IB MYP Language Acquisition – Global Contexts and Topic Vocabulary Study Guide

This study guide teaches you how to use the six MYP global contexts to organise topic vocabulary for IB MYP Language Acquisition. It is aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Language acquisition, from 2020 (first eAssessment May 2023/November 2023), and covers the global contexts named in the brief’s curriculum model overview. It suits MYP years 4 and 5, including students preparing for eAssessment. There is no SL/HL split in the MYP: language acquisition courses are assessed at emergent, capable or proficient level.

MYP has no prescribed content list – schools design their own units. This page covers a topic the IB’s brief lists (the global contexts) and a skill all four of its criteria depend on: having the right words ready for the topic in front of you. Your teacher will share the task-specific clarifications for any assessed work. The page is written in English; build every word bank and model sentence in your target language.

Use it with the global contexts revision notes and the global contexts practice questions. The course hub is at /boards/ib/ib-myp/myp-language-acquisition/ and the printable checklist is at /checklists/ib/ib-myp/myp-language-acquisition/.

What this unit covers

Area	What you should be able to do	Criteria it feeds
The six global contexts	Name all six and say which topics sit comfortably in each	All
Thematic word banks	Build a layered bank for one topic, not a loose list of nouns	All
Personal, local, global	Talk and write about one topic at three scales	C, D
Receptive and productive vocabulary	Tell words you recognise from words you can use, and close the gap	A, B vs C, D
Transfer between skills	Reuse one bank for listening, reading, speaking and writing	All

This page does not re-teach the criteria or the exam format. For those, read the criteria in practice guide, the eAssessment preparation guide and the proficiency phases guide.

What the brief says

The brief is short, so it is worth knowing exactly what it prints about contexts and topics.

• Six global contexts. You explore the key and related concepts through: identities and relationships; orientation in space and time; personal and cultural expression; scientific and technical innovation; globalization and sustainability; fairness and development.
• Concepts. The key concepts listed are communication, connections, creativity and culture. Example related concepts are word choice, conventions and idiom.
• Questions. The curriculum explores factual, conceptual and debatable questions.
• Criterion C asks you to interact on topics of “personal, local and global interest and significance”.
• eAssessment. The on-screen examination has three tasks (Criteria A, B and D, 24 marks each) and may include “any topics from the language acquisition list”. Speaking (Criterion C, 24 marks) is internally assessed and moderated by the IB. The brief does not print the topic list itself, so ask your teacher for it.
• Course description. Learning an additional language should equip you to communicate successfully in various global contexts.

Everything else on this page – the topic examples, the bank layout, the routines – is Marlbridge study advice, not IB wording.

The six contexts as vocabulary organisers

A global context is a lens. A topic is what you actually talk about. One topic can sit under several lenses, and the lens changes which words you need. The table gives example topics (our suggestions, not an IB list) and one debatable question for each.

Global context	What it points you towards	Example topics	Example debatable question
Identities and relationships	Who you are, family, friends, health, feelings	Friendship, family roles, healthy routines, online life	Do online friendships count as much as face-to-face ones?
Orientation in space and time	Places, journeys, home, history, change over time	Moving house, my town then and now, travel, migration stories	Is it better to grow up in one place or many?
Personal and cultural expression	Arts, festivals, food, leisure, how people express themselves	Music, festivals, fashion, hobbies, celebrations	Should schools spend more time on the arts?
Scientific and technical innovation	Technology, inventions, the internet, medicine	Phones, social media, online learning, transport inventions	Has technology made us more or less connected?
Globalization and sustainability	Environment, consumption, links between places	Food waste, recycling, fast fashion, tourism	Is tourism good for small towns?
Fairness and development	Rights, equality, access, community action	Access to education, volunteering, school rules, fair trade	Should volunteering be part of every school timetable?

Notice the overlap. “Tourism” fits orientation in space and time (journeys), globalization and sustainability (impact on places) and fairness and development (who benefits). Your bank for tourism can be reused in all three. That is the point: you do not need six separate vocabularies, you need well-built banks that you can angle towards different contexts.

Building a thematic word bank

A list of twenty nouns will not carry you through a speaking exam. A useful bank has five layers.

1. Core nouns – the things and people in the topic.
2. Verbs – what people do in this topic. Learn them with a subject and object, not alone.
3. Describing words – adjectives and adverbs, including a few that show degree (slightly, extremely).
4. Opinion and linking phrases – ways to agree, disagree, contrast and give reasons.
5. Chunks and collocations – words that go together (“reduce waste”, “take part in”, “on the other hand”).

Add a sixth row for scale: one idea at personal, local and global level. This row comes straight from the Criterion C wording.

Aim for eight to ten items per layer. Five layers of eight gives a working bank of about 40 items per topic – enough to understand most texts on it and to talk for a few minutes.

Worked example: food waste (globalization and sustainability)

Here is the bank in English. Build yours in your target language, and write the gender or article with each noun if your language needs it.

Layer	Items
Core nouns	leftovers, packaging, sell-by date, compost, landfill, supermarket, portion, canteen
Verbs	throw away food, waste money, reduce waste, recycle packaging, donate surplus food, plan meals, buy in bulk, reuse containers
Describing words	wasteful, fresh, out of date, avoidable, harmful, cheap, extremely, slightly
Opinion and linking	in my view, I am convinced that, it is true that … but, as a result, whereas, above all
Chunks	make a difference, it is a shame that, more and more people, the problem is that, on the other hand
Scale	Personal: I plan my lunch so I finish it. Local: our canteen gives unsold bread to a food bank. Global: food waste links to wider environmental harm.

Step by step:

1. Brainstorm in English, then translate only what you will really use.
2. Sort every item into a layer. Gaps show at once – most students have plenty of nouns and almost no verbs.
3. Check each chunk in a dictionary or with your teacher. A wrong collocation learned well is hard to fix.
4. Write one true sentence of your own for each verb. Sentences you mean are easier to recall.
5. Write the scale row last, because it uses the other five layers.

Receptive and productive vocabulary

Receptive vocabulary is what you recognise when you hear or read it (Criteria A and B). Productive vocabulary is what you can call up and use correctly when you speak or write (Criteria C and D). Your receptive bank is always larger.

Two consequences:

• For listening and reading, you need breadth: many words, including synonyms, so you recognise an idea however it is phrased.
• For speaking and writing, you need depth: fewer words, but with correct gender, spelling, forms and collocations.

Mark each item in your bank R (recognise) or P (produce). Test yourself both ways: target language to English checks R; English to target language checks P.

Transferring a bank between skills

The same bank should work in all four criteria. Each skill uses it differently.

Listening (Criterion A). Before you listen, read the questions and predict five words you expect. Then predict synonyms, because recordings and questions often phrase the same idea differently. If the question says “throw away”, listen for “waste”, “get rid of” or “bin”.

Reading (Criterion B). Use word families to work out new words: if you know “waste” you can guess “wasteful” and “wastage”. Use the topic to guess meaning from context. Watch for false friends – words that look like an English word but mean something else.

Speaking (Criterion C). Recycle chunks from your bank. Move from personal to local to global to extend an answer. If you lose a word, describe it with words you do know (“the date on the packet that tells you when to eat it”).

Writing (Criterion D). Pick from the opinion and linking layer to structure a paragraph. Swap everyday words for more precise ones from the verbs layer, and keep register consistent with your audience.

Worked example: one topic, four skills

Topic: online friendships (identities and relationships). The chunk “keep in touch with” is in the bank.

• Listening prediction list: friend, message, video call, meet in person, keep in touch, lonely.
• Reading: a text says “they stay connected by messaging every day”. You match it to the question “How do they keep in touch?” – a paraphrase you only catch if your bank holds both.
• Speaking: “Personally, I keep in touch with my cousin by video call. In my town, many teenagers meet friends online first. Globally, it means people can have friends in other countries.”
• Writing (upgrading a sentence): “I talk to my friend a lot” becomes “I keep in touch with my closest friend every day, even though she lives abroad.”

The same five or six chunks appear in every skill. That repetition is what moves a word from R to P.

A review routine that works

Words fade if you meet them once. Space your reviews: learn a set on day 1, then review on days 2, 4, 8 and 15. Each time, test yourself from English first (productive) before you look at the list. Keep items you miss in a “tricky” column and review those more often.

Before any assessed task, spend five minutes rebuilding the bank from memory for the topic you have been given.

Matching the bank to your level

Your course is reported at emergent, capable or proficient level. As a general guide from our tutors (not IB wording):

• Emergent: concrete, personal topics; present tense; short chunks; mostly the personal row of the scale.
• Capable: add past and future forms, reasons and comparisons; use the local row confidently.
• Proficient: abstract and debatable angles; a wider range of linking and opinion phrases; the global row with supported opinions.

Pick the context angle that matches your level. The same topic – food waste – works at every level if you choose the right scale.

Common errors

• Learning nouns only. Without verbs and chunks you cannot build sentences.
• Learning words without gender, article or irregular forms, then losing accuracy marks in writing.
• Treating the context name as the topic. “Globalization and sustainability” is a lens; “food waste” is a topic.
• One bank per context, built once and never reused. Link banks across contexts instead.
• Translating whole English sentences word by word. Build sentences from chunks you know are correct.
• Listening only for the exact words in the question, and missing the paraphrase.
• Staying at personal level in speaking when the question invites a local or global view.
• Revising from a list you only read. Reading checks recognition; producing from English checks use.

Where to go next

Condensed recall and a self-test are in the revision notes. Apply the method in the practice questions. For the wider course, see the subject overview and the syllabus guide.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Language acquisition, from 2020 (first eAssessment May 2023/November 2023). Published by the International Baccalaureate Organization. Complete subject guides are available to schools through the IB’s Programme Resource Centre.