IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature: Subject Overview

IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature studies the complex and dynamic nature of language, exploring both its practical and aesthetic dimensions – treating a political speech or a piece of advertising copy as worthy of the same rigorous analysis traditionally reserved for poetry or the novel. The course examines the crucial role language plays in communication, reflecting experience and shaping the world, and the role of individuals as producers of language – a student in this course is treated not just as an analyst of texts made by others, but as a producer of language themselves. Students explore how language choices, text types, literary forms and contextual elements all affect meaning, building an analytical vocabulary that applies as readily to a newspaper opinion piece as to a novel or a play.

Syllabus components and teaching hours

Syllabus component	SL hours	HL hours
Readers, writers and texts	50	80
Time and space	50	80
Intertextuality: connecting texts	50	80
Total	150	240

The 240 HL hours are not spread evenly beyond the SL 150 – each component gains proportionally similar additional time at HL, reflecting greater depth of study across all three rather than an extra fourth component.

Aims

The course aims 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
• develop an understanding of relationships between texts and a variety of perspectives, cultural contexts, and local and global issues
• communicate and collaborate in a confident and creative way
• foster a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of language and literature, extending well beyond the specific texts studied for assessment.

How it’s assessed

Language A: Language and Literature is assessed through two written papers, an individual oral, and – at Higher Level only – an additional piece of written coursework. At SL, Paper 1 (guided textual analysis of unseen texts) is worth 35%, Paper 2 (a comparative essay on studied literary texts) is worth 35%, and the individual oral is worth 30% – three near-equally weighted components, none of which dominates the final grade at SL. At HL, Paper 1 remains worth 35%, Paper 2 drops to 25%, and an HL essay – a piece of independent written coursework of 1,200 to 1,500 words on a literary or non-literary body of work studied in class – is worth 20%, with the individual oral worth the remaining 20%. Notice that Paper 2’s weighting specifically drops at HL, rather than Paper 1’s or the individual oral’s, to make room for the new HL essay component.

The individual oral, common to both levels, is a prepared spoken response in which students analyse the connections between a literary text and a non-literary text or extract they have studied, exploring how a global issue of their choosing is presented across the two. This requires exactly the cross-category comparison the course’s whole approach is built around — connecting a literary and a non-literary text through the same analytical lens, rather than treating the two as belonging to entirely separate categories of study. Because the HL essay only exists at Higher Level, it is this extra piece of independent coursework – rather than a longer exam – that distinguishes HL assessment from SL, reflecting a broader pattern across several DP Group 1 and 2 courses where HL demand is expressed through independent written work rather than simply a longer written paper.

The three syllabus components, and how they connect

“Readers, writers and texts” establishes core interpretive skills across a wide range of text types, both literary and non-literary. “Time and space” examines how texts are shaped by, and shape, the cultural and historical context they were produced in. “Intertextuality: connecting texts” builds comparative skills across multiple texts, connected by theme, form or context. Paper 1’s guided textual analysis draws most directly on “Readers, writers and texts,” while Paper 2’s comparative essay on studied literary texts draws most directly on “Intertextuality,” making the three components a genuine progression toward the two written papers rather than three unrelated units taught side by side.

Language A versus Language B

Language A: Language and Literature is one of two Studies in Language and Literature courses a DP student can take as their first-language subject, alongside Language A: Literature (a more purely literary course without this course’s equal emphasis on non-literary text types). Confirm with a school’s DP coordinator which specific Language A course a student is enrolled in, since the two courses share some conceptual ground but differ meaningfully in text selection and assessment weighting.

Why non-literary texts are central, not supplementary

Unlike a traditional literature course, Language A: Language and Literature treats non-literary texts — advertisements, speeches, articles, social media posts — as objects of serious critical analysis in their own right, not merely as a lighter supplement to literary study. Paper 1’s guided textual analysis in particular is built around this principle: candidates analyse an unseen text (which may be literary or non-literary) using close reading skills that apply across both categories, reflecting the course’s core claim that language shapes meaning regardless of whether the text calls itself “literature.”

Source

International Baccalaureate Organization, Language A: Language and Literature subject brief (Diploma Programme), 2019.