Active tasks

InThinking Revision Sites

INTHINKING REVISION SITES

Own your learning

Why not also try our independent learning self-study & revision websites for students?

We currenly offer the following DP Sites: Biology, Chemistry, English A Lang & Lit, Maths A&A, Maths A&I, Physics, Spanish B

"The site is great for revising the basic understandings of each topic quickly. Especially since you are able to test yourself at the end of each page and easily see where yo need to improve."

"It is life saving... I am passing IB because of this site!"

Basic (limited access) subscriptions are FREE. Check them out at:

www.StudyIB.net

The course

  • /
  • Getting Started: Students/
  • The course

Syllabus Requirements and Course Design

It is a mandatory requirement for all students to have a learner portfolio.  Click here to find out more about the learner portfolio.    

Requirements

Standard Level

Students taking Standard Level English A: Language and Literature study 4 literary works and an equal or balanced amount of time is spent studying non-literary texts, including non-literary bodies of work.

Higher Level

Students taking Higher Level English A: Language and Literature study 6 literary works and an equal or balanced amount of time is spent studying non-literary texts, including non-literary bodies of work.

Course Design

The IBDP English A: Language and literature course is designed around 3 areas of exploration (AoEs) and 7 course concepts.  You will discuss them to varying degrees throughout your two year course.  Your teacher will design a course that adheres to the requirements listed above while also weaving in the 3 areas of exploration and 7 course concepts.

Areas of exploration

Readers, writers and texts

1. Why and how do we study language and literature?

2. How are we affected by texts in various ways?

3. In what ways is meaning constructed, negotiated, expressed and interpreted?

4. How does language use vary amongst text types and amongst literary forms?

5. How does the structure or style of a text affect meaning?

6. How do texts offer insights and challenges?

Time and space

1. How important is cultural or historical context to the production and reception of a text?

2. How do we approach texts from different times and cultures to our own?

3. To what extent do texts offer insight into another culture?

4. How does the meaning and impact of a text change over time?

5. How do texts reflect, represent or form a part of cultural practices?

6. How does language represent social distinctions and identities?

Intertextuality: connecting texts

1. How do texts adhere to and deviate from conventions associated with literary forms or text types?

2. How do conventions and systems of reference evolve over time?

3. In what ways can diverse texts share points of similarity?

4. How valid is the notion of a classic text?

5. How can texts offer multiple perspectives of a single issue, topic or theme?

6. In what ways can comparison and interpretation be transformative?

Course concepts

IdentityThe concept of identity is central our lives and to the study of the English A: Language and Literature course. In the study of the course, you will encounter many characters and voices in the works and texts they study. Hopefully, exposure to a variety of perspectives ranged across time and space will both confirm and challenge your views. You are also likely to consider the role of authorship in writing - how does the identity of a writer influence their works and texts? - and you will consider how your own identity as readers shapes your understanding of works and texts.
Culture

Culture is a notoriously complex concept. Its meaning is contested and has been used to mean different things at different times and in different places. In the English A: Language and Literature course culture may refer to contexts of production and reception, and to the interplay of values and beliefs that exist in and may influence how texts are written and received. Notions of genre and intertextuality are also relevant to the concept of culture; individual texts can be said to exist within traditions, and it is interesting to explore how one text intertextually relates to (and may deviate from) texts which predate it. 

CreativityCreativity is central to the activities of reading and writing. Writing is, very obviously, a creative act of imagination. In reading, too, creativity is required to interpret and understand a text, and to explore its range of potential meanings. Creativity is also relevant to the notion of originality. One may question whether originality is a reasonable prerequisite of reading and writing, and one may question whether originality is even possible.

Communication

The concept of communication is central to debates around readers, writers, and texts. Writers, we may assume, communicate with readers, manipulating language, style, and structure to establish ideas. Writers may write for particular purposes and for different intended audiences; it is interesting for you to consider how writers manipulate language and style to communicate with readers, an audience that may or may not be intended. Readers, in turn, may read more or less cooperatively. Even cooperative readers may arrive at different understandings of a text, and oppositional readers may challenge the ideas and meanings intended by a writer. Understood in this way, communication is a complex notion in which the meaning of texts may be more or less contested.

PerspectiveThe concept of perspective suggests that works and texts have a range of potential meanings. The potential can arise, for example, from authorial intent, reader bias, and from the time and place in which a work or text was written. You will be encouraged to express your perspective, explain what motivates them, and be prepared to have them challenged by other (different) perspectives.
TransformationThe concept of transformation is bound to the idea of intertextuality. Texts may be said to exist not as isolated unitary works, but rather as intertexts in which the meanings of any one text is always bound to other earlier texts. Such an understanding highlights the connections that exist between a text, other texts, and meaning. Texts may be said to appropriate and borrow from other texts, extending, changing, and challenging in creative and imaginative ways that which has gone before. Readers too are transformed by texts where reading is understood as an act of creative construction rather than linear transmission. Moreover, the act of reading may transform readers in more direct ways. That is, reading can influence how we think and how we behave.
RepresentationRepresentation refers to the relationship between texts and meanings. In any given text, whether literary or non-literary - however one makes that distinction - the relationship between form, structure, and meaning is a central concern. Perspectives differ on the extent to which language and literature does, can, or should represent reality.