IB Diploma Programme Language B – The Individual Oral Study Guide

This study guide teaches you how to prepare the individual oral, the internal assessment of IB Diploma Programme Language B, at SL and HL. 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. The oral can draw on any of the five prescribed themes; the worked examples here use identities, experiences and sharing the planet. The page is in English: rehearse every step in your target language.

Use it with the individual oral revision notes and the individual oral 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 oral	What you must be able to do	SL/HL
The stimulus	Read a stimulus quickly and link it to a prescribed theme	SL: visual image. HL: literary extract
The presentation	Speak at length about the stimulus in a planned, signposted order	Both
The conversation	Answer, extend and repair in spontaneous exchange with your teacher	Both
Themes and possible questions	Use the brief’s possible questions as lenses for ideas	Both
Cultural connection	Link the stimulus to the target-language culture(s) with specific examples	Both

What the brief says, and what it leaves to your teacher

The subject brief gives these facts about the oral:

• It is the course’s only internal component, worth 25% of the final grade and marked out of 30 marks. The external papers make up the other 75%.
• At SL the stimulus is “a visual image that is clearly relevant to one (or more) of the themes of the course”.
• At HL the stimulus is “an excerpt from one of the two literary works studied”. HL students must study two literary works “originally written in the target language”.
• The assessment outlines for SL and HL are identical; “it is the nature of the assessment that differs”.

The brief does not give the timings, the stages of the oral, the rules on notes or the assessment criteria. Your teacher will share these. Plan with their exact figures, not with figures from a friend at another school or an old handout.

The skills the oral tests

The brief says communication “is evidenced through receptive, productive and interactive skills”. The oral uses all three:

• Receptive: you understand the stimulus and your teacher’s questions.
• Productive: you speak at length, in an organised way, about the stimulus.
• Interactive: you take part in a real exchange, not a string of memorised answers.

Three of the assessment objectives in the brief describe the oral well. You must “identify, organize and present ideas on a range of topics”, “communicate clearly and effectively in a range of contexts and for a variety of purposes”, and “understand and use language to express and respond to a range of ideas with fluency and accuracy”. Notice the verb respond. Half of the skill is reacting to what someone else says.

The brief also names five conceptual understandings: context, audience, purpose, meaning and variation. In the oral, your audience is your teacher, the context is a formal assessment, and your purpose is to explain and discuss. That calls for a register that is polite and clear but still natural: full sentences, no slang, and no written-essay phrasing read aloud.

SL: working with a visual image

An image gives you no words, so every idea comes from you. Work through four layers in order.

1. Literal. Who, where, what is happening? Keep this short: two or three sentences.
2. Theme. Which prescribed theme is the image “clearly relevant” to? Which optional recommended topic? Some images fit two themes; choose one to lead with and hold the other in reserve.
3. Lens. Pick one of the brief’s possible questions for that theme and use it to turn the image into an argument.
4. Culture. Connect the image to a specific example from the target-language culture(s) you have studied: a custom, a news story, a text from class.

Worked example (SL)

Image described in words — original, written for Marlbridge. A girl of about sixteen sits at a kitchen table with a laptop open. On screen, an older woman holds a cooking pot up to the camera. The girl copies something into a notebook. Flour and a rolling pin sit beside her. Outside her window it is dark; on the screen, it is bright daylight.

• Literal: a girl follows a recipe on a video call with an older relative, perhaps her grandmother.
• Theme: identities (topic: language and identity; also beliefs and values). It also fits experiences (migration), because the day/night contrast suggests the family lives in two countries.
• Lens: “How do language and culture contribute to form our identity?” The recipe is culture passed on; the notebook suggests she wants to keep it.
• Culture: compare with a family custom or food tradition from a target-language country you have studied, and say what is similar and what is different.

A strong opening sentence: “This image shows a girl learning a family recipe by video call, and I think it asks how a culture survives when a family is split between two countries.” One sentence of description, then straight to an idea.

HL: working with a literary extract

At HL you know the stimulus comes from one of your two works, so preparation starts months earlier. When you meet an extract, move through four questions.

1. Where is it? What has happened just before, and what follows? One or two sentences only.
2. What happens here? The key action, change or conflict in the extract.
3. How is it written? Two or three features — repetition, contrast, a symbol, dialogue, sentence length, point of view — each with a short quotation and its effect.
4. Why does it matter? Link the extract to the whole work and to a prescribed theme.

Worked example (HL)

Original text written for Marlbridge, standing in for an excerpt from one of your literary works.

Nadia folded her mother’s letter into four and put it under the dictionary. She had read it twice. The second time, she had stopped at the word her mother always used for home, the one with no translation, and found she was saying it aloud in the empty room. Outside, the tram bell rang, the same two notes as every evening. She had learned the tram timetable before she learned the name of her street. Tomorrow she would answer the letter. Tomorrow, or the day after.

• What happens: Nadia, living abroad, reads a letter from her mother and delays replying.
• Features: the untranslatable word for home shows that some parts of identity live only in one language; the repeated “Tomorrow” shows her putting off the reply; the tram “timetable” she learned first suggests her new life runs on routine rather than belonging.
• Theme: identities (language and identity) and experiences (migration). A lens: “What constitutes an identity?”
• Link to the whole work: in your real work, you would say whether this delay grows into a break with home or a turning point back towards it.

Avoid retelling the plot. The extract is evidence for an interpretation, not a story to repeat.

Structuring your presentation

Use a clear five-move shape. It works at both levels.

1. Frame      one sentence: what the stimulus is + your main idea
2. Describe   brief literal account (SL) / place in the work (HL)
3. Interpret  two points, each linked to the theme or possible question
4. Connect    a specific target-language culture example (SL)
              or the wider work and its themes (HL)
5. Close      a sentence that opens discussion: a question or tension

Signpost each move so your listener can follow. Learn target-language equivalents for phrases like “First I’ll describe…”, “What interests me most is…”, “This connects to…”, “On the other hand…”, “To sum up…”. Signposting also buys you thinking time.

Plan in key words, not a script. A read-aloud script sounds flat and falls apart the moment you lose your place. If your teacher allows notes, write five headings and a few key words under each.

Balance your time. Description should be the shortest move. Interpretation and connection should take most of it.

Handling the conversation

Your teacher’s questions will not all be ones you expect. Prepare the moves, not the answers.

Extend every answer

A one-word answer ends the exchange. Use answer + reason + example:

Would you take part in a project like this? Weak: “Yes.” Stronger: “Yes, probably, because I think changes start in small groups. For example, my class started a clothes swap last year, and now the whole school runs one.”

Repair and clarify

When you do not know a word, do not stop and do not switch languages. Paraphrase: “the thing you use to…”, “a kind of…”, “the opposite of…”. When you do not understand a question, ask for clarification in the target language: “Do you mean…?”, “Could you say that another way?” Doing this well is part of interaction.

Agree, disagree and qualify

Real discussion includes challenge. Practise phrases for partial agreement (“That’s true up to a point, but…”), polite disagreement (“I see it differently, because…”) and hedging (“in some families”, “it depends on…”). Hedging also stops you from stereotyping a culture.

Buy time naturally

Short fillers in the target language (“That’s a good question…”, “Let me think…”) are better than silence or a filler from your own language. Use them once, then answer.

Be ready to move

A conversation can move beyond the stimulus. Keep vocabulary ready for the themes your class has studied, and practise linking ideas from one theme to another: a sharing the planet image about a river clean-up can lead to identities (what young people value) or experiences (a community event that changed someone).

Preparing across the course

• Build an image bank. For each theme, collect images (or describe them in words) and practise a one-minute frame-and-interpret on each.
• Keep theme vocabulary sets that go beyond nouns: verbs for change, adjectives for attitudes, phrases for cause and effect.
• Record yourself and listen for long pauses, repeated “there is”, and switches into your own language.
• HL: prepare both works equally. Mark key passages and note two features and a theme link for each.
• Practise with a partner who asks follow-up questions you have not seen.

Common errors

• Listing what is in the image (“there is a boy, there is a bag…”) instead of making a point.
• Retelling the extract’s plot (HL) with no analysis of how it is written.
• Naming a theme without a reason. Say which details make the stimulus relevant.
• Memorised speeches that ignore the stimulus in front of you.
• Yes/no answers that close the conversation.
• Switching to your own language when a word is missing, instead of paraphrasing.
• Generalising about a culture (“everyone in country X…”) with no specific example.

Where next

• Individual oral revision notes and practice questions
• Theme pages: Identities, Sharing the planet and Experiences
• Assessment revision notes, exam preparation guide, syllabus guide and subject overview

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language B, first assessment 2020 (2018). The facts about the individual oral, the assessment objectives and the possible questions are taken from its assessment model and content outline. The image description and extract are original texts written for Marlbridge.