IB English A Individual Oral: choosing a global issue and structuring 10 minutes

The IO criteria

From the IB Language A guides (first assessment 2021). Works used for the IO cannot be reused for Paper 2 or, at HL, the HL essay.

What makes a good global issue

A global issue, in the IB's sense, has significance on a wide scale, is transnational, and shows up in everyday local contexts. The guide groups them into five fields of inquiry: culture, identity and community; beliefs, values and education; politics, power and justice; art, creativity and the imagination; and science, technology and the environment.

The commonest weakness is an issue that is too broad. 'Gender' or 'power' is a field, not an issue. 'How expectations of female obedience are enforced within the family' or 'how economic pressure erodes individual moral choice' is specific enough to analyse in ten minutes, and it gives you something to say about how each text presents it differently.

Each extract should be no longer than about 40 lines and should show the issue clearly. You may bring the two clean extracts and a brief outline of up to ten bullet points into the room. Choose extracts with rich authorial choices: a key monologue, a turning point in a narrative, an advert with a strong image-text relationship.

A 10-minute structure

1. Introduction (about 1 minute): state the global issue, both works and authors, and your line of argument.
2. Extract 1 (about 3 minutes): situate the extract briefly, then analyse two or three authorial choices that present the issue.
3. Wider work 1 (about 1 minute): how the issue develops elsewhere in the work.
4. Extract 2 (about 3 minutes): the same approach for the second text.
5. Wider work 2 (about 1 minute): connect to the rest of the work or body of work.
6. Conclusion (about 1 minute): compare how the two texts present the issue and why the difference matters.
7. Questions (5 minutes): answer with evidence; treat follow-ups as chances to deepen, not to repeat.

Worked example: an opening

Field of inquiry: politics, power and justice. Global issue: 'how those in authority control what ordinary people are allowed to know'. Texts (example pairing for Language and Literature): an extract from a novel about a surveillance state, and a set of public health campaign posters.

Model opening (spoken): 'My global issue is how those in authority control what ordinary people are allowed to know. I will explore it through an extract from a dystopian novel, where control is presented as frightening and total, and through two public health posters, where control of information is presented as care. My argument is that both texts use simplification as a tool of authority, but the novel exposes that simplification as a threat, while the posters ask us to trust it.'

Why it works: the issue is specific, both texts are named, and the argument is comparative from the first minute. Every later section can be measured against that claim, which is what criterion C rewards.

Common mistakes

• A global issue that is a broad topic rather than a specific, arguable idea.
• Spending eight minutes on the first extract and two on the second.
• Summarising the extract instead of analysing authorial choices.
• Forgetting the wider work or body of work, which criterion A expects.
• Reading a script word for word; examiners hear it, and it weakens delivery and the questions section.
• Bullet-point outlines longer than ten points, or extracts with annotations.

How one-to-one lessons help with the IO

The IO is assessed by the student's teacher under IB rules, and the work and performance must be the student's own. Within that, a tutor is most useful in two ways. First, testing the global issue: the tutor asks the questions an examiner might ask until the student's issue is specific and both texts genuinely support it. Second, rehearsal: the student practises timed runs on practice extracts, the tutor times each section, and they review recordings together for pace, clarity and how evidence is used.

The five-minute question section benefits most from practice. A tutor asks unexpected follow-ups so the student learns to answer with a reference and an interpretation, not a repetition of the talk.

Self-check

• Can I state my global issue in one specific sentence?
• Do both extracts clearly present that issue?
• Does my opening give a comparative argument?
• Do I spend roughly equal time on each text?
• Have I referred to each wider work or body of work?
• Is my outline ten bullet points or fewer, without full sentences to read from?