International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) Group 2: Language Acquisition (Language B) Syllabus

Group 2: Language Acquisition (Language B) syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Group 2: Language Acquisition (Language B) in International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Prescribed Thematic Areas

   5 topics

   • Identities
     • Lifestyles, health and wellbeing
     • Beliefs, values and subcultures
   • Experiences
     • Leisure, travel and rites of passage
     • Customs, traditions and migration
   • Human ingenuity
     • Entertainment, technology and innovation
     • Communication and media
   • Social organisation
     • Community, education and the workplace
     • Law, order and social relationships
   • Sharing the planet
     • Environment and sustainability
     • Globalisation, ethics and human rights
2. 2

   Receptive Skills

   3 topics

   • Reading comprehension strategies
     • Skimming, scanning and inference
     • Identifying audience, purpose and context
   • Listening comprehension
     • Understanding accents and registers
     • Extracting detail from audio sources
   • Text types and their conventions
     • Personal, professional and mass-media texts
     • Literary works (Higher Level)
3. 3

   Productive Skills

   4 topics

   • Written production
     • Choosing the appropriate text type
     • Register, tone and audience awareness
   • Spoken interaction and fluency
     • Spontaneous conversation
     • Negotiating meaning and clarification
   • Grammar, vocabulary and accuracy
   • Conceptual understanding of language
4. 4

   Assessment Components

   3 topics

   • Paper 1: Productive writing
     • One task from a choice of three
     • Selecting text type and conventions
   • Paper 2: Listening and reading comprehension
   • Individual oral assessment
     • SL: visual stimulus description and discussion
     • HL: literary extract-based discussion

Group 2: Language Acquisition (Language B) flashcards for International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB)

18 of 51 cards from the Group 2: Language Acquisition (Language B) deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the five prescribed themes of the IB Language B course?

   Identities; Experiences; Human ingenuity; Social organisation; and Sharing the planet.

2. Under the theme 'Identities', what aspects of human nature are explored?

   Exploring the nature of the self and what it means to be human — including lifestyles, health, beliefs and values, subcultures, language and identity, and personal attributes.

3. What is the focus of the 'Experiences' theme in Language B?

   Exploring and telling stories of life events, experiences and journeys — covering leisure activities, holidays/travel, life stories, rites of passage, customs and traditions, and migration.

4. What does the 'Human ingenuity' theme cover?

   Exploring the ways human creativity and innovation affect the world — including entertainment, artistic expression, communication and media, technology, and scientific innovation.

5. What is examined under the theme 'Social organisation'?

   The ways in which groups of people organise themselves through common systems or interests — including social relationships, community, social engagement, education, the workplace, law and order.

6. What is the focus of the 'Sharing the planet' theme?

   Exploring the challenges and benefits of living in a shared world — including the environment, human rights, peace and conflict, equality, globalization, ethics, and urban/rural environments.

7. How are the five themes used across the three columns of language work in Language B?

   They frame all receptive, productive and interactive language activities, providing meaningful contexts for studying the target language at both SL and HL.

8. What additional component must HL Language B students study that SL students do not?

   Two works of literature originally written in the target language (SL studies no literary works).

9. Name three effective reading comprehension strategies for tackling an unfamiliar text.

   Skimming for gist/main idea; scanning for specific details; and using context and cognates to infer the meaning of unknown words.

10. In reading comprehension, what is the difference between skimming and scanning?

    Skimming is rapid reading to grasp the overall gist or main idea; scanning is searching quickly to locate specific pieces of information.

11. What is a 'cognate', and why is it useful in reading comprehension?

    A cognate is a word that looks/sounds similar and shares meaning across languages; it helps infer vocabulary, though students must beware of 'false friends'.

12. What is a 'false friend' (faux ami) in language learning?

    A word that resembles a word in another language but has a different meaning, leading to misinterpretation if assumed to be a cognate.

13. Name two pre-listening strategies that improve listening comprehension.

    Predicting content from the title/context and reading the questions in advance to know what information to listen for.

14. During listening comprehension, what should a student focus on to understand without catching every word?

    Identifying key words, stressed words, and contextual clues (tone, repetition, discourse markers) rather than trying to decode every single word.

15. What is the role of 'discourse markers' (e.g. connectives) in listening and reading?

    They signal the structure and direction of a text — sequencing, contrast, cause/effect, conclusion — helping the listener/reader follow the argument and anticipate what comes next.

16. List four common text types a Language B student must recognise and produce.

    Any four of: blog, email, formal letter, article, brochure/leaflet, speech, diary/journal entry, report, review, interview, set of instructions, proposal.

17. What three audience-related conventions distinguish a formal text type from an informal one?

    Register (formal vs colloquial vocabulary), tone, and forms of address (e.g. formal 'vous/usted' vs informal 'tu/tú'), plus appropriate openings/closings.

18. What conventional features identify a blog post as a text type?

    A title/headline, an informal/personal register, direct address to readers, a date, often a sign-off, and an invitation for comments or interaction.

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