Review of the Year from the Languages Department
By Ray Young, HOD Languages
The pride of the Branksome Hall Asia Languages program lies in the strength of our Language Acquisition and our love for literature as well as the diversity of our language teachers. Our students are taught world literature from Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the creation myths of Zeus and the Greek/Roman pantheons to the graphic novels translated from the French of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis or Franz Kafka’s Germanic “Metamorphosis”.
Our students' understanding of these texts is enriched by their own classic literature from Korean and Chinese resources and how these literary concepts have been transferred into their English classes. The use of these sources is evidenced by the titles chosen by some of our Grade 12 Extended Essay students. Such titles include:
(a) How do the linguistic techniques in Marvel movies engage and influence the audience?
(b) How does the use of educational, ideological, or a political bias in the media function in presenting Climate Change to its audience?
(c) How does prejudice and stereotyping influence the social attitudes represented in "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Of Mice and Men"?
(d) To what extent does William Shakespeare portray ‘love’ through A Midsummer Night's Dream in reference to Plato’s Symposium?
(e) How did Sylvia Path illustrate the Theme Feminism in her selection of poems?
Our Language Teachers model international mindedness and global citizenship and are very aware of the importance of mother tongue and their students’ language profiles. This understanding is reflected in our variety of text types, using language in translation text as mandated by the IB as well as invigorating our mission statement to challenge and inspire our girls to love learning and to shape a better world.
It is with a sense of pride that we bid farewell to our Grade 12s from this island of sea, rock, wind and women. We nurtured them in the sea of literary imagination, we sculpted their rock hard exterior to reveal the marble within, we empowered them with the wind of inspiration and they have walked away as the proud, confident young women of Branksome Hall Asia.
