Page 273 -

not only on the particular specialization each student chooses, but also on the
language level achieved. Language is, then, part of both the fundamental contents
of DIA German Baccalaureate and of the National Trilingual Baccalaureate. Starting
in fourth year, students prepare for the First for Schools Certificate B2 examination,
which is the level required for secondary schooling certification. Many of our students
achieve this objective by the end of their fourth year and carry on to tackle Advanced
and/ or Proficiency levels.

Our institution also acts as a Cambridge English Assessment examination venue,
offering candidates multiple options for accreditating academic English, projected
into their college studies and careers, either by way of the better-known certifications
such as B2 First Certificate, C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency, or the recently introduced
MET or ECPE, both proposed by Michigan Language Assessment with the support of
Cambridge University and Michigan University.

Each of our proposals seeks to respond to the singularity of our students, either
with general exams or modular, flexible multi-level exams, enabling the combination
of different components according to the different students’ needs.
We also prepare for the training required for university entry and direct our future
graduates based on their choices, providing them with advice on admission criteria
as regards English, or writing out letters of recommendation upon request by the
universities.

NEW CHALLENGES
The different methodologies we apply have our students as the central protagonists.
Our proposal has progressed hand in hand with the new educational paradigm in
which students learn through action in this changing world.

Yet, if there is a time that can represent the changing nature of the 21st century,
at least to the extent we have experienced, it is undoubtedly the time we are living in.
This is why we have adapted the dynamics of our face-to-face classes to the scenario
required in this virtual world, putting into play all the tools acquired in our ongoing
training. Flexible pedagogics for heterogeneous classrooms, combining autonomous
learning by way of appropriate search for information, project-working, analyzing and
studying concrete situations and proposing solutions to problems as well as guided
learning with appropriate technological resources and tools. The aim is to be able to use
the most adequate means to communicate the topics researched, either individually
or in groups. This is all happening while we continue to offer times and spaces for
preparing examinations with the purpose of ensuring our candidate students can
successfully take them once we return to face-to-face scenarios.
While it is no doubt true that at the beginning of the 2020 school year we would
never have imagined this way of experiencing teaching, we are accompanying our
students by focusing on the strengths they bring with them, and those they encounter
in their current surroundings, and by building opportunities with and on the basis of
these strengths.

Ms. Elizabeth Cardozo
English Language Department

1 Common European Framework of Reference: The CEFR for languages: learning, teaching and
assessment is a European standard used globally to measure the level of oral and written understanding
and expression in a certain language.
2 Content and Language Integrated Learning: In the field of foreign language teaching this was
previously known as “English across the curriculum”.

271