IB Diploma Programme English Language and Literature Standard Level
A two-year academic course (IB Diploma Programme) in which students study language and literature as interconnected systems, examining literary and non-literary texts through three areas of exploration: Readers, Writers and Texts; Time and Space; and Intertextuality. At the Standard Level, students read four literary works and engage with an equivalent number of non-literary bodies of work, culminating in two formal examination papers and an internally assessed individual oral presentation centred on a self-chosen global issue. The course simultaneously develops critical reading, analytical writing, and oral communication skills within an explicitly global, intercultural framework.
180
Minutes
40
Questions
4/7
Passing Score
$124
Exam Cost
Who Should Take This
High-school students enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme who are native or near-native English speakers seeking a rigorous, internationally recognised language arts qualification at the Standard Level, as well as learners preparing for university-level literary and rhetorical analysis in English-speaking academic contexts.
What's Covered
1Course Foundations: Language, Text, and Context
2Area of Exploration 1 — Readers, Writers and Texts
3Area of Exploration 2 — Time and Space
4Area of Exploration 3 — Intertextuality: Connecting Texts
5Paper 1 — Guided Textual Analysis of Unseen Non-Literary Texts
6Paper 2 — Comparative Literary Essay on Studied Works
7Individual Oral (IO) — Internal Assessment
8Academic Writing Skills Across All Assessments
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
13 Activity Formats
Course Outline
1Course Foundations: Language, Text, and Context 2 topics
Literary and Non-Literary Text Types
- Recall the defining structural and generic features of the five primary literary forms studied in the IB course — novel, short story, poetry, drama, and non-fiction prose — including conventions such as stanzaic form, dramatic act structure, and narrative arc.
- Recall the range of non-literary text types encountered in IB Lang Lit — advertisements, editorials, opinion columns, infographics, cartoons, speeches, and photographic essays — and state the primary communicative purpose of each.
- Distinguish between a literary text and a non-literary body of work by comparing their production contexts, intended audiences, and the aesthetic versus functional dimensions of their language choices.
- Explain how a non-literary body of work (e.g. a sequence of advertisements by one brand or a column series by one journalist) creates meaning across multiple texts through cumulative patterns of voice, visual design, and recurring argument rather than through a single self-contained text.
Authorial Language Choices and Stylistic Devices
- Recall the standard literary and rhetorical terminology required across all three IB assessment components: diction, syntax, register, tone, imagery, metaphor, simile, alliteration, irony, satire, juxtaposition, motif, symbol, allusion, and genre.
- Explain how shifts in register — between formal and colloquial, Standard English and dialect, elevated and plain — signal changes in power dynamics, intimacy, or ironic intent within literary and non-literary texts.
- Apply textual evidence integration techniques — quotation, paraphrase, embedded citation — to support an analytical claim in written prose, ensuring the evidence is comment-worthy and not merely decorative.
2Area of Exploration 1 — Readers, Writers and Texts 2 topics
The Nature of Texts and the Reader–Writer Relationship
- Explain how authors position readers through narrative voice, point of view selection (first, second, third person; limited versus omniscient), and direct address, and describe how these choices shape the reader's sympathy, suspicion, or identification with characters.
- Analyse how the historical, cultural, and biographical context of a text's production — including the author's social position, intended publication venue, and period conventions — shapes the ideological assumptions embedded in its language.
- Analyse how non-literary texts construct an implied audience through choices of lexis, visual hierarchy, mode of address, and appeals to ethos, pathos, or logos, and evaluate whether the actual and implied audiences may diverge.
How Texts Construct and Communicate Meaning
- Comprehend how denotative word meanings interact with cultural connotations to create layers of significance in poetry and advertising copy, demonstrating how a single lexical choice can simultaneously operate on literal and figurative planes.
- Analyse how structural features — paragraph sequencing, stanza breaks, act division, flashback, and in medias res openings — create emphasis, tension, and thematic meaning beyond what is stated in surface content.
- Analyse how visual and multimodal elements in non-literary texts — layout, image–text relationship, font choice, white space, colour — function as rhetorical devices that reinforce or complicate the verbal message.
- Synthesise close reading observations about voice, structure, and imagery into a coherent interpretive argument about the overall purpose or thematic claim of a literary or non-literary text.
3Area of Exploration 2 — Time and Space 2 topics
How Context of Production Shapes Texts
- Recall the major historical and cultural periods represented in the IB Lang Lit SL syllabus — including colonial and postcolonial, modernist, and contemporary — and identify how each period's dominant ideologies manifest in stylistic and thematic choices.
- Analyse how the physical and cultural setting of a literary work functions symbolically — how specific geographical and socio-economic environments shape characters' options, conflicts, and identities beyond mere backdrop.
- Analyse how the meaning and cultural resonance of a text changes when received by audiences distant in time or geography from its original context, and evaluate the interpretive risks of anachronistic or ethnocentric readings.
Language, Power, and Social Context
- Comprehend how language encodes and reproduces power relations — including gender, class, and colonial hierarchies — through lexical choice, grammatical agency (active vs. passive voice), and discourse conventions in both literary and non-literary texts.
- Analyse rhetorical strategies — including repetition, anaphora, appeals to authority, and the framing of in-group/out-group distinctions — used in persuasive non-literary texts such as political speeches, opinion editorials, and institutional advertising.
- Analyse how editorial selection, headline framing, lexical choices, and image–caption pairing in journalistic bodies of work construct a particular ideological stance toward a global issue, often presenting that stance as neutral or factual.
- Apply cultural and postcolonial lenses to identify how a literary text written in English constructs or challenges representations of race, national identity, and cultural authenticity, grounding the analysis in specific textual evidence.
4Area of Exploration 3 — Intertextuality: Connecting Texts 2 topics
Allusion, Influence, and Genre Conventions
- Recall the concept of intertextuality — including direct allusion, pastiche, parody, adaptation, and genre inheritance — and identify at least three distinct forms of intertextual relationship that appear across texts studied in the course.
- Analyse how a literary text's allusions to mythological, biblical, or canonical literary sources enrich its thematic argument, and evaluate whether the allusion reinforces or ironically subverts the source material's original meaning.
- Analyse how a text subverts or parodies genre expectations — for example, an anti-war poem deployed in advertising, or a domestic realist novel that adopts gothic tropes — and evaluate the rhetorical or ideological effect of that subversion.
Cross-Text Comparative Analysis
- Apply a structured comparative framework — identifying parallel themes, contrasting authorial methods, and divergent contextual pressures — to two literary texts, constructing a thesis that goes beyond surface similarity to reveal a meaningful tension.
- Synthesise analysis of a literary work and a non-literary body of work to argue how both illuminate the same global issue from contrasting perspectives, foregrounding how different text types encode the issue through distinct formal conventions.
5Paper 1 — Guided Textual Analysis of Unseen Non-Literary Texts 2 topics
First-Reading and Annotation Strategies
- Apply a two-pass reading protocol for Paper 1 unseen texts: first pass for purpose, audience, and main argument; second pass annotating specific language choices, structural moves, and visual elements that serve the guiding question.
- Analyse how the IB's guiding question directs and constrains a Paper 1 response, distinguishing between questions that focus on how meaning is created versus those that foreground purpose or audience positioning, and planning accordingly.
Paper 1 Assessment Criteria and Essay Construction
- Apply Criterion A (Understanding and Interpretation) to a Paper 1 draft by verifying the essay states an explicit interpretation of the text's overall meaning, grounds that interpretation in precise textual details, and addresses the guiding question directly throughout.
- Apply Criterion B (Analysis and Evaluation) to Paper 1 body paragraphs by selecting stylistic features — specific diction, structural choices, tonal shifts, visual composition — and explaining the precise effect of each on meaning, purpose, or audience response.
- Apply Criterion C (Focus and Organisation) by drafting a Paper 1 essay with an introduction that names text type, context, and central argument; unified body paragraphs each advancing a single analytical claim; and a conclusion that evaluates the text's overall effectiveness.
- Apply Criterion D (Language) standards to a Paper 1 essay by deploying literary and rhetorical terminology accurately, varying sentence structure, avoiding colloquialisms, and maintaining a formal analytical register appropriate to an academic literary examination.
- Synthesise analysis of purpose, audience, stylistic devices, structure, and visual elements into a coherent 20-mark Paper 1 response completed within 75 minutes, demonstrating command of all four assessment criteria simultaneously.
6Paper 2 — Comparative Literary Essay on Studied Works 2 topics
Literary Knowledge and Work-Specific Analysis
- Recall key plot events, character arcs, thematic concerns, and significant stylistic moments across the four literary works studied at SL, retaining sufficient textual detail to support specific quotation and reference under timed examination conditions.
- Comprehend the major thematic clusters — identity, power, belonging, loss, resistance, transformation — that recur across the SL reading list, mapping which works engage each cluster most centrally to enable rapid question matching under exam conditions.
- Analyse each studied literary author's characteristic stylistic methods — narrative technique, figurative language patterns, use of dialogue, structural experimentation — as distinguishable features that can be foregrounded in comparative discussion.
Paper 2 Essay Structure and Comparative Argument
- Analyse the four Paper 2 question options — identifying the thematic focus, any constraint on the methods to discuss, and the implied comparative dimension — and select the question that best suits the two works prepared, within the first five minutes of the examination.
- Synthesise a contrastive comparative thesis for Paper 2 that names both literary works, identifies the thematic or methodological tension between them, and makes a specific interpretive claim that the essay will substantiate with textual evidence.
- Apply integrated paragraph structure to Paper 2 body paragraphs — presenting a point about both works simultaneously within each paragraph rather than sequentially summarising them — to sustain genuine comparative analysis across 25 marks.
- Apply contextual embedding in Paper 2 by integrating relevant historical, cultural, or biographical context for each author at moments where it directly illuminates a stylistic or thematic choice, rather than presenting context as a separate introductory block.
- Synthesise literary knowledge, comparative analysis, contextual understanding, and formal essay craft into a complete 25-mark Paper 2 comparative essay completed within 105 minutes, satisfying all four assessment criteria at a sustained level.
7Individual Oral (IO) — Internal Assessment 3 topics
Selecting and Defining the Global Issue
- Recall the five IB fields of inquiry — Culture, Identity and Community; Beliefs, Values and Education; Politics, Power and Justice; Art, Creativity and Imagination; Science, Technology and the Environment — and list at least two specific global issue examples within each field.
- Comprehend the three criteria an IO global issue must satisfy — wide contemporary significance, transnational relevance, and tangible local impact — and distinguish a well-scoped global issue from an overly broad topic or a personal anecdote.
- Apply the global issue criteria to select and articulate a specific, argumentatively generative IO global issue — for example 'the commodification of cultural identity in mass media' rather than 'identity' — that is demonstrably present in both the chosen literary and non-literary texts.
Extract Selection and Text Preparation
- Apply extract-selection principles to choose a maximum 40-line passage from the literary work and an equivalent non-literary excerpt that both contain rich, analysable language choices directly linked to the global issue rather than merely referencing its topic.
- Apply the IB bullet-point note requirement by preparing exactly 10 organised, analysis-triggering bullets per text — not pre-written sentences — that cue specific evidence, authorial choices, and the global issue connection during the live oral presentation.
IO Delivery, Argumentation, and Discussion
- Apply a balanced 10-minute IO structure — approximately 4 minutes per text plus a comparative synthesis bridge — ensuring the literary work and non-literary body of work receive proportionate analytical attention in relation to the global issue.
- Apply Criterion A (Knowledge, Understanding, and Interpretation) in the IO by referencing specific authorial choices from both extracts, situating them within the broader works, and articulating a persuasive interpretation of how each text treats the global issue.
- Apply Criterion B (Analysis and Evaluation) in the IO by explaining with nuance how specific authorial choices — narrative voice, metaphor, visual framing, structural device — construct the global issue's presentation, and evaluating the relative persuasive or artistic success of each text's approach.
- Apply responsive oral argumentation skills during the 5-minute teacher-led discussion phase of the IO: developing points beyond what was presented, conceding nuance where challenged, and maintaining the global issue as the analytical anchor under questioning.
- Synthesise global issue framing, close reading of two text types, comparative insight, and formal spoken English into a complete 40-mark Individual Oral — a 10-minute presentation plus 5-minute discussion — that satisfies all four IO criteria simultaneously.
8Academic Writing Skills Across All Assessments 2 topics
Argument Construction and Essay Architecture
- Apply thesis-formulation principles to draft a single-sentence interpretive claim for any IB Lang Lit essay that is specific, arguable (not a statement of fact), text-grounded, and directly responsive to the question or guiding prompt.
- Apply the analytical paragraph method (claim–evidence–analysis–link) to IB Lang Lit essays, ensuring each paragraph opens with a debatable analytical claim rather than a topic announcement, embeds at least one precise quotation, and closes by linking back to the essay's central argument.
- Apply counterargument and concession techniques in IB essay writing — acknowledging a plausible alternative interpretation before rebutting or qualifying it — to demonstrate the analytical maturity rewarded by the upper bands of all four assessment criteria.
Timed Writing and Examination Technique
- Apply examination time management to Paper 1: allocating 10 minutes to reading and planning, 55 minutes to drafting, and 10 minutes to reviewing for analytical coherence and language accuracy within the 75-minute total for SL.
- Apply examination time management to Paper 2: allocating 10 minutes to question selection and planning, 85 minutes to drafting, and 10 minutes to reviewing for comparative depth and evidence specificity within the 105-minute SL total.
- Synthesise all course competencies — close reading of literary and non-literary texts, knowledge of studied works, comparative argumentation, global issue analysis, and timed essay craft — into examination-ready performance across Paper 1, Paper 2, and the Individual Oral, the three components that together constitute 100% of the SL final grade.
Scope
Included Topics
- Guided textual analysis of unseen non-literary texts (Paper 1)
- Comparative literary essay on two studied works (Paper 2)
- Individual oral presentation linking a global issue to one literary and one non-literary text (IO)
- Three areas of exploration: Readers Writers and Texts; Time and Space; Intertextuality
- Five fields of inquiry for global issues: Culture Identity and Community; Beliefs Values and Education; Politics Power and Justice; Art Creativity and Imagination; Science Technology and the Environment
- Literary text types: novel, short story, poetry, drama, non-fiction prose
- Non-literary bodies of work: advertising, journalism, photography, cartoons, infographics, film, speeches
- Authorial choices: structure, narrative voice, imagery, tone, diction, register, genre conventions
- Assessment criteria: Knowledge and Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation, Focus and Organisation, Language
- Comparative analysis skills across literary and non-literary forms
Not Covered
- IB English Language and Literature Higher Level (HL) additional written task
- IB English A: Literature course (literary texts only, no non-literary component)
- IB English B (language acquisition course for non-native speakers)
- Language A: Literature and Performance combined course
- Extended Essay in English (separate component, not assessed within this subject brief)
Official Exam Page
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