IB ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE

Complete Course Overview — Standard and Higher Level

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The IB English A: Language & Literature is a two-year program in which students will have the opportunity to study a wide range of both literary and non-literary works.

For the Standard Level (“SL”) pathway, students are assessed through the following assessments:-

Paper 1;
Paper 2; and
The Individual Oral (IO).

For the Higher Level (“HL”) pathway, students are assessed through the following assessments:-

Paper 1;
Paper 2;
The IO; and
The Higher Level Essay (HLE).

Let us look at each individual assessment and what it requires from the students.

“Students have been assessed on a variety of text types for Paper 1… It is therefore imperative that students achieve a high level of visual literacy and be able to identify and analyze not only language techniques but also visual cues and conventions pertaining to all ranges of text types.”

Paper 1

Paper 1 consists of two previously unseen non-literary passages, from two different text types, each accompanied by a guiding question. SL students choose one passage and write an analysis on it, while HL students need to write an analysis on both.

Students have been assessed on a variety of text types for Paper 1, including advertisements, comic strips, infographics, blog articles, websites, brochures, and many more. It is therefore imperative that students achieve a high level of visual literacy and be able to identify and analyze not only language techniques but also visual cues and conventions pertaining to all ranges of text types before going into the exam hall.

Paper 1 carries 35% of the final grade — and this is the same for both SL and HL students, though the maximum number of marks you can be awarded for a HL student is 40 marks while for a SL student it is 20 marks. For SL, students will be given 75 minutes (i.e., 1 hour and 15 minutes) plus 5 minutes of reading time to write their response; while HL students will be given 135 minutes (i.e., 2 hours and 15 minutes) plus 5 minutes of reading time to write an answer on both texts. This means that, on average, HL students can only spend 67.5 minutes on each text.

Paper 2

Paper 2 consists of four general questions, in which students choose one question and write a comparative essay based on two works studied in the course. In terms of the selection of literary works, students are free to choose from a wide range of literary forms (including drama, novels, graphic novels, etc.) but they cannot use the same text they have already analyzed for the IO or the HL essay (no ‘double dipping’!).

The format of Paper 2 and the four questions are the same for both SL and HL students (and the same for both literature and language and literature courses), with both pathways giving the same 1 hour and 45 minutes for students to answer the question. The assessment criteria is also shared among SL and HL students, with the maximum marks for both being 30 marks bearing 25% of the final grade for HL students and 35% for SL students.

The photography of Gordon Parks

The Individual Oral (‘IO’)

Same for both HL and SL students, the IO is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by an IB examiner. Supported by an extract from one non-literary text and one literary work, students will offer a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by a 5-minute Q&A session with their teacher on 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 texts that you have studied.” The IO typically takes place either in the last part of the first year or the first part of the second year.

For both SL and HL students, they can be awarded up to 40 maximum marks, bearing 20% of the weight for HL students and 30% of the weight for SL students. The IO is centered around a Global Issue (‘GI’), which should, though not compulsorily so, belong to one of five themes:-

Culture, Identity, and Community;
Beliefs, Values, and Education;
Politics, Power and Justice;
Art, Creativity, and the Imagination;
Science, Technology, and the Environment.

Your choice of GI should preferably be universal and relatable, such as “the detrimental impact of social media on women’s self-esteem and body image” (though this is definitely an overused one by now). Learn more on how to craft the perfect GI in our blog article, How to choose the perfect Global Issue for your Individual Oral, written by our IB English experts at ROOT Academy.

Higher Level Essay (‘HLE’)

HL students are required to write a 1,200 to 1,500 word formal essay which develops a line of inquiry of their own choice in connection with a non-literary text, a collection of non-literary texts by one same author or a literary work studied during the course. The HLE will make up 20% of your final IB English grade, and it is graded externally.

Like the GI in your IO, the line of inquiry is central to your HLE as it is the core question that you will answer in your essay, and it must fall under one of the seven main concepts of IB English — identity; culture; creativity; communication; transformation; perspective; and representation. Learn more on how to arrive at a LOI in our blog article, How to craft the perfect Line of Inquiry for your Higher Level Essay, written by our IB English experts at ROOT Academy.