IB Diploma Programme Language B – HL: reading literary works Revision Notes

For full explanations and a fully worked extract, read the HL literature study guide first.

These revision notes cover the HL literature strand of IB Diploma Programme Language B: reading two literary works, discussing an extract and linking it to the prescribed themes, with the focus on Identities, Social organization and Sharing the planet. 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. Everything here is HL only. The notes are in English; apply each point to your target-language works.

Test yourself with the HL literature practice questions. Course links: Language B hub · printable checklist.

Facts from the brief

Fact	Detail
Literary works at HL	Two, “originally written in the target language” – required at HL only
HL language expectation	Extend the “range and complexity” of language you use and understand
Individual oral	Internal assessment, 25% of the final grade, 30 marks
SL oral stimulus	A visual image clearly relevant to one or more themes
HL oral stimulus	“An excerpt from one of the two literary works studied”
Recommended teaching hours	240 at HL (150 at SL)

The brief does not give the oral’s format, timings or criteria. Your teacher will share them.

Key terms

Term	Meaning
Narrator	The voice that tells the story. Not the same as the author.
First-person narration	Told by “I”, a character inside the story; limited to what they know and feel.
Third-person narration	Told from outside (“she”, “he”); can be close to one character or see many.
Direct characterisation	The text tells you what a character is like (“She was proud”).
Indirect characterisation	You infer it from actions, speech, appearance or others’ reactions.
Setting	Time and place; often reflects mood, class or a society’s rules.
Imagery	Language that appeals to the senses, including simile and metaphor.
Simile / metaphor	A comparison with “like” or “as” / a comparison stated as if it were true.
Personification	Giving human qualities to an object, place or idea.
Symbol	An object or image that stands for a larger idea.
Motif	An image, object or phrase that recurs across a work.
Irony	A gap between what is said and what is meant, or expected and what happens.
Tone	The attitude the voice takes: tender, bitter, detached, mocking.
Turning point	A moment after which a character or situation cannot go back.
Prescribed theme	One of the five course themes in the brief (e.g. Identities).
Literary theme	An idea a work explores (e.g. belonging, loss). Link it to a prescribed theme.

Method in steps

Discussing an extract: L-S-A-C-L

1. Locate – where it sits in the work; what comes before and after.
2. Summarise – one or two sentences, no more.
3. Analyse – two or three features: feature, short quotation, effect.
4. Connect – to a character’s development or a motif across the work.
5. Link – to a prescribed theme and one of its possible questions.

Preparing each work

1. Reading log: one row per chapter (events, relationships, one short quotation, theme link).
2. Character map and timeline, with chapter numbers.
3. Key-passage bank: 10 to 12 passages per work, each with a theme link.
4. Theme map: which passages answer which possible question.
5. Target-language phrase bank for discussing literature, practised aloud.

Theme links at a glance

Theme	Guiding principle (brief)	Recommended topics	What to look for in a work
Identities	“Explore the nature of the self and what it is to be human.”	lifestyles; health and well-being; beliefs and values; subcultures; language and identity	belonging, divided loyalties, names and language, belief
Social organization	“Explore the ways in which groups of people organize themselves, or are organized, through common systems or interests.”	social relationships; community; social engagement; education; the working world; law and order	schools, workplaces, families as systems; rules, power, resistance
Sharing the planet	“Explore the challenges and opportunities faced by individuals and communities in the modern world.”	the environment; human rights; peace and conflict; equality; globalization; ethics; urban and rural environment	nature and land, town and country, injustice, conflict, moral choices

Possible questions to keep ready:

• Identities: “What constitutes an identity?”; “How do language and culture contribute to form our identity?”
• Social organization: “What is the individual’s role in the community?”; “What role do rules and regulations play in the formation of a society?”
• Sharing the planet: “What environmental and social issues present challenges to the world, and how can these challenges be overcome?”; “What challenges and benefits does globalization bring?”

Worked reminder

Original text written for Marlbridge

The new road reached the village in spring. By summer, the children had stopped learning the names of the birds. They learned the bus times instead.

• Feature: contrast between two kinds of knowledge, “the names of the birds” and “the bus times”.
• Effect: the road brings access but costs a link with nature. The flat, short final sentence makes the loss sound ordinary, which makes it sharper.
• Link: Sharing the planet, urban and rural environment; the first possible question about environmental and social challenges.

Must-know distinctions

Distinction	Remember
Summary vs analysis	Summary says what happens. Analysis says how the language makes it mean something.
Narrator vs author	A narrator’s opinion is a character’s opinion until the work shows otherwise.
Character’s view vs the work’s view	A work can present a view in order to criticise it.
Literary theme vs prescribed theme	“Loss” is a literary theme; Identities is a prescribed theme. Name both.
Technique vs effect	“Metaphor” is a label. “It makes the city seem hungry” is an effect.
SL vs HL oral	SL: visual image. HL: excerpt from one of your two literary works.
Describing a culture vs stereotyping it	“In this village, as the novel shows…” not “People from there always…”

Phrase bank (learn the target-language equivalents)

• Locating: “This extract comes just after…” / “Earlier in the work…”
• Analysing: “The metaphor suggests…” / “The repetition of… emphasises…”
• Connecting: “This is the first time that…” / “This foreshadows…”
• Linking: “This links to Identities because…” / “It answers the question of…”
• Hedging: “This could be read as…” / “It seems that…”
• Concession: “Although she agrees, her tone implies…”

Quick self-test

1. How many literary works does the brief require at HL, and what condition must they meet?
2. What is the individual oral stimulus at SL, and at HL?
3. What weighting and mark total does the brief give the individual oral?
4. List the five steps of the extract method.
5. “The station swallowed the last travellers.” Name the technique and give its effect.
6. A first-person narrator calls her brother lazy. Why should you not simply state that the brother is lazy?
7. A scene shows workers voting to strike. Name the prescribed theme and a recommended topic.
8. Which theme asks “What constitutes an identity?”
9. “He slammed the door without a word.” Is this direct or indirect characterisation? What does it suggest?
10. Improve this sentence for HL range: “The writer says the city is bad.”
11. What is the difference between a symbol and a motif?
12. Why does the brief’s wording mean you must revise both works?

Answers

1. Two, originally written in the target language.
2. SL: a visual image clearly relevant to one or more themes. HL: an excerpt from one of the two literary works studied.
3. 25% of the final grade, 30 marks; it is internally assessed.
4. Locate, summarise, analyse, connect, link.
5. Personification (or metaphor): the station is shown as a creature that eats people, which makes the place seem threatening and the travellers powerless.
6. It is the narrator’s opinion. Check whether the rest of the work supports or undermines it.
7. Social organization; the working world (also social engagement or law and order).
8. Identities.
9. Indirect: we infer anger, or refusal to talk, from his action.
10. For example: “Although the city offers work, the writer presents it as hostile, which suggests that progress comes at a cost.”
11. A symbol stands for a larger idea; a motif is anything that recurs across the work. A recurring symbol is both.
12. The HL stimulus is “an excerpt from one of the two literary works studied”, so it can come from either.

Where marks are usually lost

• Spending most of the time retelling the plot around the extract.
• Naming a technique (“there is a metaphor”) with no explanation of its effect.
• Reading out long quotations instead of picking a few words and commenting on them.
• Treating a narrator’s or character’s opinion as the author’s.
• Linking to a theme in one vague sentence without naming a topic or possible question.
• Choosing a theme the extract does not support, because it was the one prepared.
• Revising one work thoroughly and the other hardly at all.
• Using only simple sentences and “says” or “shows”, which limits the range HL expects.
• Making sweeping claims about a culture that the text does not support.

Next steps

• HL literature study guide
• HL literature practice questions
• Identities revision notes and Sharing the planet revision notes
• Assessment revision notes

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language B, first assessment 2020 (2018). The facts, guiding principles, topics and possible questions on this page are taken from it.