What Will Students Learn in Language A: Language and Literature?
In the Language A: Language and Literature course students will learn about the complex and dynamic nature of language and explore both its practical and aesthetic dimensions. They will explore the crucial role language plays in communication, reflecting experience and shaping the world. Students will also learn about their own roles as producers of language and develop their productive skills.
Throughout the course, students will explore the various ways in which language choices, text types, literary forms and contextual elements all effect meaning. Through close analysis of various text types and literary forms, students will consider their own interpretations, as well as the critical perspectives of others, to explore how such positions are shaped by cultural belief systems and to negotiate meanings for texts. Students will engage in activities that involve them in the process of production and help shape their critical awareness of how texts and their associated visual and audio elements work together to influence the audience/reader and how audiences/readers open up the possibilities of texts. With its focus on a wide variety of communicative acts, the course is meant to develop sensitivity to the foundational nature, and pervasive influence, of language in the world at large.
Taken from Language A: language and literature guide
First assessment 2021
Throughout the course, students will explore the various ways in which language choices, text types, literary forms and contextual elements all effect meaning. Through close analysis of various text types and literary forms, students will consider their own interpretations, as well as the critical perspectives of others, to explore how such positions are shaped by cultural belief systems and to negotiate meanings for texts. Students will engage in activities that involve them in the process of production and help shape their critical awareness of how texts and their associated visual and audio elements work together to influence the audience/reader and how audiences/readers open up the possibilities of texts. With its focus on a wide variety of communicative acts, the course is meant to develop sensitivity to the foundational nature, and pervasive influence, of language in the world at large.
Taken from Language A: language and literature guide
First assessment 2021
Studies in Language and Literature Model
The IB Mission Statement
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
The Diploma Programme (DP)
The Diploma Programme (DP) is a rigorous pre-university course of study designed for students in the 16 to 19 age range. It is a broad-based two-year course that aims to encourage students to be knowledgeable and inquiring, but also caring and compassionate. There is a strong emphasis on encouraging students to develop intercultural understanding, open-mindedness, and the attitudes necessary for them to respect and evaluate a range of points of view.
The course is presented as six academic areas enclosing a central core. It encourages the concurrent study of a broad range of academic areas. Students study two modern languages (or a modern language and a classical language), a humanities or social science subject, an experimental science, mathematics and one of the creative arts. It is this comprehensive range of subjects that makes the Diploma Programme a demanding course of study designed to prepare students effectively for university entrance. In each of the academic areas students have flexibility in making their choices, which means they can choose subjects that particularly interest them and that they may wish to study further at university.
Taken from Language A: language and literature guide
First assessment 2021
The course is presented as six academic areas enclosing a central core. It encourages the concurrent study of a broad range of academic areas. Students study two modern languages (or a modern language and a classical language), a humanities or social science subject, an experimental science, mathematics and one of the creative arts. It is this comprehensive range of subjects that makes the Diploma Programme a demanding course of study designed to prepare students effectively for university entrance. In each of the academic areas students have flexibility in making their choices, which means they can choose subjects that particularly interest them and that they may wish to study further at university.
Taken from Language A: language and literature guide
First assessment 2021
Focus on International-Mindedness
International-mindedness is at the heart of the IB. It is central to its philosophy, and inspires and informs its pedagogical principles and practices.
The study of language and literature is instrumental in developing an awareness and understanding of the self and how it relates to others. Through the study of texts written originally in the language studied and in translation, students gain an understanding of the ways in which different languages and literatures represent the world and how these can reflect and help create diverse identities. Students also become aware that representations of the world vary across cultures and are encouraged to consider the reasons why, attaining a better understanding of the different ways in which people experience and represent the world.
The syllabuses of studies in language and literature require that a set number of texts be read in translation and recommend that the texts chosen should be representative of a variety of perspectives. In the creation of the Prescribed reading list, the IB has aimed at including a wide variety of writers and at trying to attain as equitable a balance as possible between canonical and more contemporary writers, male and female writers and writers from different regions and countries in the cases in which a language is spoken in a variety of places. The Prescribed reading list is aimed at inspiring and encouraging teachers to make choices that will result in a collection of texts for class study that will strike a similar balance and that will therefore allow students to be able to fully appreciate the diversity of forms the human experience can take.
The way that studies in language and literature courses contribute to the development of international- mindedness in students is linked to the way that they contribute to the development of the attributes of the IB learner profile. By reading texts which offer perspectives which may be different from their own, students will:
Studies in language and literature courses offer various opportunities for students to examine the ways in which their personal world, identities and relationships are represented in texts and how these relate to their own perspectives of the reality around them.
They also enable students to experience representations of other realities and other people, allowing them to get acquainted with perspectives of the world that might be different from their own. In this way, studies in language and literature courses provide fertile ground for a deep reflection on the interaction between the local and the global and are a pathway to intercultural critical thinking and consciousness.
Taken from Language A: language and literature guide
First assessment 2021
The syllabuses of studies in language and literature require that a set number of texts be read in translation and recommend that the texts chosen should be representative of a variety of perspectives. In the creation of the Prescribed reading list, the IB has aimed at including a wide variety of writers and at trying to attain as equitable a balance as possible between canonical and more contemporary writers, male and female writers and writers from different regions and countries in the cases in which a language is spoken in a variety of places. The Prescribed reading list is aimed at inspiring and encouraging teachers to make choices that will result in a collection of texts for class study that will strike a similar balance and that will therefore allow students to be able to fully appreciate the diversity of forms the human experience can take.
The way that studies in language and literature courses contribute to the development of international- mindedness in students is linked to the way that they contribute to the development of the attributes of the IB learner profile. By reading texts which offer perspectives which may be different from their own, students will:
- use critical thinking skills to be able to understand the nature of the experience that is communicated in a text and the ways in which such an experience is communicated (thinkers)
- nurture their curiosity in connection with the different views and experiences of life present in a text (inquirers)
- engage with issues and ideas of global significance of which they might have been unaware (knowledgeable)
- be encouraged to appreciate the ideas, values and traditions of others in an inquiring way (open- minded)
- understand that the dignity and rights of people everywhere must be respected (principled)
- show empathy, compassion and respect for other people (caring)
- recognize interdependence among people and between people and the world in which they live (balanced)
- listen carefully to the perspectives of other individuals and groups and express as articulately as possible their own perspectives (communicators)
- question their own views about the world (reflective)
- be open to transforming such views and consider how this transformation can lead to action (risk- takers).
Studies in language and literature courses offer various opportunities for students to examine the ways in which their personal world, identities and relationships are represented in texts and how these relate to their own perspectives of the reality around them.
They also enable students to experience representations of other realities and other people, allowing them to get acquainted with perspectives of the world that might be different from their own. In this way, studies in language and literature courses provide fertile ground for a deep reflection on the interaction between the local and the global and are a pathway to intercultural critical thinking and consciousness.
Taken from Language A: language and literature guide
First assessment 2021
Engaging With Sensitive Topics
All studies in language and literature courses will provide the opportunity to engage with a broad range of texts, approaches, ideas, stimuli and interpretations that address topics of personal, local and global significance. These works may challenge learners intellectually, personally and culturally, and involve sensitive and mature topics. The courses studied may explicitly address sensitive topics through texts and issues discussed while inviting students to critically reflect on various perspectives offered.
Engaging with sensitive topics in these courses—whether receptively or productively—must be done with every reasonable effort to encourage students to respond with respect for their peers and larger learning communities. Providing a safe environment in which discussion may be facilitated is an important role of the teacher. In general, approaching sensitive topics in studies in language and literature courses must be done through an intellectually critical lens avoiding gratuitous excess and/or glib treatment and bearing in mind the IB’s commitment to international-mindedness and intercultural respect.
Taken from Language A: language and literature guide
First assessment 2021
The IB Continuum Pathway to Diploma Programme
Studies in Language and Literature
Assessment Outline HL
Assessment Component Weighting Time of Assessment
External Assessment (4 hours) 80%
Paper 1: Guided textual analysis (2 hours 15 minutes) 35% 12th Grade Year
The paper consists of two non-literary
passages, from two different text types,
each accompanied by a question. Students
write an analysis of each of the passages.
(40 marks)
Paper 2: Comparative essay (1 hour 45 minutes) 25% 12th Grade Year
The paper consists of four general questions.
In response to one question students write
a comparative essay based on two works studied
in the course.
(30 marks)
Higher Level Essay 20% 11th Grade Year
Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or
a collection of non-literary texts by one same author,
or a literary text or work studied during the course.
The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length.
(20 marks)
Internal Assessment: Individual Oral (15 minutes) 20% 11th Grade Year
This component consists of an individual oral which
is internally assessed by the teacher and externally
moderated by the IB at the end of the course.
Supported by an extract from both one non-literary
text and one from a literary work, students will offer
a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5
minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following
prompt: Examine the ways in which the global issue
of your choice is presented through the content
and form of two of the works that you have studied.
(40 marks)
External Assessment (4 hours) 80%
Paper 1: Guided textual analysis (2 hours 15 minutes) 35% 12th Grade Year
The paper consists of two non-literary
passages, from two different text types,
each accompanied by a question. Students
write an analysis of each of the passages.
(40 marks)
Paper 2: Comparative essay (1 hour 45 minutes) 25% 12th Grade Year
The paper consists of four general questions.
In response to one question students write
a comparative essay based on two works studied
in the course.
(30 marks)
Higher Level Essay 20% 11th Grade Year
Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or
a collection of non-literary texts by one same author,
or a literary text or work studied during the course.
The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length.
(20 marks)
Internal Assessment: Individual Oral (15 minutes) 20% 11th Grade Year
This component consists of an individual oral which
is internally assessed by the teacher and externally
moderated by the IB at the end of the course.
Supported by an extract from both one non-literary
text and one from a literary work, students will offer
a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5
minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following
prompt: Examine the ways in which the global issue
of your choice is presented through the content
and form of two of the works that you have studied.
(40 marks)