Self-Taught Language A: Individual Oral

Criterion A: Understanding and Interpretation

• Know, understand, and interpret a range of texts, works, and/or performances, and their meanings and implications.  

• Know, understand, and interpret contexts in which texts are written and/or received.  

• Know, understand, and interpret elements of literary, stylistic, and rhetorical craft.  

• Know, understand, and interpret features of particular text types and literary forms.  

Looking at your chosen works in relation to a Global Issue requires that you understand the possible meanings and implications of the two works selected. Understanding and interpreting contexts will be especially valuable in revealing the importance of the Global Issue in the works you are discussing. The form in which the works represent the Global Issue being explored will also need to be identified and understood. This will require referring to the literary, stylistic, rhetorical and performance craft the writers deploy in their works. The significance of the works’ literary form features and how these might be examined and interpreted in relation to the question should be referenced.  

For example, imagine you choose the Global Issue of politics, power and justice. You could talk about two extracts from two novels that focus on the oppression of the individual. One of the novels should originally be written in your SSST language and the other novel a work in translation. Your Individual Oral should feature an interpretation of how the contexts of the extracts and overall works, the elements of literary, stylistic, rhetorical and/or performance craft and literary form, develop the examination of the oppression of the individual. 

 

Criterion B: Analyze and Evaluate

• Analyze and evaluate the ways in which the use of language creates meaning.  

• Analyze and evaluate the uses and effects of literary, stylistic, and rhetorical techniques.  

• Analyze and evaluate relationships among different texts.  

• Analyze and evaluate ways in which texts may offer perspectives on human concerns.  

In the Individual Oral, the assessment objective relates to your analysis of how the author’s choices of language, form, and literary and stylistic devices have presented the Global Issue. You will also be expected to evaluate how the two authors have made different choices in presenting the same Global Issue. The focus of your analysis and evaluation will only be the authors’ choices in relation to the Global Issue. It is not necessary to work on all aspects of the extracts. A key element of this component is the evaluation of how each of the chosen extracts interacts with the rest of the work it has been taken from.  

Criterion C: Focus and Organization

• Communicate ideas in clear, logical, and persuasive ways.  

The Individual Oral is organized and developed around the Global Issue of your choice and the assessment should revolve around the way in which it is presented in both works. If your chosen Global Issue was the oppression of the individual by totalitarian regimes, extracts you might choose should be clear examples of how it is manifested in the two works you have studied. Your discussion of extracts and of the works in general should focus exclusively on this. There should be balanced references and discussion of both works.  

Criterion D: Language

• Communicate in a range of styles and registers and for a variety of purposes and situations.  

There are differences in Criterion D between the Individual Oral and the other components in that it is an oral rather than a written exam. The mark that the external moderator will assign will be related to how effectively you communicate your views about the two works in connection with the Global Issue. You should try to be fluent in your discussion and aim to have an effect on the listener. You should aim to arouse their interest in the subject under discussion. Be careful not to over-rehearse your oral or try and memorize it, which will not help to impress the external moderator. 

Learner Portfolio Expectations for the Individual Oral: 

• keep an ongoing record of the different Global Issues that could be related to each of the works they read

• explore links that could be established between different works on the basis of common Global Issues they address

• explore how key passages in the works they have studied represent different or similar perspectives on one Global Issue through both form and content

• trace the evolution of their thinking and planning in connection with the Global Issue and how its cultural value, its definition, and application to the works they read have changed through their inquiry

• reflect on the challenges that the internal assessment poses for them as individual learners.

Selection of Works and Extracts

The works selected must have a clear connection with the Global Issue. The Individual Oral should be a well-supported argument about the ways in which the works represent and explore the Global Issue. Students must select two extracts, one from each work, that clearly show significant moments when this Global Issue is being focused on. Normally, these extracts should not exceed 40 lines or present an unmanageable amount of material to be analyzed. The extracts must be continuous: there cannot be an interruption or an ellipsis in an extract. The source of the extracts must also be clearly stated including the names of the works chosen and the names of the authors. As the student brings unannotated copies of these extracts to the Individual Oral as supportive detail, extracts that are too lengthy may hinder the student’s ability to effectively expand the discussion to the work as a whole. An extract may, of course, be a complete text in itself (a whole poem, for example). An extract may not, however, include more than one text, even if each text is extremely short.

When the extract is taken from a literary text that is part of a larger work studied (for example, a short story), or when it is a complete text that is part of a work studied (for example, a poem), students should discuss relevant aspects of the broader work as a whole in their Individual Oral.

The extracts are meant to help students focus their responses, remove the need to learn quotations and enable them to explore more precise issues, such as style, specific devices, and other distinct techniques used by authors to present the Global Issue. The choice of extracts should show the student’s understanding of the relevance of the extracts to the whole work and enable coverage of both larger and smaller choices made by the writers to shape their perspectives on the Global Issue.

The Individual Oral must be based on a work originally written in the language studied and a work originally written in another language and studied in translation.

An oral which focuses on:

• two works originally written in the language studied, or

• two works in translation

will not meet the requirements of the task.

Determining the Global Issue

A Global Issue incorporates the following three properties.

• It has significance on a wide/large scale.

• It is transnational.

• Its impact is felt in everyday local contexts.

Students may look to one or more of the following fields of inquiry for guidance on how to decide on a Global Issue to focus their orals on. These topics are not exhaustive and are intended as helpful starting points for students to generate ideas and derive a more specific Global Issue on which to base their Individual Oral. It should also be noted that there is the potential for significant overlap between the areas.

Fields of Inquiry

Culture, identity and community

Students might focus on the way in which works explore aspects of family, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender and sexuality, and the way these impact on individuals and societies. They might also focus on issues concerning migration, colonialism and nationalism.

Beliefs, values and education

Students might focus on the way in which works explore the beliefs and values nurtured in particular societies and the ways they shape individuals, communities and educational systems. They might also explore the tensions that arise when there are conflicts of beliefs and values, and ethics.

Politics, power and justice

Students might focus on the ways in which works explore aspects of rights and responsibilities and the workings and structures of governments and institutions. They might also investigate hierarchies of power, the distribution of wealth and resources, the limits of justice and the law, equality and inequality, human rights, and peace and conflict.

Art, creativity and the imagination

Students might focus on the ways in which works explore aspects of aesthetic inspiration, creation, craft, and beauty. They might also focus on the shaping and challenging of perceptions through art and the function, value, and effects of art in society.

Science, technology and the environment

Students might focus on the ways in which works explore the relationship between humans and the environment and the implications of technology and media for society. They might also consider the idea of scientific development and progress.

In selecting the Global Issue for their oral, students must be careful not simply to select from the fields of inquiry above (which are too broad), but to determine a specific issue for discussion that can be reasonably explored in a 15-minute oral. The Global Issue chosen for consideration should be significant on a wide scale, be transnational in nature, and be an issue that has an impact felt in everyday local contexts. The issue should be clearly evidenced in the extracts/works chosen.

For example, within the field of “Culture, identity and community”, the theme of gender in itself might be unsuitably broad for an Individual Oral. A student interested in this theme might explore instead how gender bias manifests itself in different contexts, how this can be evidenced in many ways in works of many sorts, and how different authorial choices will determine what is meant by “gender bias” and whether or not bias should be viewed positively or negatively, allowing the students to evaluate the writer’s choices and the impact they might have on the different readers’/viewers’ understanding.

The oral itself will only be concerned with the aspects of the Global Issue relevant to the two works chosen. The student should ensure the oral offers a balanced approach, giving approximately equal attention to both works. Thus, it is important that the student selects extracts/works that offer equally sufficient material for the discussion.

1. The global issue is central to the Individual Oral as it provides the lens through which the works or the work and body of work will be approached. It should be clearly defined from the very beginning of the oral. Students should aim at defining the chosen Global Issue in a very specific way and as simply as they can. Students should remember that a field of inquiry is a useful source from which to derive a Global Issue, but a field of inquiry does not constitute a Global Issue in itself. 

2. The choice of extracts is crucial. There should be, in each extract, two or three instances of how meaning is constructed in relation to the Global Issue. 

3. The Global Issue should be a thread running through the entirety of the oral. The analysis of the extracts and the works they were taken from should be always linked to it. 

4. The register of the oral should be formal. The oral is no place for Global Issue -related anecdotes or for comments on the Global Issue itself beyond its presence in the works. The oral should be sharply focused on the (re)presentation of the Global Issue in the works. 

5. The oral is not a comparative task. Comparison and contrast are not necessary. 

6. Criterion C will be assessed on the basis of the full fifteen minutes of the oral. Students have to use those fifteen minutes effectively to structure their thoughts and make the best use of the time available, balancing the time allotted to the discussion of each of the extracts, and the works they come from.  

7. The presence of the Global Issue in the broader work needs to be explored as much as its presence in the extracts. 

8. Extracts should not exceed 40 lines or offer an unmanageable amount of material for the time available. The lines in them should be numbered, wherever possible. The provenance of the extracts must be clearly identified. Extracts from multimodal texts must include a section of the script accompanied by corresponding visuals. Hyperlinks are not acceptable. Students must include selected extracts in the document submitted to the IB. 

9. The approach to the oral should be analytical: students should aim to analyze, and not simply describe, the presence of the Global Issue in the works. The oral is not an exhaustive commentary of the extracts or the work, but a focused analysis of them guided by the lens of the Global Issue. 

Please bear in mind that the oral is as much about the presence of the Global Issue in the extracts as it is about its presence in the broader works from which they come. In that sense, students cannot spend 6 minutes on an extract.

The following are some approaches to take in organizing your Individual Oral:

• Linear: Take each extract in turn, discuss it through the lens of the Global Issue and relate it to the whole of the work it comes from. Once you have discussed each of the works separately in this way, devote some time to come to conclusions about the different ways the Global Issue was presented in either work.  

• Thematic: Establish some aspects of the Global Issue that you would like to discuss in connection with both works. Use these aspects as organizing principle, and move back and forth between the extracts and the whole of the works for each one of them.  

If following a Linear structure, SSST students should perhaps follow this pacing :

1.5 mins - introduction 

3 mins -  extract 1 

3 mins -  work 1 

3 mins -  extract 2 

3 mins -  work 2 

1.5 mins -  conclusion 

These are not the only ways of organizing the oral, and no examiner will be using stopwatches either. The important thing is that there should be a sense of balance between the four “parts” the student is expected to explore the Global Issue in : extract 1, work 1, extract 2, work 2.

Preparing for the oral is a multi-faceted and complex process. As you read your first work, you will start the work of preparing for the Individual Oral. Your Learner Portfolio is the place to keep your writing and ideas about the Global Issues, the works and the extracts. You should refer to your portfolio when preparing for the oral as a source document to guide your thinking and preparations.  

For the 15-minute Individual Oral you should:  

• choose two works–one must be a work originally written in your SSST language and one in translation  

• decide on a Global Issue that is explored in some way in each of the works  

• select an extract from each work that highlights the chosen Global Issue  

• write the outline on the form that is given to you by your SSST Coordinator  

• practise 

Activities to Help You Prepare for the IO

Before choosing the works and extracts to use in your individual oral, you need to explore possible Global Issues in all the works you have chosen to read for your course.  

• As you read each work, use your portfolio to make connections to the Global Issues they present. Identify page numbers and sections of the works that focus on the Global Issues.  

• After you have read one work in translation and one work originally written in your SSST language, write in your Learner Portfolio about possible common Global Issues between the two works.  

• As you continue to read more works, make more comparisons of the Global Issues explored— remember that the comparison is always between a work in translation with a work originally written in your SSST language.  

• Practice selecting extracts from a work that address one Global Issue. Annotate each extract looking at how it develops and discusses the Global Issue. Try talking about how each extract develops the Global Issue. How long can you talk for?  

• Look at the marking criteria of the Individual Oral and cut up the separate bands of each criterion. See if you can put them back together in the correct order for each criterion, from the lowest mark to the highest mark.  

During your first year of study, your SSST Coordinator will assign a date to record your individual oral. At this point you need to make the final choice about the single Global Issue you wish to explore and the two works that illustrate it. You should then decide on an appropriate extract from each of the works which:  

• clearly illustrates your chosen Global Issue 

• contains several instances of how language and style are used to convey the Global Issue itself or perspectives on it 

• offers opportunities for connecting the extract to the rest of the work in terms of the Global Issue chosen.  

Students have the flexibility to use any of the works from their course of study up until the time of the assessment. It should be remembered that works chosen for the Individual Oral cannot then be used for any other assessment component. Students should select their own oral topics. Teachers should monitor and guide students in their selection of viable Global Issues, relevant works and effective choice of extracts, but they should not suggest topics to students nor tell them what to do. Although tutors play a critical role in helping students prepare, this must be a student inspired and created oral.

The oral may be conducted at any time after a significant number of the works have been studied in the course. All of the works used for the oral need to be featured as part of the teaching of the course. It is recommended that the oral takes place either in the last part of the first year of the course or the first part of the second year of the course.

The place and time of the oral is chosen by the SSST Coordinator and if they wish, conduct all the orals on one day or over several days. Students must be given adequate notice of when the oral will take place.

The SSST Coordinator will provide a form for students to create an outline of their oral (see below). Students should prepare the outline in advance and this will provide a springboard for their oral. Students may not read the outline as a prepared script. The form will allow students to note a maximum of 10 bullet points to help provide structure to their oral. Individual bullet points must not be excessively long. In order to determine the authenticity of student performance, schools are be required to submit these forms to IB.

Copies of the extracts chosen by the student must be provided to the SSST Coordinator for approval at least one week before the Individual Oral assessment takes place. 

The extracts must be clean, unmarked copies; the student may only take the extracts and the outline into the room where the Individual Oral assessment will take place.

The Individual Oral lasts 15 minutes.