English in Lehrplan 21

Family, Education, Health and Pets
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Dear Community

My kid is now in 3rd. class in primary school in Zurich, and just started learning English. Does anybody know which level the purpil will target by the end of 6th class? I went through the Lehrplan 21 website and find nowhere to state any qualification such as A1 / A2, or Cambridge level such as KET or PET.

Any information is welcome, thank you.

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Our experience is that they don't offer a qualification within the school as such but, in our case, our son along with other native speakers in his class were given the offer to take the Cambridge exam in the 2nd Sek. They had to go to an external exam centre to do it but they were given parallel exam prep lessons while the non-native speakers did the usual English lessons.

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Lehrplan 21 curriculum documents set out 'competences' for each subject area.

I found a web-page from Bern that lays out the competences in Lehrplan 21 against the European framework - minimum standard is B1 by the end of third cycle (end of SEK) for all areas.

Clearly, if a child is fluent in English at home, they should far exceed the minimum requirements for English as a second language.

In that case, I can highly recommend either asking if Cambridge exams are offered at SEK, or if you can do them privately. These will come in handy in the future. It depends if your kids are happy to do these as an extracurricular activity, and don't mind preparing for the exam.

However, a note:

- if your child is exempted from English the subject will be not counted in their grade average for SEK. If they can consistently get a 5-6 grade average for SEK English (anything less than 5 would be slacking off for English in our family and not acceptable) - this will bring UP their overall grade average - that can make the difference between staying in SEK A or moving to SEK B.

- your kids may actually 'enjoy' being an expert (for once!) in a subject, so keeping them in English class may be fun rather than boring (all my kids opted to do this as they actually enjoyed feeling like experts, did not mind teaching others as requested by the teacher, and felt heard and affirmed by their English teachers, who would then try to stimulate them further, or let them sit in the back of the class and do their other homework, extra German or French instead during 'English classes'.

None of my kids went for exemption for English at SEK - they were all given the option of doing Cambridge and getting an exemption, or staying in the English class - and they all chose to stay in the class.

Cambridge FIRST, ADVANCED or PROFICIENCY exceeds the Lehrplan 21 minimum standards, so if your kids pass these test (usually possible end of grade 6 or during SEK) then they would then be able to ask to be exempted from English as a subject at school. But as I said, that may not be an advantage to them in their overall school experiences.

My husband teaches in a bilingual Montessori school and the kids there who are English-fluent are able to take the Cambridge exam preparation process during grade 5 and sit the exam before the end of grade 6, but it's optional, based on the interest of the child, parents and the support of the teacher. They sit the the Cambridge FIRST for schools.

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Oh, to answer your actual question:

The basic competence in Lehrplan 21 for ‘second language’ by end of grade 6 is between A1.2 and A 2.1

Here’s the link from Bern that you may find helpful (I am sure Zurich has the same but I found the Bern one easily)

https://be.lehrplan.ch/index.php?code=e|1|4

And for the CEFR (Common European Framework for Languages) you can use this link that describes the competence levels.

https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-eu…s-global-scale

I would say, based on these descriptors, Mother tongue children in high literacy environment should be hitting B1 by end of grade 3 and high B2 by end of Primary, and certainly into C1 by end of Secondary. C2 is required for University. My daughter’s university/fachhochschule is bilingual and C2 is assumed in German and B2 minimum for the second language (English). They write in German but are expected to take some lectures and read source material/ research in English without much difficulty.

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Oh, this link is the one for Lehrplan 21 Zurich - it’s basically the same as the one from Bern -

https://www.zh.ch/de/bildung/informa…html#711239836

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swisspea, as you seem very knowledgeable about this: would you recommend Cambridge First or Cambridge First for schools? My daughter's secondary school no longer offers test prep, and I think at some point she (native speaker) will probably want to study in an English-speaking country or at least participate in a summer program.

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I don't think it matters - from what I understand, Cambridge First for schools uses a textbook that is more 'fun' for kids, and the adult version has less 'fun stuff' in the textbook. But in the end, it's the same exam/level.

just find a good teacher/class and get it done - and yes, it's good to have it if your daughter may want to work or study in another country....

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I think for a teenager I'd recommend the First for schools. The standard is the same, but the topics are more relatable. The topics tend to be school or future plans rather than more work based topics.

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There is no difference at all in level as Swisspea has said but the subject matter is a bit more geared towards teenagers in the schools version. I use extra practice materials from the standard exam with my students as the grammar is just the same but the schools version has more relateble articles etc

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Thank you, everyone!

Perhaps I should have mentioned this: she speaks American English, but I suspect she is used to having to adjust her vocabulary and grammar, as Swiss school insists on British English.

To the OP: I agree with swisspea's assessments of levels reached by native speakers in school English classes.

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Most of the non-native English speakers in the schools here seem to have adopted some hybrid of YouTube / Insta English. Half-swallowed words and a weird vocal fry.

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Very helpful, thank you!