IB MYP Language Acquisition – Key and related concepts in language acquisition Study Guide

This study guide teaches the key and related concepts of IB MYP Language Acquisition and shows how each one turns into real classroom tasks and statements of inquiry. It is aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Language acquisition, from 2020 (first eAssessment May 2023/November 2023). It suits MYP years 4 and 5, whichever proficiency level you are working at. There is no SL/HL split in the MYP.

MYP has no prescribed content list: schools design their own units. This page covers a part of the course the IB’s brief does list – the four key concepts it names for language acquisition and its three related-concept examples. Your school’s units may use other concepts too; your teacher will share the task-specific clarifications for any assessed work.

The page is written in English, like our other language acquisition pages. Model sentences are in English, with short examples from French, Spanish and German. Every task tells you how to apply it in your own target language.

Use this guide with the key and related concepts revision notes and the key and related concepts 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

Concept	Type	What you should be able to do	Where it shows up
Communication	Key	Explain how a message fits its audience, purpose and mode	All four criteria
Connections	Key	Link your target language to your other languages, subjects and communities	Reading, writing, speaking
Creativity	Key	Use the language you know in new combinations for a real purpose	Speaking and writing
Culture	Key	Explain how culture shapes what people say and how they say it	All four criteria
Word choice	Related (example)	Choose words for register, connotation and precision	Writing, speaking
Conventions	Related (example)	Follow the expected rules of a text or exchange	Writing, speaking
Idiom	Related (example)	Recognise, explain and use fixed expressions correctly	Reading, listening, speaking
Statements of inquiry	Unit planning	Combine a key concept, a related concept and a global context	Every unit

How concepts work in an MYP unit

The brief says the MYP promotes inquiry in language acquisition by building conceptual understanding within global contexts. It gives two layers.

• Key concepts broadly frame the whole MYP curriculum. For language acquisition the brief names communication, connections, creativity and culture.
• Related concepts are narrower and grounded in the subject. The brief gives word choice, conventions and idiom as examples. The full subject guide, which your school holds, lists more. Your teacher will tell you which ones your units use.

A concept is not a topic. “Food” is a topic; “culture” is a concept that applies to food, festivals and slang alike.

The brief also says the curriculum explores factual, conceptual and debatable questions. In language acquisition these look like this:

• Factual: “How do you open a formal letter in Spanish?”
• Conceptual: “Why do languages have different levels of politeness?”
• Debatable: “Should young people use slang in a job interview?”

Statements of inquiry

In MYP unit planning, a statement of inquiry is one sentence that joins a key concept, one or more related concepts, and a global context into an idea you could test in many situations. The brief lists the six global contexts: identities and relationships; orientation in space and time; personal and cultural expression; scientific and technical innovation; globalization and sustainability; fairness and development.

A good statement of inquiry:

1. names or clearly implies the key concept;
2. uses at least one related concept;
3. points to a global context;
4. is a general claim, not a question and not a task instruction;
5. would still be true in a different language or unit.

The four key concepts

Communication

In plain terms, communication is the exchange of meaning between people. In a language classroom it has three parts you can check: audience (who receives it), purpose (what it is for) and mode (spoken, written or visual). Criterion D in the brief asks you to use language suitable to audience and purpose, and lists examples: home language, classroom language, formal and informal exchanges, and social and academic language.

Classroom task: leave a voicemail for a friend cancelling a meeting, then write an email to a teacher cancelling a meeting. Same message, two audiences.

Statement of inquiry: “The way we adapt our words to an audience shapes whether a message is understood and accepted.” (Communication; word choice; identities and relationships.)

Connections

Connections are the links between people, places, ideas and languages. For a language learner this means:

• links between your target language and languages you already know (shared roots, borrowed words, false friends);
• links to other subjects – reading a science article in the target language, for example;
• links between people – pen friends, exchange partners, online communities.

Classroom task: make a word web of cognates between English and your target language, then mark the false friends in red.

Statement of inquiry: “Links between languages can help us learn faster, but they can also mislead us.” (Connections; word choice; orientation in space and time.)

Creativity

Creativity is producing something new, or using what you already have in a new way. At the emergent level this can be as simple as combining ten known phrases into your own short poem. At the proficient level it could be writing a story with a twist ending or a persuasive speech.

Classroom task: write a short advert for an invented product using only vocabulary from the unit, then perform it.

Statement of inquiry: “Creative use of language lets us express who we are, even with limited words.” (Creativity; idiom; personal and cultural expression.)

Culture

Culture is the shared beliefs, values, habits and products of a group of people. It shapes language in ways you can see:

• Forms of address. French tu/vous, Spanish tú/usted and German du/Sie all mark closeness or distance. English does not do this with its pronouns.
• Greetings and politeness. How people greet, thank and refuse differs between communities.
• Humour and references. Jokes often depend on shared knowledge.

The brief’s aims include gaining insight into the cultural characteristics of the communities where the language is spoken, and understanding the perspectives of people from your own and other cultures.

Classroom task: role-play meeting a friend’s grandparents, choosing the correct form of address throughout.

Statement of inquiry: “Cultural expectations shape the conventions people follow when they speak to each other.” (Culture; conventions; identities and relationships.)

The related concepts

Word choice

Word choice means picking the word that fits the meaning, the audience and the tone. Three things to check:

• Register: formal or informal. “Could you possibly send me…” versus “Send me…”.
• Connotation: the feeling a word carries. “Slim” is positive; “skinny” can be negative.
• Precision: “walked” versus “strolled”, “rushed” or “limped”.

Watch for false friends – words that look alike but differ in meaning. French actuellement means “currently”, not “actually”. Spanish embarazada means “pregnant”, not “embarrassed”. German Gift means “poison”.

Worked example. A student writes to a hotel: “Hey! Your room was rubbish and I want my cash back.”

1. Identify the audience: a hotel manager – a stranger, in a formal role.
2. Identify the purpose: to complain and get a refund.
3. Replace informal words: “Hey!” becomes “Dear Sir or Madam”; “rubbish” becomes “not of the standard advertised”; “cash back” becomes “a refund”.
4. Add a precise detail: “The shower did not work for the whole of my three-night stay.”
5. Result: “Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to request a refund. The room was not of the standard advertised: the shower did not work for the whole of my three-night stay.”

In your target language, repeat the steps, and add the formal form of “you” if your language has one.

Conventions

Conventions are the expected rules of a type of text or exchange. Readers notice when they are broken. Examples:

• A formal letter has an opening, a clear purpose, and a formal closing. In French, formal letters often close with a set formula such as Veuillez agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations distinguées. In German, Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren opens and Mit freundlichen Grüßen closes.
• A text message can drop greetings and use abbreviations.
• A conversation has turn-taking: you answer, then ask something back.

Conventions also cover smaller things – how dates are written, where punctuation goes (Spanish opens questions with ¿), and whether nouns take capitals (all German nouns do).

Worked example. Turn these notes into a correctly laid-out invitation: party, Saturday 14 June, 7 pm, my house, bring music. Steps: add a heading; open with a greeting to the reader; state the event, day, date, time and place in that order; give the request (“please bring some music”); ask for a reply by a date; sign off with your name. Then check the date format your target language uses.

Idiom

An idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning is not the sum of its words. “It’s raining cats and dogs” is about heavy rain, not animals. Idioms are rarely translated word for word. You match the meaning instead:

English	French	Spanish
It costs an arm and a leg	Ça coûte les yeux de la tête (it costs the eyes of the head)	Cuesta un ojo de la cara (it costs an eye of the face)
It’s raining heavily	Il pleut des cordes (it’s raining ropes)	Llueve a cántaros (it’s raining pitchers)

Worked example. You read Il m’a posé un lapin in a French blog. Word for word it is “he put a rabbit on me”. Steps: (1) notice the literal meaning makes no sense in context; (2) use the context – the writer waited an hour at a café; (3) infer the meaning: “he stood me up”; (4) record the idiom with its meaning and an example sentence, not a literal translation.

Use idioms sparingly and only when you are sure of them. One correct idiom in a speaking task shows range. A wrong or literally translated one confuses your listener.

Worked example: building a statement of inquiry

Your class is starting a unit on social media and friendship.

1. Pick the key concept. The unit is about how people talk online, so choose communication.
2. Pick the related concept(s). Online messages have their own rules and short forms, so choose conventions and word choice.
3. Pick the global context. Friendship is about who we are and how we relate: identities and relationships.
4. Write a general claim. “The conventions of online communication shape how we build and keep friendships.”
5. Test it. Does it work for another language? Yes. Is it a claim, not a question? Yes. Does it avoid naming one app? Yes.
6. Add inquiry questions. Factual: “What abbreviations are common in text messages in the target language?” Conceptual: “How does a short message change the tone of a conversation?” Debatable: “Is online friendship as real as face-to-face friendship?”

Common errors

• Mixing up key and related concepts. Idiom and word choice are related-concept examples; communication and culture are key concepts.
• Writing the statement of inquiry as a question. “How do people make friends online?” is an inquiry question, not a statement.
• Naming a topic, not a concept. “Holidays” is a topic; the concept might be culture.
• Translating idioms word for word into or out of the target language.
• Treating culture as facts only. Listing festival dates shows knowledge, not understanding of perspectives.
• Ignoring register. A formal task written in text-message style breaks conventions and word-choice expectations together.

Where to go next

• How the course fits together: subject guide and syllabus guide
• Working at your level: proficiency phases
• What each criterion rewards: criteria in practice
• The on-screen exam: eAssessment exam preparation
• Conventions by text type: text types and conventions
• The six contexts in depth: global contexts and topics

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Language acquisition, from 2020 (first eAssessment May 2023/November 2023).