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IB DP English A: Language and Literature | SL & HL | Area of Exploration 2: Time and Space | The Individual Oral: text + global issue
📋 What You Will Learn
- State the three IB criteria a valid global issue must satisfy, and explain why all three are necessary — not just one or two
- Distinguish the five fields of inquiry from a mandatory requirement, and use them as productive starting points rather than fixed containers
- Evaluate the difference between a strong, appropriately scoped global issue and a weak, imprecise one — using at least two worked comparisons showing the exact revision process
- Explain what a local instance of a global concern is, and demonstrate why grounding the global in the specific of your texts strengthens rather than narrows your argument
- Construct a well-formed global issue statement that links the issue explicitly to both your literary work and your non-literary body of work
- Understand how the choice of global issue directly shapes every mark on all four IO assessment criteria (/40 internal)
🔍 Guiding Question If "poverty" is too vast and "the price of bread in Buenos Aires in March 2023" is too narrow, what territory in between makes a global issue work — and what happens to your whole IO when you get the scope wrong?
🌍 Why This Matters The global issue is the structural spine of your Individual Oral: it determines which texts you choose, which extracts you bring into the room, the argument your introduction frames, and the conclusions your teacher's questions probe. Experienced examiners report that a poorly scoped or vaguely stated global issue is the single most predictable cause of a mediocre Criterion A mark — even when the student's close reading is technically competent. As the Litlearn IO Study Guide puts it, "A strong house requires a stable foundation." This note shows you exactly how to build it.
1 · The Global Issue at the Heart of the Individual Oral
Before you can choose a global issue well, you need to be clear on what the IO is asking you to do with it. Brad Philpot's Cambridge course companion states the official prompt directly:
📖 The IO Prompt "Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of one of the literary works and one of the non-literary texts you have studied."
Two things leap out. First, "content and form" — you are not just asked what your texts say about the issue but how their language, structure and style construct a perspective on it. Second, "presented through" — the issue is not the subject you summarise but the lens through which you analyse textual choices.