IB French B SL

Three components: Paper 1 for written production, where you choose tasks from a set and write texts in French, one of them responding to a stimulus; Paper 2 for listening and reading comprehension, with listening passages heard more than once; and an individual oral with a visual stimulus, presentation and discussion. Your teacher handles the oral and it is externally moderated.

SL sits between ab initio and HL. You are expected to understand fairly complex authentic texts and to express opinions with reasonable accuracy, but not with the range or nuance of HL. If you have several years of French and can hold a conversation, SL is usually the right fit; if you are starting from zero, ab initio is designed for you.

Weightings and durations are set by the IB and can change between subject guide revisions, so check the current Language B guide on the IB website and confirm with your coordinator. Do not rely on numbers from older past papers or forum posts, which are frequently out of date.

Resit arrangements depend on your school and on IB rules for the session in which you want to be reassessed, and internal assessment marks may or may not carry over. Ask your IB coordinator early, because registration deadlines are strict. The IB publishes the current retake regulations on its website.

Writing or speaking about the topic in general terms instead of answering the specific task. Examiners reward relevant content, appropriate text type and register, and organised structure. A well-argued answer in simpler French scores better than an ambitious answer that drifts off-task or ignores conventions such as a salutation, headline or closing.

Start with vocabulary and grammar tied to the five themes, since everything depends on them. Then work on reading and listening with authentic material, because those skills feed your writing and speaking. Practise writing the required text types regularly, and begin oral practice well before the assessment rather than cramming at the end.

Use short authentic clips - news summaries, vlogs, podcast excerpts - and listen three times: once for gist, once for detail, once with a transcript. Note the expressions you missed and reuse them in your own sentences. This trains you to catch meaning from context rather than translating word by word, which is what the exam rewards.

No. French B is a language acquisition course, not a literature course. You work with a range of text types and themes rather than set literary works. At SL the focus is on practical communication across the five prescribed themes, so invest your time in comprehension, text-type conventions and fluent, accurate production.

Your teacher conducts and records it, and it is marked against IB criteria covering language, message and interaction, with moderation by the IB. You present on a visual stimulus linked to a theme, then discuss it and move into broader conversation. Practise timing your presentation and preparing for unpredictable follow-up questions.

These are published by the IB and by your school, and they change between sessions. Check the official IB website and speak to your programme coordinator for the session you are entered for. This page is independent study material and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the IB.