growth; it is crucial for maintaining cultural identity and emotional stability. The acquisition of more than one language and maintenance of the mother tongue enrich personal growth and help facilitate international understanding. As language, by its very nature, is integrated into all areas of the curriculum every teacher within the school is considered a language teacher.
KVIS aims to foster in students the ability to think and express themselves with precision, clarity, confidence and imagination in at least two languages. Language development in more than one language enriches personal growth, provides cognitive advantages and is essential to the development of international mindedness. KVIS strives to address the particular challenges of those students who are learning in a language other than their mother tongue by providing integrated, well-implemented English as a Second Language (ESL) programme at all school sections. KVIS endeavors to integrate students’ cultural and linguistic heritage throughout the curriculum.
KVIS Language Profile
Approximately 98% of our student body speaks English as a second language. All of our administrative and teaching staff speaks English and the majority is fluent in at least one other language.
The language of instruction and the primary language of communication in the school is English. For formal documents, English and Burmese are used.
All students enrolled for the International Program are required to study English and Burmese from Primary to Grade 10.
While English and Burmese are the most common languages within the school, the use of other languages in appropriate circumstances is welcomed and celebrated.
Admissions Policies
Applicants complete a student background survey that indicates their proficiency in their mother tongue, English and other languages. Once a student is admitted to the school, Admissions will notify the language acquisition Head of Department and mother tongue facilitator of the language learner profile for placement in the appropriate language acquisition or mother tongue programme.
Pedagogy
KVIS recognizes that all teachers are also language teachers who have the responsibility to facilitate language acquisition and promote communication skills through their grade level and subject area classes.
Assessment
While language acquisition follows distinct stages, students’ rate of acquisition varies greatly from individual to individual. Therefore, language teachers assess all language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), regularly differentiating through scaffolding or extension as required. Formative and summative assessments in the classroom provide information on language growth. Language teachers across the schools regularly standardize students’ work to ensure a fair application of assessment criteria. Standardized tests, external moderation and external examinations in the Secondary School also provide evidence of language acquisition levels.
Students who are identified as requiring additional support in English to access the curriculum will be placed in the appropriate English language acquisition class and assessed regularly to monitor progress. A student may be excited from the pull-out or scheduled ESL classes when the student can participate fully in the regular educational programme. When evaluating a student’s possible exit, a team consisting of the ESL teacher, a classroom teacher and a Leadership team member will use information from several sources to make the determination to exit the student from the programme. Parents will be informed about the decision before the transfer takes place. After the student exits from the ESL programme, the ESL teacher at that level will closely monitor the student’s academic progress.
Co-Teaching And Professional Development
In the Primary School, the ESL staff co-teach (or push-in) in grade level and subject area classes. The emphasis of co-teaching and push-in is supporting the classroom or subject area teacher in the use of differentiation and language acquisition strategies. Through the co-teaching model, ESL teachers plan with the classroom or subject teachers and ensure that they receive the necessary support and professional development for integrating these strategies on a regular basis. ESL teachers provide ideas for developing listening, speaking, reading and writing skills of all students through the subject area.
Language And Literature And
Mother Tounge Programmes
KVIS believes that developing a child’s mother tongue can accelerate the rate of English language acquisition, support achievement in all subject areas, increase selfesteem, and enhance intercultural understanding and international mindedness.
English
In each level of the school, students study English (language and literature or language acquisition). The English program is offered from Grade 1 to Grade 10.
Burmese
Burmese (Myanmar) is offered for all students enrolled in International Programme from Grade 1 to
Grade 10.
ESL PULL-OUT AND SUPPORT CLASSES
English language learners who are unable to fully access the academic curriculum delivered in English receive specialized instruction in English language acquisition from qualified staff on a regular basis
In-Class Or Co-Teaching Support
ESL students may also receive support in their grade level and subject area classes from qualified staff. In the Primary Program, ESL staff provide in-class support from Grade 1 to Grade 5. In the Lower Secondary and Upper Secondary, ESL staff provide in-class support and co-teaching for science and mathematics classes whenever possible.
Grade 10.
LANGUAGE LEARNING AND THE LIBRARY AND MEDIA CENTRES
Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning. An information literate individual is able to:
• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and sources critically.
The role of the KVIS library is to promote and facilitate information literacy across all curricula and to all members of the KVIS community. The libraries have databases that contain professional material, scholarly articles, newspapers and magazines in many languages. Training sessions may be requested with the school librarians and future plans include designated periods scheduled on a weekly basis or as a drop-in session.
The library provides collection access to the following client groups:
1. Students
2. Faculty and staff
3. Research scholars
4. Alumni
The library collection holds resources designed to support the learning, teaching and research needs of the Institute. Resources are provided in a variety of formats including:
• Books and other hard-copy printed materials
• Serials (i.e., journals, periodicals or newspapers in both electronic or hard-copy format)
• Databases (electronic collections containing bibliographic citations and/or fulltext items)
• Multimedia material (including CDs, DVDs,)
LEARNING SUPPORT
When a student has been identified with additional learning needs including language difficulties or gifted and talented abilities, intervention and support are provided through the Learning Support programme in line with the referral process. Teachers will help them meet the needs of students identified with special language learning needs. This support may be formalized through an In-class Support Plan or an Individual Education Plan and may involve short- and long-term interventions. If the identified student speaks English as an additional language, the ESL department works closely with other teachers to provide the best service for this individual child.
PARENTS AND COMMUNITY
Parents are an integral part of our community of learners and provide tremendous support for language learning at KVIS. The school uses many methods to communicate to parents the critical importance of maintaining academic proficiency in the mother tongue and other languages.
COMMUNICATION OF LANGUAGE POLICY TO THE KVIS COMMUNITY
The language policy will be introduced to the KVIS community through a variety of pathways including staff meetings, PTC meetings, grade level meetings and Principal’s News and Notes. The policy will also be available on the KVIS website. New staff will be familiarized with the document during orientation.
POLICY REVIEW
The language policy will be reviewed regularly as part of the school cycle of policy reviews, curriculum review cycle and as part of the whole school improvement plan. The Leadership team will review the implementation of the policy in classrooms and throughout the school on a regular basis as part of the appraisal process