IB Diploma Programme Language B – HL: reading literary works Study Guide

This study guide teaches the HL literature strand of IB Diploma Programme Language B: reading the two literary works HL students study, discussing an extract, and linking a work to the prescribed themes, with worked links to Identities, Social organization and Sharing the planet. It follows 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 it applies to the 2026, 2027 and 2028 sessions. This unit is HL only: the brief makes literary works a requirement at HL and not at SL. It is written in English; apply each method to the works you read in your target language.

Use it with the HL literature revision notes and the HL literature practice questions. For the whole course, see the Language B course hub and the printable Language B checklist.

What this unit covers

Part of the unit	What you must be able to do	SL/HL
Reading two literary works	Follow plot, characters and ideas across a whole work in the target language	HL only
Analysing a literary text	Name a feature, quote it and explain its effect	HL only
Discussing an extract	Place an extract in its work and talk about it beyond summary	HL only
Linking literature to themes	Connect a work to a prescribed theme and one of its possible questions	HL only
Range and complexity	Discuss literature with varied, precise and more complex language	HL only

What the brief says

The brief gives a small number of facts about literature at HL. Learn them exactly:

• “At HL the study of two literary works originally written in the target language is required.” The works are not translations into your target language.
• HL students “are expected to extend the range and complexity of the language they use and understand”.
• The individual oral is internally assessed, worth 25% (30 marks). At SL its stimulus is a visual image. At HL “the stimulus … is an excerpt from one of the two literary works studied”.
• The course is organised around five prescribed themes. This page works through three of them.

The brief does not describe how the oral runs, how long it lasts or how it is marked. Your teacher will share the format, timings and assessment criteria. The excerpt can come from either work, so you need to know both well.

Reading a whole work in a second language

A literary work is longer and denser than most texts you meet in class. Read it in passes.

1. First pass, for the story. Read quickly without looking up every word. After each chapter, write three target-language sentences: what happened, who changed, what is unclear.
2. Second pass, for detail. Re-read with a dictionary. Note recurring words and phrases that sound deliberate.
3. Third pass, for key passages. Mark 10 to 12 passages per work: openings, turning points, confrontations, endings, and moments that show a theme clearly.

Keep a reading log for each work. One row per chapter or section:

Section	What happens	Characters and relationships	Key quotation (short)	Theme link
Ch. 1	…	…	…	…

Add two support pages: a character map (names, relationships, how each person changes) and a timeline (events in order, with chapter numbers). These let you locate any excerpt in seconds.

Build vocabulary by function: feelings, places, conflict, and verbs of speaking (whispers, insists, admits).

Tools for analysing a literary text

These are standard features of literary texts. Each gives you something to say beyond “what happens”.

Feature	Question to ask	Useful sentence frame
Narrator and point of view	Who tells the story? First person or third? How much do they know?	“Because the story is told by…, we only see…”
Characterisation	Is the character described directly, or shown through actions and speech?	“Her silence here reveals…”
Setting	Where and when? Does the place reflect a mood or a society?	“The unchanged kitchen contrasts with…”
Dialogue	Who speaks, who stays silent, who has the last word?	“The grandmother’s reply shows who holds authority…”
Imagery	Which comparisons (simile, metaphor) or sense details stand out?	“The simile of the coat suggests…”
Symbol and motif	Does an object or image recur and carry meaning?	“The greeting becomes a symbol of…”
Structure	Where does the extract sit? Is it a turning point?	“Coming just after…, this moment…”
Tone	Is the voice ironic, tender, bitter, detached?	“The ironic tone makes the reader question…”

Always use the pattern feature, quotation, effect. Naming a simile scores nothing on its own; explaining what the simile makes the reader understand does.

Discussing an extract: a five-step method

Use these steps whenever you meet an extract from one of your works.

1. Locate. Where does it come from? What has just happened, and what follows?
2. Summarise briefly. One or two sentences only.
3. Analyse. Choose two or three features. Quote a short phrase for each and explain its effect.
4. Connect to the whole work. Show how this moment fits a character’s development or a recurring idea.
5. Link to a theme. Name the prescribed theme and use one of its possible questions as a lens. Add a cultural perspective where the work supports one.

Steps 3 to 5 are where you show understanding. Step 2 is the step to keep short.

Worked example

Imagine this extract comes from the middle of a novel about a young woman’s first year away at university.

Original text written for Marlbridge

When Anya came back from the city, she said “hi” at the gate instead of the old greeting. Her grandmother put down the bucket and waited, as if the word had not yet arrived. “In this house,” she said at last, “we greet the door before we greet the people.” Anya laughed, then stopped. Behind her grandmother, the kitchen was exactly as she had left it: the blue cups on their hooks, the radio that only found one station. She said the old words quietly, and they felt too big for her mouth, like a coat she had outgrown – or had not yet grown into.

Step 1, locate. Anya has spent a year in the city. This is her first return home, so it is a test of whether she has changed.

Step 2, summarise. Anya greets her grandmother in a casual, city way and is corrected. She then uses the traditional greeting.

Step 3, analyse.

• Figurative language: the grandmother waits “as if the word had not yet arrived”. The phrase treats “hi” as something foreign that cannot enter the house. It shows the gap between the two women without either of them saying so.
• Dialogue and authority: the grandmother’s line is a rule: “In this house, we greet the door before we greet the people.” She speaks for the household, not only for herself.
• Setting as contrast: the kitchen is “exactly as she had left it”. The place has not changed, which makes Anya’s change more visible.
• Simile: the old words feel “like a coat she had outgrown – or had not yet grown into”. The dash turns one idea into two. Either Anya has moved beyond her home, or she is not yet ready for its traditions. The ending leaves both open.

Step 4, connect. In the rest of the work you would track whether Anya keeps using the old words, and whether her grandmother ever accepts the new ones.

Step 5, link. The clearest link is Identities, through the recommended topic language and identity and the possible question “How do language and culture contribute to form our identity?” The greeting is not only politeness; it marks who belongs. A second link is Social organization: the household rule shows how a small community sets its own conventions.

Notice that only two short sentences of the answer are summary. The rest is analysis and linking.

Linking literature to the three themes

The brief gives each theme a guiding principle, optional recommended topics and possible questions. Use them as lenses on your works.

Identities

• Guiding principle: “Explore the nature of the self and what it is to be human.”
• Topics: lifestyles; health and well-being; beliefs and values; subcultures; language and identity.
• Possible questions: “What constitutes an identity?” and “How do language and culture contribute to form our identity?”
• Look for: characters torn between two groups, changes of name or language, conflicts of belief, and how a narrator describes themselves.

Social organization

• Guiding principle: “Explore the ways in which groups of people organize themselves, or are organized, through common systems or interests.”
• Topics: social relationships; community; social engagement; education; the working world; law and order.
• Possible questions: “What is the individual’s role in the community?” and “What role do rules and regulations play in the formation of a society?”
• Look for: schools, workplaces, families and villages as systems; who makes the rules; who obeys and who resists.

Sharing the planet

• Guiding principle: “Explore the challenges and opportunities faced by individuals and communities in the modern world.”
• Topics: the environment; human rights; peace and conflict; equality; globalization; ethics; urban and rural environment.
• Possible questions: “What environmental and social issues present challenges to the world, and how can these challenges be overcome?” and “What challenges and benefits does globalization bring?”
• Look for: descriptions of land and nature, moves between town and country, injustice, war, and moral choices.

A work can link to more than one theme, including Experiences and Human ingenuity.

Build a theme map for each work

Theme	Key passages (chapter)	Possible question it answers	Target-language vocabulary
Identities	…	…	…
Social organization	…	…	…
Sharing the planet	…	…	…

Fill it in as you read, not in the final week. When you meet an unseen excerpt, the map tells you which link to make.

Range and complexity when you talk about literature

The brief expects HL students to extend range and complexity. When you discuss literature, that means:

• Precise verbs instead of “says” or “shows”: suggests, implies, reveals, undermines, contrasts with, foreshadows.
• Complex sentences with concession and cause: “Although Anya laughs, her silence afterwards suggests that…”
• Hypothesis: “If the grandmother had accepted the new greeting, the scene would lose its tension.”
• Hedging for interpretations: “This could be read as…”, “It seems that…”
• Reference to the whole work: “Later in the novel…”, “Earlier, we saw…”

Learn the target-language equivalents of these frames and practise saying them aloud, since the literary excerpt is the stimulus for your oral.

Common errors

• Retelling the plot. Summary is step 2 of five, not the whole answer.
• Naming a technique without its effect. “There is a simile” earns nothing until you explain it.
• Long quotations. Quote a few words and comment on them; do not read out whole sentences.
• Confusing narrator and author. A first-person narrator’s views are not automatically the writer’s views.
• Forcing a theme link. Choose the theme the excerpt actually supports, and name a possible question.
• Knowing only one work. The excerpt can come from either work, so revise both.
• Stereotyping a culture. Base cultural comments on what the text shows, and hedge them.

Where next

• HL literature revision notes and practice questions
• Theme units: Identities and Sharing the planet
• Syllabus guide, subject overview, exam preparation and assessment revision notes

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language B, first assessment 2020 (2018). The HL literary works requirement, the oral stimulus and the guiding principles, topics and possible questions quoted here are taken from it.