IB Diploma Programme Language B – Experiences Revision Notes

These notes condense the Experiences study guide, which has the full explanations and worked examples. They cover Experiences, the second of the five prescribed themes of IB Diploma Programme Language B, at both SL and HL. They follow the IB Language B subject brief for first assessment 2020, which remains the examined course until the new syllabus is first assessed in May 2029, so they apply to the 2026, 2027 and 2028 sessions.

Test yourself afterwards with the Experiences practice questions. Course links: Language B hub · printable checklist · syllabus guide · assessment revision notes.

The theme in one box

Guiding principle   "Explore and tell the stories of the events, experiences
                     and journeys that shape our lives."
Optional topics      leisure activities · holidays and travel · life stories ·
                     rites of passage · customs and traditions · migration
Possible questions   1. How does our past shape our present and our future?
                     2. How and why do different cultures mark important
                        moments in life?

• The theme is prescribed. The topics are optional and recommended, so your class may have studied some of them or all of them.
• Key verb: tell. Experiences is the narrative theme. Expect to follow and produce stories that move through time.
• One-line contrast: Identities = who we are; Experiences = what happened to us and what it means now; Sharing the planet = challenges communities face.

Vocabulary map

Topic	Nouns	Verbs	Evaluative language
Leisure activities	club, pastime, match, rehearsal	to take up, to give up, to train	rewarding, relaxing, a waste of time
Holidays and travel	itinerary, delay, souvenir, hostel	to set off, to book, to explore	breathtaking, exhausting, overrated
Life stories	turning point, childhood, milestone	to grow up, to overcome, to look back	proud, grateful, a defining moment
Rites of passage	ceremony, graduation, coming of age	to mark, to celebrate, to leave home	emotional, symbolic, long-awaited
Customs and traditions	festival, ritual, heritage, costume	to pass down, to revive, to observe	age-old, meaningful, fading
Migration	border, arrival, community, homesickness	to emigrate, to settle, to adapt	uprooted, welcomed, torn between

Make the same table in your target language. The evaluative column is the one most often missing: it shows what the experience meant.

Narrative toolkit

Tool	English model	What to find in your target language
Completed past	We missed the last bus.	Your completed-past form (e.g. French passé composé, Spanish indefinido)
Background or habit	It was late; we used to walk home.	Your background/habitual form (e.g. French imparfait, Spanish imperfecto)
Earlier past	She had already left.	Pluperfect or equivalent
Bridge to now	Since then I have always…	Markers and tenses that link past to present
Hypothesis	If I had stayed, I would have…	Past conditional structures
Reported speech	He said that he had arrived alone.	Tense and pronoun shifts after “said that”
Future hope	One day I hope to go back.	Future and wish structures

Method in steps: telling an experience

1. Set the scene     when, where, who — background past forms
2. Trigger           the moment things changed — completed past
3. Sequence          2–3 events with time markers (then, the next day, weeks later)
4. Feeling           evaluative language, not "it was good"
5. Bridge            since then / now / these days — link to the present
6. Meaning           one sentence answering a possible question

Method in steps: reading a narrative text

1. Skim for text type, writer and purpose
2. Underline every time marker; number the events in order
3. Mark who is speaking at each point (narrator or someone quoted)
4. Separate what happened from how people felt about it
5. Find then/now contrast words: still, no longer, used to, since
6. Answer with the text's words where a short answer is asked

Must-know distinctions

• Leisure activities vs holidays and travel. Leisure is regular free time at home (a weekly club); holidays and travel is time away. A text can touch both, but know which angle a question wants.
• Rites of passage vs customs and traditions. A rite of passage marks a person moving from one stage of life to the next (coming of age, graduation). A custom or tradition is a shared practice a community repeats (a festival, a seasonal dish). Many rites of passage are also customs; the difference is the focus on the individual’s change.
• Life stories vs migration. A life story follows one person over time. Migration is about movement from one place to another and settling. A migrant’s life story belongs to both.
• Describing vs narrating. Describing says what something is like. Narrating says what happened, in order. Experiences tasks usually need both, with narration as the spine.
• Completed vs background past. One action finished at a point in time, against the scene, the weather, feelings or a repeated habit.
• SL vs HL oral stimulus. SL: a visual image clearly relevant to one or more themes. HL: an excerpt from one of the two literary works studied.
• SL vs HL Paper 1. Same outline; HL tasks demand more complex language and structures, higher-order thinking, and have a higher word range.

Assessment facts from the brief

Component	What it involves	Marks	Weighting
Paper 1	Productive: one writing task from a choice of three	30	25%
Paper 2 listening	Receptive	25	25%
Paper 2 reading	Receptive	40	25%
Individual oral (internal)	SL: visual image stimulus; HL: literary excerpt	30	25%

External assessment is 75% and internal 25%. The assessment outlines for SL and HL are identical; the nature of the tasks differs. Criteria are not printed in the brief, so your teacher will share them.

Worked reminder: one paragraph, six checks

Original text written for Marlbridge:

The first winter after we moved, my mother kept the heating low and the radio high, tuned to a station from home. By spring she had found a job and a choir. She still sings those songs today, but now she sings them in two languages.

• Background past: kept, used here for a repeated state across the winter.
• Earlier past: had found.
• Time markers: the first winter, by spring, today, now.
• Evaluative detail: the radio high shows longing without naming it.
• Bridge to now: still… today.
• Meaning: two languages answers how the past shapes the present.

Quick self-test

1. Quote the guiding principle of Experiences.
2. Name the six optional recommended topics.
3. State the two possible questions for this theme in the brief.
4. Is a graduation best described as a rite of passage or as a leisure activity? Why?
5. Give two English time markers that “bridge” past and present.
6. What is the difference in function between “We walked to the station” and “We used to walk to the station”?
7. At SL, what kind of stimulus is used for the individual oral?
8. At HL, what is the oral stimulus taken from?
9. How many writing tasks do you complete on Paper 1, and from how many options?
10. What percentage of the final grade does Paper 2 carry in total?
11. Name three of the five conceptual understandings the brief lists.
12. Rewrite “It was a good trip” with evaluative language and a bridge to the present.

Answers

1. “Explore and tell the stories of the events, experiences and journeys that shape our lives.”
2. Leisure activities, holidays and travel, life stories, rites of passage, customs and traditions, migration.
3. “How does our past shape our present and our future?” and “How and why do different cultures mark important moments in life?”
4. A rite of passage: it marks a person moving from one stage of life (school) to the next.
5. Any two of: since then, ever since, these days, still, no longer, from that day on.
6. The first is one completed event; the second is a repeated habit in the past.
7. A visual image clearly relevant to one or more of the themes.
8. An excerpt from one of the two literary works studied, originally written in the target language.
9. One task, chosen from three.
10. 50% (listening 25% and reading 25%).
11. Any three of: context, audience, purpose, meaning, variation.
12. Model: “The trip was exhausting but unforgettable, and since then I have planned every holiday around walking.” Any version with evaluative words and a past-to-present link is acceptable.

Where marks are usually lost

• Writing a chain of “then… then…” events with no feeling or reflection, so the text never shows what the experience meant.
• Using the completed-past form for background description (weather, feelings, habits), or the background form for single actions, in languages that separate the two.
• Drifting from past to present tense in the middle of a story without a reason.
• Ending an Experiences text in the past with no bridge to the present or future.
• Choosing a text type but ignoring its conventions: a diary with no date or first-person reflection, an article with no headline, an interview with no introduction of the person.
• In reading and listening, crediting the narrator with a view that belongs to someone they quote.
• Answering “in what order” or “when” questions from memory of the gist instead of the time markers in the text.
• Generalising about a whole culture (“everyone there…”) instead of using a specific example from a text.
• Revising only holiday vocabulary and neglecting rites of passage, customs and migration.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language B, first assessment 2020 (2018). The theme wording and assessment facts above come from its content outline and assessment model.