- What Is the English B IA?
- How the IA Fits Into Your English B Grade
- SL vs HL: What Changes in the Oral
- How the English B IA Is Marked and Moderated
- English B IA Timeline: When It Happens and How to Build Up to It
- How to Prepare: Themes, Examples and Phrases
- On the Day: What Matters Most
- Is the English B IA Changing?
- Common English B IA Mistakes
Quick Answer
The IB English B IA is the individual oral, a 12 to 15 minute conversation with your teacher in English, marked out of 30 and worth 25% of your grade at SL and HL. At SL you present on a visual stimulus; at HL, on an extract from one of the two literary works you studied. Your teacher marks it and the IB moderates a sample.
What You'll Learn
- The English B IA is the individual oral: a presentation, a follow-up discussion and a general conversation with your teacher
- It is worth 25% of your grade at SL and HL and is marked out of 30 against four criteria
- SL uses a visual stimulus; HL uses an extract from one of two literary works originally written in English
- You cannot script it, because you see the two stimuli only in 15 (SL) or 20 (HL) minutes of supervised preparation
- These rules apply to exams in 2026, 2027 and 2028; a new Language B guide is first assessed in May 2029
What Is the English B IA?
An internal assessment (IA) is the part of an IB subject that your teacher marks and the IB moderates. In IB English B, the IA is the individual oral assessment, and it is the only part of the course that assesses your speaking. It is a conversation, not a written report. In supervised preparation time you choose one of two stimuli and make brief notes. You then present on your stimulus, discuss it with your teacher, and finish with a general conversation on the course themes. Your teacher conducts, records and marks the oral.
- Preparation: 15 minutes at SL or 20 minutes at HL, supervised, with brief working notes of up to 10 bullet points
- Part 1, presentation: 3 to 4 minutes on your chosen stimulus
- Part 2, follow-up discussion: 4 to 5 minutes with your teacher, building on your presentation
- Part 3, general conversation: 5 to 6 minutes on course themes; at SL this includes at least one theme beyond the one in your stimulus
- Total: 12 to 15 minutes, marked out of 30, worth 25% of your final grade at both levels
Pro Tip
English B is a language acquisition course for students with some previous experience of English. If you take English A instead, your IA is a different oral built around a global issue and two works you choose. The English A IA guide in the related articles covers it.
How the IA Fits Into Your English B Grade
The assessment outline is the same at SL and HL; what differs is the difficulty of the tasks and texts. The oral is one of three components:
- Paper 1, writing: 25%. One task from a choice of three, 250 to 400 words at SL (1 hour 15 minutes) or 450 to 600 words at HL (1 hour 30 minutes)
- Paper 2, listening and reading: 50%, split equally between the two. 1 hour 45 minutes at SL and 2 hours at HL
- Individual oral, the IA: 25% at both levels
Pro Tip
A quarter of your grade comes from one conversation. Regular speaking practice across the whole course pays off far more than a last-minute push, because fluency builds slowly.
SL vs HL: What Changes in the Oral
The three-part structure, the criteria and the 25% weighting are the same at both levels. What changes is the stimulus, the preparation time and the complexity of language your teacher expects.
- SL stimulus: a visual image, such as a photograph or poster, clearly linked to one or more course themes; you choose one of two you have not seen before
- SL focus: describe and interpret the image, connect it to its theme and to English-speaking cultures, and give a justified opinion
- HL stimulus: an extract of up to about 300 words from one of the two literary works you studied; you choose one of two, one from each work
- HL works: both must be literary works originally written in English
- HL focus: place the extract in the work, explain events, characters and ideas, give your interpretation and link it to course themes
- HL preparation is 20 minutes instead of 15
How the English B IA Is Marked and Moderated
Your teacher marks the recording against four criteria. Language carries the most marks, but more than half of the total rewards what you say and how well you interact.
- Criterion A, Language (12 marks): the range and accuracy of your vocabulary and grammar, and the clarity of your pronunciation and intonation
- Criterion B1, Message (6 marks): how relevant and well developed your presentation on the stimulus is
- Criterion B2, Message, conversation (6 marks): how relevant and well developed your answers are in the discussion and the general conversation
- Criterion C, Interactive skills (6 marks): how well you understand your teacher, keep the conversation going and add ideas of your own
- Moderation: your school enters marks for every student, the IB selects a sample, and a moderator re-marks those recordings. If your teacher's marks are consistently out of line, the marks of the whole group are adjusted up or down
Pro Tip
Because your teacher both asks the questions and marks the oral, a real conversation helps you twice: it gives you more to say for B2 and shows the interaction that Criterion C rewards. The Language B oral guide in the related articles explains each criterion in more depth.
English B IA Timeline: When It Happens and How to Build Up to It
Your school sets the date, usually in the second year. The general conversation can draw on any of the five themes and, at HL, the extract can come from either literary work, so both need to be taught first. The IB's deadline for schools to submit IA marks and samples for May exams is 20 April, so the oral always comes before your written exams. A course-long plan:
- 1First year: as you study each theme, keep a notebook of vocabulary, opinions and two or three examples from English-speaking countries
- 2HL, as you read: for each literary work, keep a timeline of key events, a character map and three or four ideas you can discuss
- 3Two to three months before: start timed practice with unseen images (SL) or passages chosen at random from your works (HL)
- 4Final month: weekly mock orals with someone acting as your teacher, recorded and reviewed for repeated errors
- 5On the day: 15 or 20 minutes of supervised preparation, then the 12 to 15 minute oral
- 6Afterwards: your teacher submits marks, and if you are in the sample, the IB moderates your recording
How to Prepare: Themes, Examples and Phrases
You cannot know your stimulus in advance, so prepare material you can adapt, organised by the five prescribed themes: identities, experiences, human ingenuity, social organisation and sharing the planet.
- For each theme, collect concrete examples from more than one English-speaking country, such as the UK, the United States, India, Nigeria or Australia, so your cultural links are specific
- Learn vocabulary for describing images: foreground, background, caption, slogan, body language, mood
- Build phrases for giving opinions, comparing, speculating and concluding, and use them in full answers, not lists
- Practise the point, reason, example, consequence pattern until extended answers feel natural
- At HL, practise summarising any chapter or scene of your works in one minute
- Record yourself and fix the errors you repeat most, rather than trying to fix every error at once
Pro Tip
The Language B oral guide in the related articles has a routine for using your 15 or 20 minutes of preparation time.
On the Day: What Matters Most
The strongest orals sound controlled because the student knows how to build an answer and keep going, not because every sentence is perfect.
- 1Listen to the whole question before you answer, and ask for clarification in English if you need it
- 2Start with a clear main point
- 3Develop it with a reason, an example, then a consequence or comparison
- 4Use linking phrases to hold the answer together
- 5If you lose a word, paraphrase it and carry on rather than stopping
Is the English B IA Changing?
A new Language B guide starts teaching in August 2027 and is first assessed in May 2029. The IB's subject brief for it keeps the individual oral at 25%, with a visual stimulus at SL, a literary extract at HL, a student-teacher discussion and a conversation that includes at least one additional course theme. If you sit English B exams in 2026, 2027 or 2028, the current rules on this page apply. The IB says the oral keeps its format and weighting under the new guide; only the wording of the descriptors for criteria B2 and C is revised. The full guide is due in February 2027.
Common English B IA Mistakes
These habits pull more English B orals down than any gap in grammar. Regular practice with an IB English B tutor is one of the quickest ways to become more fluent and confident in the oral.
- Memorising a presentation in advance and forcing it onto whichever stimulus appears
- Describing the image without interpreting it or linking it to a theme
- At SL, making no link to English-speaking cultures, or only ever to one country
- At HL, retelling the plot instead of discussing characters, ideas and the work as a whole
- Giving one-sentence answers in the discussion
- Preparing only the themes you like for the general conversation
- Writing full sentences in your preparation notes and reading them aloud
- Stopping after a small error instead of rephrasing and carrying on