MYP Language and literature 

Related Concepts in English Language and Literature
Related concepts promote deep learning. They are grounded in specific disciplines and are useful for exploring key concepts in greater detail. Inquiry into related concepts helps students develop more complex and sophisticated conceptual understanding. Related concepts may arise from the subject matter of a unit or the craft of a subject—its features and processes. 

Audience imperatives
An umbrella concept to refer to whomever (the reader, the listener, the viewer) a text or performance is aimed at, and the characteristics, impact or desired responses created. This impact could include humor, sensibility, critical stance, appreciation, empathy, antipathy and sympathy, aesthetics, mood, atmosphere and gender perspectives.

Character
The representation of persons in narrative and dramatic works. This may include direct methods like the attribution of qualities in description or commentary, and indirect (or “dramatic”) methods inviting readers to infer qualities from characters’ actions, speech or appearance.

When exploring the concept of character, students might explore transformation, influence, conflict, protagonist, antagonist, persona, foil, stock.

Context
The social, historical, cultural and workplace settings in which a text or work is produced.

All texts may be understood according to their form, content, purpose and audience, and through the social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts that produce and value them. Literary texts are influenced by social context, cultural heritage and historical change. Students should be encouraged to consider how texts build upon and transform the inherited literary and cultural traditions.

Cultural context refers to the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time.

Genres
A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions.

Conventions are the characteristics of a literary genre. These features may, of course, vary between languages. Each genre has recognizable techniques, referred to as literary conventions, and writers use these conventions, along with other literary features, in order to achieve particular artistic ends.
A study of genres includes essential understandings about conventions of genre: form, style, storyline, characterization, tone, mood, atmosphere, register, visual images and layout, narrative/storytelling, prose (foreshadowing, flashbacks, stream of consciousness in novels and short stories), poetry (metre, rhyme), drama, mythology and other fiction (for example, graphic novels, satires, oral traditions, screenplays, film and episodic television) and non-fiction (for example, autobiography, biography, travelogues, essays, letters, literary non-fiction, speeches).

Examples of conventions in drama may include dialogues, speeches, monologues, soliloquies, asides, stage directions, voice, movement, gesture, use of space, costume, props, lighting, set and sound.

Intertextuality
The connections between one text and other texts, the ways in which texts are interrelated, and the meanings that arise out of their interrelationship.
An overt reference to another text (as in a direct quote from another text) is also an example of intertextuality.

Point of view
The particular perspective brought by a composer, responder or character within a text to the text or to matters within the text. It also entails the position or vantage point from which the events of a story seem to be observed and presented to us.

When exploring this concept, students will, for example, consider positioning, voice and tone.

Purpose
In literary terms, the creator’s intentions in producing the text. This concept could also engage students in exploration of meaning, thesis/argument, gender, age, bias, persuasive techniques, function, critical stance, message and culture.

Self-expression
The expression of one’s feelings, thoughts or ideas, especially in writing, art, music, dance, design and film.

This umbrella concept includes an exploration of essential understandings about identity, voice (personal), inspiration, imagination, sensitivity, critical stance and process.

Setting
The time and the place in which the action of a book, film, play, and so on happens. Setting may also include mood and atmosphere.

Structure
The way in which a poem or play or other piece of writing has been put together, and the relationships of different parts of a text to each other and to the text as a complex whole. This can include exploring metre pattern, stanza arrangement and the way the ideas are developed. Structure requires essential understandings about plot, narrative, discourse, form, transformation, thesis/argument, syntax, foreshadowing and flashbacks.

Style
The characteristic way that a writer uses linguistic devices, literary devices and features for particular purposes and effects; for example, word choice, sentence structure, figurative devices, repetition, motif, allusion, imagery and symbolism.

Theme
The central idea or ideas the creator explores through a text.

Objectives for Language and Literature

A. Analyzing

Through the study of language and literature students are enabled to deconstruct texts in order to identify their essential elements and their meaning. Analysing involves demonstrating an understanding of the creator’s choices, the relationship between the various components of a text and between texts, and making inferences about how an audience responds to a text (strand i), as well as the creator’s purpose for producing text (strand ii). Students should be able to use the text to support their personal responses and ideas (strand iii). Literacy and critical literacy are essential lifelong skills; engaging with texts requires students to think critically and show awareness of, and an ability to reflect on, different perspectives through their interpretations of the text (strand iv).

In order to reach the aims of language and literature, students should be able to:

i. analyze the content, context, language, structure, technique and style of text(s) and the relationship among texts

ii. analyze the effects of the creator’s choices on an audience

iii. justify opinions and ideas, using examples, explanations and terminology

iv. evaluate similarities and differences by connecting features across and within genres and texts.

B. Organizing

Students should understand and be able to organize their ideas and opinions using a range of appropriate conventions for different forms and purposes of communication. Students should also recognize the importance of maintaining academic honesty by respecting intellectual property rights and referencing all sources accurately.

In order to reach the aims of language and literature, students should be able to:

i. employ organizational structures that serve the context and intention

ii. organize opinions and ideas in a sustained, coherent and logical manner

iii. use referencing and formatting tools to create a presentation style suitable to the context and intention.

C. Producing text

Students will produce written and spoken text, focusing on the creative process itself and on the understanding of the connection between the creator and his or her audience. In exploring and appreciating new and changing perspectives and ideas, students will develop the ability to make choices aimed at producing texts that affect both the creator and the audience.

In order to reach the aims of language and literature, students should be able to:

i. produce texts that demonstrate insight, imagination and sensitivity while exploring and reflecting critically on new perspectives and ideas arising from personal engagement with the creative process

ii. make stylistic choices in terms of linguistic, literary and visual devices, demonstrating awareness of impact on an audience

iii. select relevant details and examples to develop ideas.

D. Using language

Students have opportunities to develop, organize and express themselves and communicate thoughts, ideas and information. They are required to use accurate and varied language that is appropriate to the context and intention. This objective applies to, and must include, written, oral and visual text, as appropriate.

In order to reach the aims of language and literature, students should be able to:

i. use appropriate and varied vocabulary, sentence structures and forms of expression

ii. write and speak in a register and style that serve the context and intention

iii. use correct grammar, syntax and punctuation

iv. spell (alphabetic languages), write (character languages) and pronounce with accuracy

v. use appropriate non-verbal communication techniques.

Information on these pages is from the MYP Subject Guides and the MYP Project Guide. International Baccalaureate Organization. 2014. Print.