IB Group 1 · Studies in Language and Literature

Language A: Language and Literature

2026 syllabus · First assessment 2026

A Group 1 course that studies non-literary and media texts (advertising, journalism, speeches, film, social media) alongside literary works, on three areas of exploration and seven concepts. The texts are chosen by your school, so these notes teach the framework, the four assessments and the analytical toolkit, with a strong non-literary/media focus, plus a My texts tab. HL-only content is clearly split.

0. How the course works

A studies in language and literature course built on three areas of exploration and seven concepts. Unlike Literature, it studies non-literary texts (media, advertising, speeches, film) alongside literary works. The texts are chosen by your school. Start here.

INTRO — Nature, aims and objectives

LAL_AB_1 · What Language A: Language and Literature is — A study of language in use across both literary works and non-literary texts (news, advertising, speeches, images, film, social media): how meaning is made, and how language sustains or challenges ways of thinking.
LAL_AB_2 · Aims and assessment objectives — The course aims and the assessment objectives (know, understand and interpret; analyse and evaluate; focus, organisation and language), and which component assesses each.

FRAME — Areas, concepts and texts

LAL_AB_3 · The three areas of exploration — Readers, writers and texts; Time and space; Intertextuality: an overview of the frame that organises the course and how the areas overlap, across literary and non-literary texts.
LAL_AB_4 · The seven concepts — Identity, culture, creativity, communication, perspective, transformation and representation: what they are for and how they thread through every text studied.
LAL_AB_5 · Choosing works and bodies of work — How texts are chosen: SL studies four literary works, HL six, plus an equivalent amount of non-literary texts organised as bodies of work (a full-length non-literary text, or shorter texts of one type and author), balanced across text types, and the learner portfolio as the through-line.

ASSESS — Assessment

LAL_AB_6 · Assessment at a glance — Paper 1 (unseen non-literary analysis), Paper 2 (comparative essay on literary works), the Individual Oral and, at HL, the HL Essay: weightings, durations and what each covers, and how SL and HL differ.

A. The three areas of exploration

The frame that organises the course. Each area sets a different angle on the texts you study, literary and non-literary, with its own guiding questions and the concepts most in play.

RWT — Readers, writers and texts

LAL_A1_1 · What this area explores — How texts (literary and non-literary) make meaning and how readers respond: the effects of language and form, purpose and audience, and close critical response. Its guiding questions and key concepts.

TS — Time and space

LAL_A2_1 · What this area explores — How context (historical, cultural, social) shapes texts and is shaped by them, and how texts travel and are received: developing broader perspectives. Its guiding questions and key concepts.

IT — Intertextuality: connecting texts

LAL_A3_1 · What this area explores — Relationships between texts: comparison across forms, text types, conventions and traditions, including literary and non-literary. Its guiding questions and key concepts.

C. The seven concepts

When you study a text, literary or non-literary, explore how it engages with these seven concepts: they are the angles that turn reading into analysis. They thread through every text and area, and are not assessed on their own, but strong responses use them to frame what a text is doing.

CONCEPTS — The seven concepts

LAL_C_1 · Identity — The complex relationship between authors and creators, the voices and personas they construct, and the identity a reader or viewer brings to interpretation.
LAL_C_2 · Culture — How a text relates to the values and context of its production and reception, and to the conventions of its form or text type.
LAL_C_3 · Creativity — The role of imagination and craft in making and receiving texts, originality, and the range of meanings a reader can generate.
LAL_C_4 · Communication — The relationship a text builds between writer or creator and audience, and how choices of style, structure and medium shape that exchange.
LAL_C_5 · Perspective — The many viewpoints in and around a text, and how texts position their audiences to see the world in a particular way.
LAL_C_6 · Transformation — How texts rework, adapt and respond to other texts, and how meaning changes across forms, media and readings.
LAL_C_7 · Representation — How form, language and image re-present reality, and the relationship between the world and its portrayal in a text.

S. Assessment and skills

The exam and oral components, and how to do well in each: the task, the criteria in student language, and what to focus on. At HL the HL Essay has its own section.

P1 — Paper 1: Guided textual analysis

LAL_P1_1 · The task and what to focus on — An unseen NON-LITERARY text with a guiding question (SL analyse one of two, HL analyse both as two separate analyses). How to read a non-literary text for purpose, audience and effect and build a guided analysis, the criteria, and pitfalls.

P2 — Paper 2: Comparative essay

LAL_P2_1 · The task and what to focus on — A comparative essay on two studied LITERARY works in response to one of four general questions. How to build a genuine, question-led comparison, the criteria, and pitfalls.

IO — The Individual Oral

LAL_IO_1 · The task and what to focus on — Examining how a global issue is presented across one literary work and one non-literary body of work, as a 10 minute response plus 5 minutes of questions. Choosing a global issue and extracts, the criteria, and pitfalls.

T. The toolkit: literary and non-literary

The analytical skills that win marks: how to read literary forms and, above all, how to analyse non-literary and media texts (the heart of Paper 1), plus a repeatable method for the unseen text.

LITFORMS — Reading literary forms

LAL_T_1 · Poetry — Reading a poem closely: form and line, sound and rhythm, imagery, diction and structure, and how they make meaning.
LAL_T_2 · Prose: fiction and non-fiction — Narrative voice and point of view, character, structure and pacing, and style, across fiction and non-fiction prose.
LAL_T_3 · Drama — Reading drama on the page: dramatic structure, dialogue and subtext, stagecraft, and the performance dimension.

NONLIT — Reading non-literary and media texts

LAL_T_4 · Text type, purpose, audience and context — How to read any non-literary text: identify the text type and its conventions, and analyse purpose, audience, context and register (the PACT toolkit).
LAL_T_5 · Visual and media analysis — Analysing advertisements, images, cartoons, infographics, film and television, music video and social media: composition, framing, colour, gaze, salience, layout, mode and multimodal meaning.
LAL_T_6 · Rhetoric and persuasion — How texts persuade: ethos, pathos and logos, rhetorical devices, tone and register, framing and bias, and the interplay of image and word.

METHOD — Analytical method

LAL_T_7 · Analysing an unseen non-literary text — A repeatable method for Paper 1: read the text type and guiding question, work out purpose and audience, then argue how form and language create effect, with close reference.
LAL_T_8 · Writing about texts — Close analysis with embedded evidence, genuine comparison, and structuring a clear, question-led argument that answers the task.

H. The HL Essay (HL only)

HL only. The fourth HL component: a formal 1,200 to 1,500 word essay on one literary work or one non-literary body of work, built from your portfolio. A guide to finding a line of inquiry and writing it well.

HLESSAY — Guiding the HL Essay

LAL_HE_1 · What the HL Essay is — A formal essay of 1,200 to 1,500 words on one literary work OR one non-literary body of work, worth 20 percent at HL, developed from your learner portfolio around a line of inquiry you choose.
LAL_HL_2 · Finding a line of inquiry — The heart of the task: turning a broad interest in a literary work or a body of non-literary texts into one focused, arguable line of inquiry that can be sustained across it.
LAL_HL_3 · Writing and refining the essay — Structuring a developing argument, using evidence from across the work or body of work, citing any secondary sources, meeting the criteria, and redrafting from the portfolio.

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