Abstract:

One of the most challenging bets in International Primary Education nowadays is the Primary Years educational Programme (PYP), designed and introduced by the IBO in 1997 as a part of the wider International Baccalaureate Programme.
The PYP curriculum model could be best represented by constructivist approach with its belief into learning as a process of continual travel on the cyclic path of constructing, tasting and confirming or revising a hypothesis. Thus, the inquiry model, allowing students to be actively involved in their own learning, is recognized to be the leading pedagogical approach in the PYP.
Language perspective is a crucial one in the PYP programme. In order to introduce a bilingual vision of the educational content, language is not taught as a separate discipline, but interdisciplinary, as a part of social and cognitive development.
Language acquisition is seen as a process of constructing meaning based on complex relationship between language and learning:
1. learning language, traditional communicative approach,
2. learning through language, using English to teach other subjects
3. learning about language, developing students awareness of language structures.
In practice, it means a balanced use of language as a communicative tool, as well as a flexible resource for further learning and cognitive growth.
In continuation, we are offering a detail examination of PYP language learning programme implementation in one of Madrid international schools.

Keywords:

Education, Primary Years, bilingual learning, interdisciplinary approach.