Language A FAQs

Yes. Taking two Languages A courses (for example, English Lang&Lit/ Literature and Portuguese Lang&Lit / Literature), no matter if at HL or SL, will award a Bilingual Diploma.

Language A courses aim at enabling students to:

1. Engage with a range of texts, in a variety of media and forms, from different periods, styles, and cultures.

2. Develop skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, presenting and performing.

3. Develop skills in interpretation, analysis and evaluation.

4. Develop sensitivity to the formal and aesthetic qualities of texts and an appreciation of how they contribute to diverse responses and open up multiple meanings.

5. Develop an understanding of relationships between texts and a variety of perspectives, cultural contexts, and local and global issues, and an appreciation of how they contribute to diverse responses and open up multiple meanings.

6. Develop an understanding of the relationships between studies in language and literature and other disciplines.

7. Communicate and collaborate in a confident and creative way.

8. Foster a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of language and literature.

The course of Literature is designed only with Literary texts.

The course of Language and Literature is designed with a selection of Literary and Non-Literary body of texts.

The differences and similarities are summarised below:

Paper 1 (analysis)

Literature - Literary texts (2 HL / 1 SL)

Language and Literature - Literary and Non-Literary texts (2 HL / 1 SL)

Paper 2 (Comparison) in both

HL – 3 Literary Works

SL – 2 Literary Works

Oral (Relating to Global Issues)

Literature- Literary texts

Language and literature - Literary and Non-Literary texts

Essay (HL)

Literature- Literary texts

Language and literature - Literary and Non-Literary texts

There is very little difference between HL/SL. Students completing IGCSE first language will be equally able to access the HL or SL course demands.

The differences can be summarised as follows:

Language and Literature

Higher level

5/ 6 periods per week

6 literary works in the course

HL Essay

IGCSE First Language: A or B - recommended entry grades.

Standard level

4 periods per week

4 literary works

IGCSE First Language:

C or above - recommended entry grades.

Literature

Higher level

5 / 6 periods per week

13 literary works in the course

HL Essay

IGCSE First Language:

A or B- recommended entry grades.

Standard level

4 periods per week

9 literary works

IGCSE First Language:

B or above - recommended entry grades.

The recommended entry grades indicated in this table are advised levels of performance. Nevertheless, students willing to join any of these courses with a grade lower than these values should consult the Departments and his/her particular case will be analysed individually.

The course that is right for you is dependent on your personal interests. To get a sense of what each of the three courses are like watch the videos below, in which our current English A students explain why they chose their options, and how they feel about their studies in English.

Literature

Language and Literature

Literature and Performance.

Literature and Performance is a popular, dynamic and unique interdisciplinary course that combines the study of literature with elements of drama. This course is only available at SL.

In this exciting, creative process text is viewed from different angles in a way that goes beyond what is characteristic of either literary or theatre studies as single disciplines. It challenges you to adopt many perspectives, such as a director, actor, orator, lighting technician, stage director, costume designer, audience member and critic.

Unit: Paper 1: Prose & Performance

Task: One essay about transforming an extract and staging a scene from a novel into a performance; open book.

Info: Exam

Value: 20 %

Unit: Paper 2: Poetry

Task: Comparative essay exploring 2 poetry anthologies.

Info: Exam

Value: 20%

Unit: Written Coursework

Task: Analysis of a performance of a part; reflections on individual performance in character.

Info: 2000 word essay

Value: 20%

Unit: Performance & Individual Oral Presentation

Task: Transformation of a text (novel or poem). Group performance (filmed) and individual oral presentation (IOP) recorded.

Info: Oral (15 mins) Performance (20 minutes)

Value: 40 %

Any student who is either a native speaker of Spanish or is a proficient speaker of the language.

Spanish A is the same course as English or Portuguese A (first language). In this case, we would not study grammar (unless absolutely essential) as the student would be expected to already use the language to a proficient level. (Grammar is studied on the Spanish B course so that students can understand how to use the language in different contexts i.e. past, present, future - a native/proficient speaker can do this automatically without needing to study the grammar rules).

Instead, students would learn how to analyse and critically engage with a variety of different text types. SL students would be expected to read four literary works, HL would have to read six works (over the entire duration of the course). As group sizes are usually small, we would be able to cover a lot of reading and linked activities during class time. Entry requirements for both SL and HL: a minimum Grade C in any first language IGCSE.

If you are confident expressing yourself in the Spanish language then Spanish B is not the option for you as it is aimed at foreign language learners. Spanish A is for any student who is comfortable communicating in Spanish without having to stop to think about how to correctly apply grammar and vocabulary. This level of study does, of course, depend a lot on how confident the student is when expressing him/herself in Spanish and so the student should liaise with Ms. C. Sousa (Head of Department) before making this decision.

It should also be noted that whilst we offer the Spanish A (language and literature) course each year, we cannot always guarantee that the course will go ahead as it is dependent on numbers.