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Language A: Language and Literature flashcards

33 cards covering every topic of the syllabus (First assessments for SL and HL 2021). Study one topic or mix them all, turn each card, and mark yourself honestly.

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Topic 1: Readers, writers and texts

What is the core question of Readers, writers and texts?: How a writer's choices of language, form and structure shape meaning, and how a reader actively constructs an interpretation rather than passively receiving it. Analyse in two steps: name a specific choice, then explain its effect on the reader.
What does Paper 1 involve in Language and Literature?: A guided analysis of unseen non-literary passages from different text types, each with a guiding question. SL: 1 hour 15 minutes. HL: 2 hours 15 minutes, analysing both passages. 35% at SL and HL.
How do you plan a Paper 1 answer?: Underline the key words of the guiding question; read for gist (text type, audience, purpose, context); annotate features with effects; write a one-sentence thesis; plan three body paragraphs by idea, each Claim → Evidence → Effect → Link; check every paragraph answers the guiding question.
What is a text type, and what is a convention?: A text type is a kind of text defined by purpose, audience and form (advert, speech, news report). A convention is a feature readers expect in that text type.
What is the inverted pyramid in a news report?: The most important facts come first and background comes last. A feature article, by contrast, often opens with a scene or anecdote.
Editorial versus opinion column: An editorial is unsigned and speaks as "we" for the newspaper. An opinion column is signed and gives one writer's personal view.
What is anchorage in a multimodal text?: Words, usually a caption, that fix the meaning of an image, steering the viewer towards one reading of it.
Demand versus offer in an image: Demand: a direct gaze at the viewer creates contact, so the viewer feels addressed. Offer: the subject looks away, inviting us simply to watch.
What effect do direct address and inclusive pronouns have?: Direct address ("you") makes the reader feel personally involved. Inclusive pronouns ("we", "our") build a shared group with the reader. Always test the effect against the text in front of you.
Why is technique-spotting without effect weak?: Naming a device ("low angle", "metaphor") is only a label. Analysis explains what the choice does: "the low angle makes the engineer look in control". A shorter answer that links device to effect scores higher than a list of devices.
Narrator versus author, and speaker versus poet: The narrator is the voice telling the story, not the author: write "the narrator claims", not "the author believes". The "I" of a poem is a constructed voice, the speaker, not automatically the poet.

Topic 2: Time and space

What does Time and space ask you to analyse?: How the context of production and the context of reception shape meaning. The period, culture and place a text was written in are not the same as those it is read in now, and both matter.
Context of production versus context of reception: Production: who made the text, when, where, for whom, why, and through which institution. Reception: who is reading it now, where, and with what beliefs and stake.
What analytical point does a shift in reception give you?: The change between how original readers and readers today understand a text is itself the point. For example, an editorial its first readers found authoritative may now read as paternalistic.
What is representation?: How a text presents people, groups, places or events through its choices. Every text offers a version of the world, from a position, to an audience.
What is an agentless passive and what can it do?: A passive verb with no "by..." phrase, so the actor is hidden ("Jobs were lost"). It can remove responsibility from whoever acted.
What is nominalisation and what can it do?: Turning an action into a noun ("the cuts"). Like the agentless passive, it can hide who acted.
Preferred reading versus oppositional reading: Preferred reading: the meaning the producer intends the audience to accept. Oppositional reading: a reading that rejects that intended meaning.
What is othering?: Presenting a group as different from, and less than, an assumed "normal" reader. A stereotype is a fixed, simplified image of a group repeated until it seems natural.
What is the HL essay in Language and Literature?: Independent coursework of 1,200–1,500 words on one literary work or one non-literary text or body of work studied in class, built on a line of inquiry. 20% of the HL grade; SL students do not write it. (HL only)
Topic versus line of inquiry in the HL essay: A topic names an area. A line of inquiry is the one focused, arguable question the essay answers; the thesis is your answer to it, stated in the introduction and proved in the body. (HL only)
How much may a teacher help with the HL essay?: Regular formative feedback, but no editing or correcting. Near the end, the teacher may give written advice on one complete draft; the next version submitted must be the final one. (HL only)

Topic 3: Intertextuality: connecting texts

What does Intertextuality: connecting texts focus on?: A text's meaning depends partly on other texts: the ones it borrows from, the conventions of its type or form, and the texts you place it beside.
Allusion versus quotation: Allusion: a brief, indirect reference the reader should recognise; the source is hinted at, not named or quoted. Quotation: the source's exact words, usually marked.
Parody, pastiche and satire: what is the difference?: Parody imitates a particular style or form and exaggerates it to mock it. Pastiche imitates a style without mockery, as tribute or play. Satire uses humour, irony or exaggeration to criticise a target, and may or may not imitate anything.
How do you analyse an intertextual reference?: Name the source (or the kind of source); say what is kept unchanged; say what is changed (context, speaker, a reversed detail); explain what the gap between the two does for meaning and for the reader.
What does Paper 2 involve in Language and Literature?: A comparative essay on two studied literary works, answering one of four questions, written from memory in 1 hour 45 minutes. 35% at SL, 25% at HL. Non-literary texts are not used.
Point-by-point versus block structure in a comparative essay: Point-by-point: every body paragraph discusses both works on one point, so comparison runs throughout. Block: half the essay on each work, with comparison left to the end, which risks two separate mini-essays.
What should a Paper 2 comparative thesis contain?: One arguable claim answering the question for both works and naming how they differ: both present the key term as X, but Writer A uses one method to one effect, whereas Writer B uses another, because of form or context.
What is the individual oral?: A prepared oral response on how one literary work and one non-literary body of work, both studied in class, approach a common global issue, supported by an extract from each. 30% at SL, 20% at HL.
How do you narrow a global issue for the oral?: Move from topic to issue to angle: a topic ("technology") is too wide; the angle is the specific claim you trace through both texts. Test it by finding at least three specific choices in each extract that bear on it.
What do the individual oral criteria cover?: Knowledge and understanding of both texts and their context; analysis of how the global issue is presented in each; focus and organisation of the response; and language (register, clarity, terminology).
What is the learner portfolio?: Your own collection of notes, reflections and responses built during the course. It is a good source of global issues and text pairings for the individual oral.

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Written for International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature, (First assessments for SL and HL 2021).

Cards by Marlbridge Academic Team; 5 restate definitions from the Language A: Language and Literature revision notes. This deck has not yet been reviewed as a whole by a subject teacher. Report an error.

All Language A: Language and Literature notes, practice and topics