IB DP Language B – Human ingenuity Revision Notes

For full explanations and worked examples, read the Human ingenuity study guide first. These notes are for the final weeks.

They cover Human ingenuity, the third of the five prescribed themes in IB Diploma Programme Language B, aligned to the IB Diploma Programme Subject Brief: Language B, first assessment 2020. SL and HL students study the same theme; HL students handle more complex language and also study two literary works originally written in the target language. 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.

Related pages: practice questions, Language B course hub, printable checklist, assessment revision notes, and the parallel notes for Identities and Sharing the planet.

The theme on one screen

Item	What the brief says
Guiding principle	Explore the ways in which human creativity and innovation affect our world
Optional recommended topics	Entertainment; artistic expressions; communication and media; technology; scientific innovation
Possible question 1	What can we learn about a culture through its artistic expression?
Possible question 2	How do the media change the way we relate to each other?
Conceptual understandings (whole course)	Context, audience, purpose, meaning, variation
Skills (whole course)	Receptive, productive, interactive
Place in the list	Third of five: identities, experiences, human ingenuity, social organization, sharing the planet

Where the theme can appear

Component	Weighting	Fact from the brief	Human ingenuity angle
Paper 1 (productive)	25%	One writing task from a choice of three; 30 marks	A text about an invention, an art project or a media habit
Paper 2 listening	25%	25 marks	An interview with an inventor, a podcast on streaming
Paper 2 reading	25%	40 marks	An article on a new museum, a blog on screen time
Individual oral (internal)	25%	30 marks; SL visual image, HL literary excerpt	An image of a mural or robot (SL); a passage about creation or discovery (HL)

HL Paper 1 tasks need more complex language, higher-order thinking and have a higher word range. Your teacher will share the criteria and formats.

Vocabulary fields to build

Write each headword in your target language with gender or plural (if your language marks them) and one sentence of your own.

Topic	Headwords
Entertainment	audience, performance, genre, subscription, review, live
Artistic expressions	heritage, exhibition, craftsperson, symbol, restore, preserve
Communication and media	source, headline, bias, privacy, follower, reliable
Technology	device, access, user, automate, replace, affordable
Scientific innovation	breakthrough, trial, laboratory, side effect, risk, ethical

Structures the theme demands

Function	English frame	Check in your target language
Process	“It was designed, then tested.”	Passive or impersonal form
Cause and effect	“As a result, …” / “This has led to …”	Connector plus verb form or word order
Then and now	“People used to …; now they …”	Habitual past
Speculation	“If …, we would …”	Conditional; hypothetical mood if your language has one
Evaluation	“The benefits outweigh the costs because …”	Hedging words, precise adjectives
Interpretation	“This suggests that …”	A set of reporting verbs

Method in steps

Reading an artwork (possible question 1)

1. Describe exactly what is there.
2. Infer what it shows about the makers: values, history, beliefs.
3. Mark guesses as guesses (“perhaps”, “it may be that”).
4. Answer the question in one sentence with one short quotation or detail.

Arguing about media (possible question 2)

1. Point: one change in how people relate.
2. Example: specific and concrete, never an invented statistic presented as fact.
3. Effect: closer, more divided, faster, shallower?
4. Counterpoint: who loses out, or what the opposite view would say.

Paper 1 plan (five lines)

1. Text type, audience, purpose, context.
2. Opening that fits the text type.
3. Two or three body points, each with an example.
4. Counterpoint or complication.
5. Close that fits the purpose: recommendation, call to action or reflection.

SL oral from an image

Describe, interpret, connect (theme plus a target-language culture), judge.

Worked reminders

• Weak: “The picture shows a robot in a hospital.” Stronger: “The robot carries medicine, which suggests that hospitals are using machines to free nurses for patient care, although some patients may find it cold.”

• Weak: “Social media is bad for friendship.” Stronger: “Social media keeps friends in touch after they move away; however, a stream of likes can replace the longer conversations that friendship needs.”

• Weak: “The mural is colourful and big.” Stronger: “The mural shows fishermen and factory workers side by side, which suggests the town is proud of both its old and its new ways of earning a living.”

Where Human ingenuity meets the other themes

Overlap	Keep the Human ingenuity focus on
A new treatment (Identities: health and well-being)	The research, the breakthrough and who gains access
A festival’s new light show (Experiences: customs and traditions)	The creative idea and how it changes the tradition
Online learning (Social organization: education)	The technology and what it changes in how people learn
Solar panels (Sharing the planet: the environment)	The innovation itself and who can afford it

Must-know distinctions

Pair	Difference
Invention vs innovation	An invention is a new thing; an innovation is a new idea or method put into use, often an improvement to something that exists
Technology vs scientific innovation	Technology is tools and devices in use; scientific innovation is new knowledge from research, such as a new treatment
Entertainment vs artistic expressions	Entertainment is made mainly to amuse an audience; artistic expression is made mainly to express or represent. Many works are both
Media vs medium	“Medium” is one channel (radio); “the media” are the channels together, or the organisations behind them
Guiding principle vs possible questions	The principle frames the whole theme; the questions are examples of inquiry, not a fixed list
Recommended vs required	The five topics are optional recommended topics; unseen texts may take any angle on the theme
SL vs HL oral stimulus	SL: a visual image; HL: an excerpt from one of two literary works

Quick self-test

1. State the guiding principle of Human ingenuity.
2. Name the five optional recommended topics.
3. Give both possible questions listed for the theme.
4. What is the stimulus for the individual oral at SL, and at HL?
5. What weighting does Paper 1 carry, and how many tasks do you answer?
6. How many marks are the Paper 2 reading and listening sections worth?
7. Name the five conceptual understandings.
8. What is the difference between an invention and an innovation?
9. Rewrite as a speculation: “Robots do the cleaning. People have more free time.”
10. Which step of the artwork method is most often missing in weak answers?
11. Which extra demands does HL Paper 1 make?
12. Give a counterpoint to: “Video calls have made distance irrelevant.”

Answers

1. Explore the ways in which human creativity and innovation affect our world.
2. Entertainment, artistic expressions, communication and media, technology, scientific innovation.
3. What can we learn about a culture through its artistic expression? How do the media change the way we relate to each other?
4. SL: a visual image clearly relevant to one or more themes. HL: an excerpt from one of the two literary works studied.
5. 25%; one writing task from a choice of three.
6. Reading 40 marks; listening 25 marks (each 25% of the course).
7. Context, audience, purpose, meaning, variation.
8. An invention is a new thing; an innovation is a new idea or method put into use, often improving something that exists.
9. “If robots did the cleaning, people would have more free time.” Then write it in your target language with its conditional form.
10. Step 2, inferring what the art shows about its makers.
11. More complex language and structures, higher-order thinking, and a higher word range.
12. Any sound point, for example: a call cannot replace physical presence, and people without devices or connections are excluded.

Where marks are usually lost

• Describing an invention, image or artwork in detail and never saying what it changes or reveals.
• Answering a reading question with the right idea but the wrong detail, because a negative (“not yet”, “never”) was missed.
• Treating the five topics as the only possible content, then freezing on an unseen text about architecture, robotics or dance.
• One-sided arguments that only praise or only condemn technology.
• Translating English structures word for word instead of using the target language’s own process or conditional forms.
• Writing the right content in the wrong text type in Paper 1, for example an essay when a review was asked for.
• Vague vocabulary (“thing”, “good”) where a specific headword from the fields above was available.
• In the SL oral, spending all the time describing the image and never reaching a connection to a target-language culture.
• At HL, having no theme vocabulary ready for the literary works you studied.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language B, first assessment 2020 (2018). The theme wording, topics, questions, components, marks and weightings here come from its content outline and assessment outline.