IB DP Language A: Language and Literature – The Individual Oral and Global Issues Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

This practice set covers the individual oral in IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature: choosing a global issue, pairing a literary and a non-literary extract, structuring the oral and preparing with your learner portfolio. It draws on the areas of exploration Readers, writers and texts and Intertextuality: connecting texts, and applies at both SL and HL. It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021).

Learn the unit first with the study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist.

The passages are original and the places and organisations fictional. In a real oral your texts come from your own course.

Questions

Passage A – poem (original text written for Marlbridge)

Below the waterline

They told us the valley would make a lake,
that it would fill the taps of towns we’d never seen.
My father walked the lanes the week before,
touching each gate as if to wake it.
Now, when the summer is dry, the church
lifts its grey shoulder out of the water
and I row out to it, and say nothing,
the way you say nothing at a grave.

Passage B – press release (original text written for Marlbridge; fictional authority)

Ferrindale Reservoir opens on schedule

The Ferrindale Reservoir will supply clean water to 240,000 homes from next spring. The project was completed on time and within budget. A small number of properties in the former Ferrindale valley were acquired, and residents were offered relocation support. “This is a proud day for the region,” said the authority’s chief engineer.

Passage C – campaign leaflet (original text written for Marlbridge; fictional residents’ group)

FERRINDALE WAS HERE

63 homes. 1 school. 1 church. 400 years.

They call it a small number. We call it home.

Join us at the dam wall on 12 June. Bring a name. Say it out loud.

1. Using the subject brief’s description of the individual oral:

(a) State the weighting of the individual oral in the final grade at SL and at HL. [2] (b) State which two kinds of studied text the oral connects, and what they must have in common. [2]

2. Which of these is a workable global issue for an oral, rather than a topic? Choose one and explain your choice: (i) “Water”; (ii) “Nature in poetry and advertising”; (iii) “How official language minimises the human cost of large building projects”; (iv) “Rural life”. [3]

3. Narrow the topic “the environment” into an angle that would suit an oral on Passages A and B. Show the steps and justify your final angle with one reference to each passage. [3]

4. In Passage A, identify the technique in “the church / lifts its grey shoulder out of the water” and explain its effect. [3]

5. Explain how the final two lines of Passage A present the speaker’s grief. [3]

6. Identify two language choices in Passage B that make the loss of the valley seem minor, and explain the effect of each. [4]

7. Passage B quotes one person. Explain whose voice is included, whose is missing, and the effect of this choice. [3]

8. Explain how Passage C uses numbers and imperatives to present the loss of the valley. [4]

9. Compare how Passages B and C use numbers to present the same event. Refer to the phrase Passage C borrows from Passage B. [4]

10. Describe three learner portfolio entries you would make to prepare an oral on Passages A and B. [3]

11. Extended task. Treat Passage A as an extract from a studied poetry collection and Passage B as one text from a studied body of work of the authority’s press releases. Write the spoken introduction to an individual oral on these two texts. [6]

12. Extended task. Using the same pairing, write a plan for the rest of the oral: the analysis of each extract, a link to each whole work, the comparison and the conclusion. [10]

Answers

1. (a) 30% at SL [1] and 20% at HL [1]. (b) One literary work and one non-literary body of work [1], which have approached a common global issue [1]. Examiner insight: “Two texts” is too vague: the non-literary side is a body of work.

2. (iii) [1]. It names a tension (“minimises the human cost”) that you can argue for or against [1]. It can be traced in specific language choices in both kinds of text, while (i), (ii) and (iv) are topic labels with nothing to prove [1]. Examiner insight: Strong answers say why the issue is arguable, not just that it is “more specific”.

3. Topic “the environment” → issue: communities displaced by large water projects [1] → angle: how official and personal voices present the loss of a village: one as progress, the other as grief [1]. Justification: Passage B turns homes into “A small number of properties”, while Passage A shows the father “touching each gate as if to wake it” [1]. Examiner insight: The angle scores only when it is tested against both texts; a well-worded angle with evidence from one passage only is incomplete.

4. Personification: the church “lifts its grey shoulder” like a body [1]. The drowned village is presented as a person half-buried, still present under the water [1]. Because it surfaces “when the summer is dry”, the loss is shown as unfinished: the past keeps rising back into view [1]. Examiner insight: Naming “personification” earns little alone; the marks sit in the effect.

5. The repetition of “say nothing” stresses the speaker’s silence [1]. The simile “the way you say nothing at a grave” turns the valley into a death that is mourned, not a project that is finished [1]. This silence contrasts with the confident promise in the opening lines that the lake “would fill the taps of towns we’d never seen” [1]. Examiner insight: Strong answers connect the ending to the opening; weak answers treat the last lines as if they stood alone.

6. Choice 1: the vague quantifier and noun in “A small number of properties” [1] reduce people’s homes to an unspecified count of assets, so the loss sounds small and impersonal [1]. Choice 2: the passive “were acquired” [1] hides who took the homes and how, so the authority’s responsibility disappears from the sentence [1]. (Also creditworthy: “former Ferrindale valley”, which writes the valley into the past.) Examiner insight: Each choice needs its own quotation and its own effect, not one shared comment.

7. Only the official voice is quoted: the chief engineer’s “This is a proud day for the region” [1]. The residents are named only as “residents” and never speak [1]. The effect is that the event is framed as a shared success, and “the region” absorbs the valley’s loss into a wider gain [1]. Examiner insight: Absence counts as analysis only if you say what it does to the reader’s view.

8. The list “63 homes. 1 school. 1 church. 400 years.” makes the loss exact and countable [1]. Its short fragments read like an inscription on a memorial, so the leaflet mourns as well as informs [1]. The imperatives “Join us”, “Bring a name” and “Say it out loud” call readers to act together [1]. The final command turns silence into public speech [1]. Examiner insight: In non-literary texts, full stops and line breaks are choices to analyse too.

9. Passage B uses a large figure, “240,000 homes”, to show the scale of the benefit [1], while the loss gets no figure at all: “A small number of properties” [1]. Passage C supplies the missing numbers, “63 homes”, and adds time, “400 years” [1]. By borrowing B’s phrase in “They call it a small number”, C answers the release directly: the same event reads as progress or loss depending on which numbers are printed [1]. Examiner insight: Comparison earns most when both texts meet in the same sentence.

10. An issue log entry noting that both passages deal with displacement, with the key quotations located [1]. A technique bank entry recording, for example, the passive “were acquired” and the personified church, each with its effect in one line [1]. A pairing trial or rehearsal reflection: a draft thesis for this pair, or notes after a timed run-through on what ran long or stayed vague [1]. Examiner insight: Entries must be specific to the texts; “revise techniques” earns nothing.

11. The real oral is assessed holistically against the IB criteria, which your teacher will share, not point by point. Model introduction:

“My global issue is how large building projects are presented to the public, and how that presentation can hide the people who lose their homes. I am looking at an extract from the poetry collection and a press release from the authority’s series on the reservoir. My argument is that the press release uses scale and the passive voice to make the valley vanish, while the poem uses silence and the image of a rising church to keep it present. I will start with the poem.”

• The global issue is stated as an angle, not a topic [1].
• Both texts are named with their form (poetry collection; press releases) [1].
• The thesis makes a comparison between the two texts [1].
• The thesis names a specific method in each text (scale and passive; silence and imagery) [1].
• A route is previewed (“I will start with the poem”) [1].
• The register is spoken and clear, with a signpost the listener can follow [1].

Examiner insight: A strong opening commits to an argument at once; a weak one gives background facts about reservoirs.

12. The real oral is assessed holistically against the IB criteria, not point by point. A strong plan contains these indicative points.

• Poem: “They told us” – the unnamed authority speaks and “us” only listens [1].
• Poem: the father “touching each gate as if to wake it” treats the village as asleep, not dead [1].
• A precise link to a named later poem in the collection [1].
• Release: “240,000 homes” set against “A small number of properties” – benefit counted, loss left vague [1].
• Release: passive “were acquired” and “former Ferrindale valley” remove the agent and write the valley into the past [1].
• A precise link to another release in the series showing the same pattern [1].
• Comparison: the engineer’s “proud day” against a speaker who can only “say nothing” [1].
• Comparison: official voices dominate both texts, but the poem exposes the imbalance while the release repeats it [1].
• Conclusion answers the thesis: grammar and scale make the loss vanish; the poem makes it resurface [1].
• Balanced time and clear signposts between sections [1].

Examiner insight: In strong plans every point returns to the global issue; otherwise the oral reads as two separate commentaries.

Where marks are usually lost

• Stating a topic (“water”, “the environment”) instead of an angle you can argue.
• Giving facts or opinions about the real-world issue that are not tied to a quotation.
• Naming a technique without explaining what it does to the reader.
• Ignoring non-literary form: fragments, line breaks, headlines and layout are all choices.
• Treating one text in depth and the other briefly.
• Comparing only in the final sentence, so the texts never meet.
• Vague links to the whole work (“this is typical of the collection”) with no named moment.

Next steps

• Revision notes
• Study guide
• Language and Literature course hub
• Printable checklist
• All free 10-minute diagnostics
• Book a free trial class

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: language and literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019).