- What Is the IB English Individual Oral?
- Which IO Rules Apply to You (2026, 2027 and 2028 Exams)
- Choosing Your Works, Extracts and Global Issue
- IO Structure: A 10-Minute Plan
- IO Criteria: How the 40 Marks Are Awarded
- What You Can Bring: Extracts and a 10-Point Outline
- Analysis That Reaches the Top Bands
- Handling the 5 Minutes of Teacher Questions
- IO Prep: A Four-Week Practice Plan
- Common IO Mistakes
Quick Answer
The IB English A individual oral (IO) is a 15-minute internal assessment: a 10-minute prepared response on how one global issue is presented in two works you have studied, followed by 5 minutes of questions from your teacher. It is marked out of 40, using four criteria worth 10 marks each, and counts for 30% of your grade at SL and 20% at HL.
What You'll Learn
- 10 minutes of prepared speaking, then 5 minutes of teacher questions, marked out of 40
- Worth 30% of your English A grade at SL and 20% at HL, in both English A courses
- You take in clean copies of two extracts (up to 40 lines each) and an outline of no more than 10 bullet points
- Language and literature pairs a literary work with a non-literary body of work; Literature pairs a work written in English with a work studied in translation
- A work used in the IO cannot be used again in Paper 2 or the HL essay
What Is the IB English Individual Oral?
The individual oral (IO) is the internal assessment for both English A courses, Language A: language and literature and Language A: literature. You give a 10-minute prepared response examining how one global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two works you have studied, using a short extract from each. Your teacher then asks you questions for 5 minutes. The oral is recorded and marked by your teacher against four criteria, and the IB moderates a sample of recordings from your school. The task is the same at SL and HL; only the weighting differs.
- Duration: 15 minutes in total, a 10-minute prepared response followed by 5 minutes of teacher questions
- Marks: 40, from four criteria worth 10 marks each
- Weighting: 30% of your final grade at SL, 20% at HL
- Language and literature course: one literary work and one non-literary body of work
- Literature course: one work originally written in English and one work studied in translation
- What you take in: clean copies of your two extracts, up to 40 lines each, and an outline of no more than 10 bullet points
- Who assesses it: your teacher marks it, then the IB moderates a sample from your school
Pro Tip
The same IO rules apply to every Language A course, so students taking French A or German A can use this guide too. Only the language you speak in changes.
Which IO Rules Apply to You (2026, 2027 and 2028 Exams)
The current Language A guides were first assessed in May 2021. The IB then updated both courses for students first assessed from May 2026 (first teaching September 2024): Paper 2 got new marking criteria and the Literature course now requires fewer works. The individual oral was not part of that change, so its format, timing and criteria are as described on this page. At the time of writing, the IB's published list of upcoming curriculum updates does not include a new Language A guide, so these rules cover students sitting exams in 2026, 2027 and 2028. If a new guide is announced, it will name a first-teaching and a first-assessment year, and your teacher will confirm which version you follow.
Watch Out
Do not confuse the English A IO with the English B individual oral. English B uses a visual stimulus (SL) or a literary extract (HL) given to you on the day, has no global issue, and is marked out of 30. The Language B oral guide in the related articles below covers it.
Choosing Your Works, Extracts and Global Issue
Most strong IOs start from two works you know very well, then find the global issue they genuinely share. The IB describes a global issue as one that has significance on a wide scale, crosses national borders, and has an impact felt in everyday local contexts. The guide suggests five fields of inquiry to help you find one: culture, identity and community; beliefs, values and education; politics, power and justice; art, creativity and the imagination; and science, technology and the environment. Then choose one extract from each work that presents the issue clearly through the author's choices.
- Choose the issue and the works together. If you have to stretch either work to fit the issue, change one of them
- Phrase the issue as something arguable, such as 'how surveillance is normalised as a form of care', not a one-word topic like 'technology'
- Keep each extract to 40 lines or fewer. For a non-literary body of work, the extract is usually one complete text or a self-contained part of one, such as a single advert or photograph
- A non-literary body of work is a set of related non-literary texts you studied as a group; your teacher will have defined the bodies of work your class studied
- Pick extracts dense with choices you can analyse: imagery, narrative voice, structure, dialogue, layout, colour, typography or camera angle
- Make sure each extract is representative. Criterion A also rewards knowledge of the work as a whole, so plan links to other moments in each work
- A work you use in the IO cannot be used again in Paper 2 or, at HL, in your HL essay, so plan all three components together
Watch Out
Avoid issues so broad they fit almost any text, such as 'love', 'war' or 'identity'. Ask what aspect of the topic both works argue about, and for whom. The global issue guide in the related articles has 30 worked examples.
IO Structure: A 10-Minute Plan
There is no required structure, but Criterion C rewards an oral that is focused, well organised and balanced between the two works. The most reliable plan gives each work roughly equal time and moves from the extract outwards to the whole work:
- 1Introduction (about 1 minute): state your global issue precisely, name both works and their authors, place each extract within its work, and give your line of argument in one sentence
- 2Extract 1 (about 3 minutes): analyse two or three authorial choices and explain how each one presents the global issue
- 3Work 1 as a whole (about 1 minute): connect the extract to another moment, the ending, or the overall structure of the work
- 4Extract 2 (about 3 minutes): analyse the second extract in the same depth, comparing its methods and perspective with the first
- 5Work 2 as a whole (about 1 minute): link the extract to the rest of the work or body of work
- 6Conclusion (about 1 minute): say what the comparison reveals about the global issue, not just that both works 'show' it
Pro Tip
A comparative structure, where you move between the works point by point, can also score well on Criterion C. Choose it only if your points pair naturally; otherwise the block structure above is easier to balance under pressure. Practise until you consistently finish close to 10 minutes, because running well over or under usually means the oral is unbalanced or underdeveloped.
IO Criteria: How the 40 Marks Are Awarded
Your teacher marks the IO against four criteria, each out of 10, choosing the level descriptor that best fits your performance and then a mark within that level. Knowing what each criterion asks lets you build it into your plan rather than hoping it shows up.
- Criterion A, Knowledge, understanding and interpretation (10 marks): how well you know and understand the extracts and the works they come from, and how well your interpretation of the global issue is supported by specific references to both
- Criterion B, Analysis and evaluation (10 marks): how well you analyse and evaluate the ways the authors' choices present the global issue. Naming a technique is not enough; you need to explain its effect and judge how well it works
- Criterion C, Focus and organisation (10 marks): how structured, balanced and focused the oral is, and how clearly your ideas connect to each other and to the issue
- Criterion D, Language (10 marks): how clear, accurate and effective your spoken language is, including an appropriate register and precise literary or rhetorical terminology
Pro Tip
Criteria A and B together are half the marks, and both depend on specific textual evidence. If a point in your plan contains no reference to a word, image or structural choice, it is probably costing you marks.
What You Can Bring: Extracts and a 10-Point Outline
You may take two things into the IO: clean copies of your two extracts, and an outline of no more than 10 bullet points. The extracts must be unannotated, so your analysis has to be in your head or in the outline. Treat the outline as a route map, not a script. One layout that works:
- Bullet 1: your global issue and line of argument in a few words
- Bullets 2 to 5: your main points on extract 1 and its work, each tagged with the key word or image you will refer to
- Bullets 6 to 9: the same for extract 2, including where it agrees with or differs from the first
- Bullet 10: your concluding comparison
- Write keywords, not sentences, so you glance rather than read
- Rehearse with the exact outline you will use, so you know where everything is
Watch Out
Reading full sentences from notes makes delivery flat and tends to weaken Criteria C and D. If your outline contains whole sentences, cut each one to three or four words.
Analysis That Reaches the Top Bands
Top-band analysis explains how a choice creates meaning and why that matters for the issue. A useful test is 'choice, effect, issue': name the choice, explain its effect on the reader or viewer, then link that effect to your global issue. For example, a student discussing a dystopian novel and a government poster campaign might show how the novel's flat, repetitive narration makes surveillance feel ordinary, while the posters' warm colours and smiling families present monitoring as protection. Both works normalise surveillance, but through opposite emotional strategies, and that contrast is the comparison.
- Literary choices worth analysing: narrative voice and perspective, structure and sequencing, imagery and symbolism, dialogue, tone, and form, such as verse or stage directions
- Non-literary choices worth analysing: layout, typography, colour, composition, camera angle, the relationship between text and image, and rhetorical appeals
- Evaluate as well as analyse: ask how effective a choice is, who it persuades and what it leaves out
- Use context briefly, where it changes the meaning, but keep the focus on the text
- Offer more than one reading of a key moment, then argue for the one you find stronger
- Compare the two authors' methods, not just their messages
Handling the 5 Minutes of Teacher Questions
The questions come from your teacher, not an external examiner, and they are there to help you extend and clarify what you said. They are part of the assessed oral, so treat them as a chance to add evidence and depth, especially for Criteria A and B.
- Expect questions asking you to develop a point you only mentioned
- Expect questions about the work as a whole, beyond the extract
- Expect a question about how the two works compare
- Listen to the whole question, pause briefly, then answer with a specific reference
- If you are unsure, say what you think and why; a reasoned answer beats silence
- Keep answers focused: two or three precise sentences with evidence are better than a long ramble
Pro Tip
In mock IOs, ask the person questioning you to target the points you developed least. Teachers often use the question time to probe exactly those, so rehearse them.
IO Prep: A Four-Week Practice Plan
Your school sets the IO date. Working back from it, a four-week plan gives you time to choose well, rehearse, and still change course if something is not working.
- 1Week 1: confirm your works, global issue and extracts. Write your line of argument in one sentence and test it against both extracts
- 2Week 2: annotate practice copies of the extracts, draft your 10-bullet outline, and talk through each section aloud without timing
- 3Week 3: do timed run-throughs and record them. Time each work separately, cut plot summary, and add links to each work as a whole
- 4Week 4: run full mock IOs with someone asking unseen questions, refine the outline, and finish with two or three clean timed runs
Watch Out
The IO must be your own work. Check with your teacher what feedback they are allowed to give before the assessment, and never memorise someone else's oral or a script written for you.
Common IO Mistakes
These problems hold back more IOs than any lack of knowledge:
- Treating the two works as two unconnected mini-orals, so the global issue never ties them together (the criteria do not require point-by-point comparison, but the issue must link both works)
- Summarising plot or content instead of analysing authorial choices
- Talking only about the extracts and never about the works as a whole
- Spending far longer on one work than the other
- A global issue that is really a topic, or that only one work genuinely explores
- Reading from a scripted outline rather than speaking
- Using works you also needed for Paper 2 or the HL essay
- Too little rehearsal: the IO is a spoken task and needs spoken practice