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IB Language and Culture SL

IB Group 1 and 3

Language and Culture is being run at St Margaret’s College (and other selected schools worldwide) as a pilot course for 2025-2026 and is not yet widely available to all IB World Schools.

In the first round of assessment for this course (2024-25), it will be offered at Standard Level only, and will be run as a May exam subject. This means that the course concludes in May of 2026, at which time Year 13 students in the course will be given an additional line of study periods.

Background

The IB Language and Culture course draws on the fields of linguistics and anthropology, and requires an examination of language as a set of socially embedded practices rather than simply a neutral medium for communication. The course offers students an opportunity to think critically about the complex relationship between language, culture, society and identity. It engages students in deep reflection about their own identities and creates in them an awareness and appreciation of their linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and those of others.

The placement of the course within the IB subject selection framework is flexible (see below), offering students a range of combinations and options alongside this course.

The course may appeal to students who:

are interested in a comparative study of the languages that make up their linguistic repertoires
are bilingual or multilingual, and wish to explore their own linguistic and cultural identity in this space
are learning a second language, and wish to enhance the learning experience by reflecting on how this learning shapes them as an individual

The course may also appeal to students who are monolingual, and:

are interested in a deeper study of language in general
enjoy the study of English language and texts but are interested in studying more non-literary texts like films, TV shows, cartoons, articles, and non-fiction
are interested in the deeper exploration of a language and culture that they are not proficient in, but which is not offered as a Language B option in the IB (eg. Te Reo Māori)

How this course affects subject options in the IB Diploma

Language and Culture sits in both Group 1 (Language A) and Group 3 (Individuals and Societies) and selecting this subject can meet the requirement for one of these groups.

If selecting this course as a Group 1 subject, students would not be required to study IB English, but would still need to select subjects in Group 2 (Languages) and Group 3 (Individuals and Societies)

If selecting this course as a Group 3 subject, students would not be required to select a further Social Science subject, but would still need to study IB English (Group 1) and a language (Group 2)
If selecting two Group 1 subjects (ie. English Language A and Language and Culture), then a student would still need to select a Group 3 (Individuals and Societies) subject, but would not be required to study a Group 2 foreign language.

Course aims

The aims of the Language and Culture course are to enable students to:

Develop a sensitivity to how meaning is constructed in a range of texts, in a variety of media and forms, from different periods, styles and cultures
Develop an understanding of language as a form of social action, inseparable from the cultural context and power structures in which it is produced
Develop an awareness of the dynamic nature of language, an appreciation of linguistic varieties and an understanding of the relationships across different languages
Reflect on their own and others’ complex multilingual and multicultural identities and on how these manifest themselves in language use
Use and expand their linguistic repertoire to communicate and collaborate in a confident, creative and culturally conscious way
Explore and critically engage with multiple perspectives through inquiry into the relationship between language, text and culture
Develop an understanding of the connections between language and people as social and cultural beings
Foster a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of languages and cultures.

Programme structure

Syllabus outline:

All students will complete the following:

Introductory unit (30 hours)

In addition, the class will study two of the three topics below:

Meaning-making (60 hours)
Connections (60 hours)
Time and space (60 hours)

External assessment (3 hours) - 70%

Paper 1: Guided ethnographic analysis (1 hour 30 mins) - 35%

This paper consists of an extract (700-900 words) from an unseen ethnographic text which focuses on issues related to language and culture. Students answer three compulsory questions based on this extract, for a total of 20 marks.

Paper 2: Comparative essay (1 hours 30 mins) - 35%

Students select one of four possible questions to answer. In response to this question, they write a comparative essay based on two (literary or non-literary) works or bodies of work they have studied as part of this course.

Assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB.

Internal assessment - 30%

This component is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB.

Language and culture autoethnographic study/reflection

On the basis of the work done in the language and culture diary, students present an autoethnographic text which focuses on an inquiry question related to one of the two topics studied, which demonstrates personal, reflexive and reflective engagement with the topic.

Each student should submit a 1500-word autoethnographic text which uses evidence from the language and culture diary to engage in an exploration of the chosen inquiry question and evidence understanding of it. The examples from the diary can be multimodal. They can also be multilingual if care is taken to make accessible to the external moderators any text that is in a language other than English.

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