ENGLISH LANGUAGE &
LITERATURE (2025-2027)
The aims of studies in language and
literature are to enable students to:
• engage with a range of texts, in a variety of media and forms, from different
periods, styles, and cultures.
• develop skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, presenting, and
performing.
• develop skills in interpretation, analysis, and evaluation.
• develop sensitivity to the formal and aesthetic qualities of texts and an
appreciation of how they contribute to diverse responses and open up multiple
meanings.
• develop an understanding of relationships between texts and a variety of
perspectives, cultural contexts, and local and global issues and an appreciation of
how they contribute to diverse responses and open up multiple meanings.
• develop an understanding of the relationships between studies in language and
literature and other disciplines.
• communicate and collaborate in a confident and creative way.
• foster a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of language and literature (14-15).
Assessment Objectives:
Know, understand, and interpret:
a range of texts, works, and/or performances, and their meanings and
implications.
contexts in which texts are written and/or received
elements of literary, stylistic, rhetorical, visual, and/or performance craft
features of particular text types and literary forms.
Analyze and evaluate:
ways in which the use of language creates meaning
uses and effects of literary, stylistic, rhetorical, visual, or theatrical techniques
relationships among different texts
ways in which texts may offer perspectives on human concerns.
Communicate:
ideas in clear, logical, and persuasive ways
in a range of styles, registers, and for a variety of purposes and situations.
Areas of
Exploration
Readers, Writers, & Texts
Time and Space
Intertextuality
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Readers, Writers,
& Texts
• Why and how do we study language and
literature?
• How are we affected by texts in various
ways?
• In what ways is meaning constructed,
negotiated, expressed, and interpreted?
• How does language use vary amongst text
types and amongst literary forms?
• How does the structure or style of a text
affect meaning?
• How do texts offer insights and challenges?
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Time and Space
• How important is cultural or historical
context to the production and
reception of a text?
• How do we approach texts from
different times and cultures to our
own?
• To what extent do texts offer insight
into another culture?
• How does the meaning and impact of
a text change over time?
• How do texts reflect, represent, or
form a part of cultural practices?
• How does language represent social
distinctions and identities?
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Intertextuality
• How do texts adhere to and deviate
from conventions associated with
literary forms and/or text types?
• How do conventions and systems of
reference evolve over time?
• In what ways can diverse texts share
points of similarity?
• How valid is the notion of a classic text?
• How can texts offer multiple
perspectives of a single issue, topic, or
theme?
• In what ways can comparison and
interpretation be transformative?
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7 Conceptual
Understandings
1. Identity
2. Culture
3. Creativity
4. Communication
5. Perspective
6. Transformation
7. Representation
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Identity
• Multiplicity of perspectives,
voices, and characters
• Relationship between writers and
their perspectives and/or voices
within texts
• The reader’s understanding of self
(before, during, and after reading)
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Culture
• Central to the study of lang. & lit.
• The relationship between a text and
the context of its production and
reception
• Relationship established between an
individual text and the writing
tradition that precedes it
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Communication
• Revolves around the relationship that is
established between a writer & reader
• The extent to which writers facilitate
communication through their choices
• Nature and notion of the audience
• The amount of cooperation a text demands
from a reader and the readiness of the reader
to engage with the text
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Perspective
• A text may offer multiple perspectives
which may, or may not, reflect the views
of its author
• Consider the contexts of production
and reception in terms of how these
may shape (or come to shape)
perspective
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Transformation
• Closely linked to intertextuality
• The complex ways in which texts
refer to and inform one another
(i.e., appropriating aesthetic means)
• The act of reading is potentially
transformative itself, both for the text
and for the reader
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Representation
• The extent to which language &
literature relate to reality has been
the subject of an ongoing debate
among linguists & literary theorists.
• Writers also debate the nature of
language & literature in this regard.
• Central to both perspectives: The
ways in which form & structure
interact with, and relate to,
meaning
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Connections to the Core
• I.B. Learner Profile & International Mindedness
• Subject-specific descriptors
• Approaches to Teaching and Learning
• Embedded in the inquiry model (i.e., AoE and 7CU)
• CAS
• Invites a variety of ways in which lang. & lit. can be explored and/or
promoted
• Extended Essay
• Literary focus
• Linguistic focus
• Literary text & performance
• World Studies (interdisciplinary)
• ToK
• Explores the ways in which language constructs meaning (similar to the
ways in which knowledge constructs perception in ToK)
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• culture, identity,
and community
• beliefs, values, and
education
• politics, power, and
justice, conflict
• art, creativity, and
Global Issues the imagination
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Text Requirements & Types
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Text Selection
Requirements
(literature)
What Constitutes a Work?
✓ 5-8 essays
✓ 10-15 letters
✓ 15-20 poems
✓ 5-10 short stories
✓ 10-15 song lyrics
Requirements & Variety
✓ at least one (two) Works in translation
✓ at least two (three) forms/types
✓ at least two (three) time periods
✓ at least two (three) places representing at
least two continents
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Text Types
Literary
• Drama
• Essay (teacher’s discretion)
• Novel/ Graphic novel
• Poetry/ Song lyrics
• Short Story, etc.
Non-Literary
• Everything else!
• Some of the following could be
considered literary:
• parody, biography, speech, diary, letter,
memoir, manifesto, essay, & travel writing
• Collections (i.e., of essays) will be
considered literary
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Learner Portfolio
• Essential (but not assessed by IB) to students’
success
• Encourages students’ sense of autonomy &
responsibility for their learning
• Multimodalities: Student choice (paper & digital)
• The portfolio will include:
• reflections
• explorations
• evaluations & critical analyses
• experiments with form, media, & technology
• research & reading notes
• notes on class discussions & presentations
• record of feedback receive (self, teacher, and peer)
• selections of suitable extracts for the individual oral < 40
lines
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Assessments
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Assessment Time &
Percentage
Details SL
Paper 1
Guided non-
1:15 hrs &
35%
Two non-literary passages, two Assessments
literary
different text-types, each accompanied
analysis by question. Students choose one and
(20 marks) write analysis.
Paper 2 1:45 hrs & Paper consists of four general
Literary essay 35%
(25 marks)
questions. In response to one question,
students write an essay based on two
works studied in the course.
Internal 15 minutes (10 Supported by an extract (no more than
Assessment: presentation,
Individual 5 questions)
40 lines) from one literary work and
Oral 30% one non-literary text students offer
(40 marks) prepared response to prompt: Examine
the ways in which the global issue of
your choice is presented through the
content and form of two of the texts
you have studied.
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Assess
ment
Time &
percentage
Details
HL
Paper
1
2:15 hrs/
35%
Two non-literary passages, two different
text-types, each accompanied by question.
Assessments
Students write an analysis of each of the
20+20= passages.
40 marks
Paper 1:45 hrs/ Paper consists of four general questions. In
2 25% response to one question, students write an
essay based on two works studied in the
25 marks course.
IA: IO 15 minutes Supported by an extract (no more than 40
(10: lines) from one literary work and one non-
presentation, literary text students offer prepared
5: questions), response to prompt: Examine the ways in
20% which the global issue of your choice is
presented through the content and form of
40 marks two of the texts you have studied.
HL 1200-1500 Submit an essay on one non-literary text,
Essay words or a collection of non-literary texts by one
20% author. or a literary text or work studied in
20 marks the course.
Photo Source: Olav, Rotne. “Solved Rubics Cube.” Unsplash.com
Curriculum Preview: Year 1
Sources
All images from Unsplash.com.
“Course: English A: Language and Literature.”
Philpot.education,
philpot.education/course/view.php?id=2.
Language A: Language and Literature Guide;
First Assessment 2021. 2019. Cardiff, Wales
CF23 8GL United Kingdom , International
Baccalaureate Organization (UK) Ltd, 2024.
