IB English Lang Lit SL study guide
IB English Lang Lit SL · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
IB English A: Language and Literature SL is a two-year Diploma Programme course for students who want to study how language works in real-world texts and how literature shapes meaning. It suits candidates who enjoy close reading, argument, and discussing how context, audience, and purpose shape what a text does. The IB English Lang Lit SL study guide has 6 sections and about 1,396 words.
01Readers, writers and texts
Readers, writers and texts is the area of exploration that asks how meaning is produced in the transaction between a writer, a text and a reader. Paper 1 and the individual oral test whether you can analyse how textual choices position an audience and construct perspective, rather than offer biography or personal reaction.
269 words, about 1 min02Time and space
Time and space examines how texts are situated in, and construct, temporal and spatial contexts. The exam tests whether you can connect a text's production and reception to shifting values without turning analysis into a history lesson.
237 words, about 1 min03Intertextuality: connecting texts
Intertextuality is the area of exploration concerned with how texts echo, answer, adapt or contest other texts. Paper 2 and the individual oral reward analysis of the effect of these connections, not merely their identification.
219 words, about 1 min04Paper 1: Guided textual analysis skills
Paper 1 SL gives you one unseen text and guiding questions; you write a guided textual analysis in 1 hour 15 minutes. It tests close reading, not prior knowledge of the text.
223 words, about 1 min05Paper 2: Comparative essay skills
Paper 2 asks for a comparative essay on two literary works studied, written in 1 hour 45 minutes in response to one of four questions. It tests sustained comparison and argument under timed conditions.
211 words, about 1 min06Individual oral: global issue and extracts
The individual oral is a 15-minute assessment: a 10-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes of teacher questions. You discuss one global issue across one literary and one non-literary extract, both from texts you have studied.
237 words, about 1 min