IB Spanish B HL case studies
IB Spanish B HL · Put your knowledge to work in context.
IB Spanish B Higher Level is the advanced language-acquisition course in the IB Diploma Programme, designed for students who already have a working command of Spanish and want to use it with precision across real-world and literary contexts. It is not a beginner course: HL candidates are expected to handle authentic texts and speech, produce extended written texts in appropriate registers, and discuss a literary work with confidence. The IB Spanish B HL case studies are 5 cases and about 3,347 words.
1The column that praises what it attacks: irony in Paper 1
During a mock Paper 1 for Spanish B HL, five students read a 520-word opinion column from a Chilean digital newspaper. The column attacks the conversion of Valparaíso's historic houses into boutique hotels, and it opens with what looks like praise: «Nada menos que un logro: otra casa patrimonial convertida en hotel con vistas».
661 words, about 3 min2The corrected figure: monitoring self-repair in HL listening
Twenty-two students sit a mock Paper 2 listening. Track 2 is a three-minute radio interview with a marine geologist from Galicia about beach erosion.
637 words, about 3 min3A good argument in the wrong clothes: register in Paper 1 Task 1
Diego, an HL candidate in a school that sets a full Paper 1 every three weeks, writes 395 words for Task 1 (250–400 words): a formal letter to the ayuntamiento of Salamanca arguing against the removal of a bike lane used by 1,200 people a day. His three arguments are genuinely strong and supported by figures from a local cycling association.
692 words, about 3 min4Fourteen connectors, one idea: raising the band in Paper 1 Task 2
Paper 1 Task 2 asks for a discursive text of 250–400 words on «¿Deberían los institutos prohibir los móviles?». Emma produces 400 words containing fourteen explicit connectors ( en primer lugar , por otra parte , asimismo , no obstante , cabe destacar , en definitiva ), a memorized opener («En la sociedad actual en la que vivimos, este tema es muy importante»), and two examples, both drawn from her own school.
696 words, about 3 min5Three minutes of plot: the HL oral on a literary extract
Álvaro, an HL candidate, has studied Crónica de una muerte anunciada and Historia de una escalera . In the school's mock individual oral (15 minutes' preparation; a 12-minute oral consisting of a 5-minute presentation on two extracts followed by discussion), he brings the opening page of the novel and a scene from Act I of the play.
661 words, about 3 min