As part of the Diploma Programme (DP), students take at least one subject from Group 1 - Studies In Language & Literature. Taking two studies in language and literature subjects in different languages is one way of obtaining a bilingual diploma. The courses offer a broad range of texts, and students grow to appreciate a language’s complexity, wealth and subtleties in a variety of contexts. Students take their studies in a language in which they are academically competent.

The subject consists of three courses:

• Language A: Literature

  • The language A: literature course introduces students to the analysis of literary texts. It is the course through which the IB’s policy of mother-tongue entitlement is delivered. The course is automatically available in 55 languages and available by special request and may be studied in any language with a sufficiently developed written literature.

• Language A: Language & Literature

  • The language A: language and literature course introduces the critical study and interpretation of written and spoken texts from a wide range of literary forms and non literary text-types. The formal analysis of texts is supplemented by awareness that meaning is not fixed but can change in respect to contexts of production and consumption.

• Literature & Performance

  • The literature and performance course aims to explore the relationship between literature and theatre. The main focus of the course is the interaction between the literary skills of close reading, critical writing and discussion and the practical, aesthetic and symbolic elements of performance.

Through each course, students are able to develop:

• a personal appreciation of language and literature

• critical-thinking skills in their interaction with a range of texts from different periods, styles, text-types and literacy forms

• an understanding of the formal, stylistic and aesthetic qualities of texts

• strong powers of expression, both written and oral

• an appreciation of cultural differences in perspective

• an understanding of how language challenges and sustains ways of thinking.

Through studies in language and literature, the DP aims to develop a student's lifelong interest in language and literature, and a love for the richness of human expression.