Kindergarten and Elementary
We offer languages at TKS according to the age of the child.
We offer Arabic language studies for native and non-native speakers.
Our growing Mother Tongue program is a great way to support our students to maintain their home languages.
SECONDARY
Our Middle Years Program (MYP) students may study additional languages. This provides an opportunity to develop insights into the features, processes and craft of language and the concept of culture. It celebrates the diversity in the ways we live, behave and view the world.
Acquiring a language(s) opens possibilities to reflect upon and explore cultural perspectives of our own and other communities. There are many other benefits, too:
- Languages are valued as central to developing critical thinking. They’re considered essential to cultivate intercultural awareness and the development of internationally-minded and responsible members of local, national, and global communities
- Learning more than one language is great boost for your child’s creativity and innovative thinking. With a wider vocabulary, their mind is open to producing more ideas and concepts. A win-win!
- They’re integral to exploring and sustaining personal development and cultural identity, and provide an intellectual framework to support conceptual development
- They equip students with the necessary multiliteracy skills and attitudes. This enables them to communicate successfully in various global contexts and build intercultural understanding.
For more information on language learning in secondary school, please see the TKS High School Program of Studies.
TKS High School Program of Studies 2023-2024
Students must study at least one subject from group 1.
- Language A: Literature
- English
- Language A: Language and Literature
- English
- Arabic
- Language A: Literature - Self Taught
Students must study at least one subject from group 2.
- Language B
- English
- French
- Arabic
- Language Ab Initio
- French
- Arabic
- Spanish
English Language/Multilingual Learners at TKS (ELL)
We recognize that our students are learning through language while simultaneously learning language, and learning about language. As such, we consider every teacher at TKS is a language teacher. TKS aims to support multilingual learners through ‘translanguaging’ in the classroom. This is when children use two or more languages to communicate, using a child’s full linguistic resource to make meaning. We encourage children to continue to develop their home language literacies, which supports development of English language skills and affirms identity.
Supporting Multilingual Learners
Many of our teachers have completed the Teaching Young Children in English in Multilingual Contexts (TYCEMC) course by Lexis Education.
The course is designed for teachers to learn how to support multilingual learners in Elementary School in their classes. This is particularly important as a high percentage of our students speak English as a second, third or even fourth language.