The Language and Literature course splits attention between literary analysis and the rhetoric of mass media, advertising, and speeches — and many students struggle with the shift between those two modes. Shua breaks down how to analyze both a poem's imagery and a political campaign's persuasive strategies using the same core toolkit of audience, purpose, and stylistic choice.

The Language and Literature course demands something tricky: toggling between close literary analysis and the study of how language functions in ads, speeches, and media. Naomi unpacks both sides, teaching students to identify rhetorical devices in non-literary texts with the same rigor they'd bring to a novel. Her philosophy background is especially useful for the Paper 2 comparative essay, where building a coherent argument matters as much as textual knowledge.

Creative writing training teaches you to manipulate language deliberately — choosing register, tone, and structure for a specific audience — which is exactly what IB Language A asks students to recognize and analyze in texts ranging from novels to newspaper editorials. Alexandra applies that writer's instinct to Paper 1 commentaries, showing students how to articulate why an author made a particular stylistic choice rather than simply naming the device. Her dual focus on English and Spanish at UNT also sharpens her awareness of how cultural context reshapes a text's meaning.

What makes a travel memoir persuasive while a detergent ad feels manipulative — even when both use the same emotional appeals? Jennifer digs into those kinds of questions with students, connecting her background in social sciences and organizational studies to the way texts construct meaning for specific audiences. That organizational lens is particularly useful for the learner portfolio, where students must curate and reflect on how language functions across vastly different contexts.

The Language and Literature course asks students to move fluidly between literary analysis and the study of language in cultural context — advertisements, speeches, media texts — which can feel like two different subjects crammed into one. Jessica unpacks both sides, showing how rhetorical strategies in a political speech connect to the same persuasive techniques found in a novel's narration. Her legal career gave her daily practice in exactly this kind of cross-genre textual analysis.

I'm Jay! I'm currently going to college at the University of Texas at Austin. I am majoring in fine arts and I am also in the pre-medical program. Even though I'm not done with college, I have already published papers in the field of epigenetics since my freshmen year of college. Even though I consider myself to have an expertise in languages, I decided to teach areas in the field of natural sciences because those are the subjects that I am most passionate about.

The "Language" half of this course trips students up because analyzing an advertisement or a political speech feels nothing like analyzing a poem. Faith breaks down how to identify audience, purpose, and stylistic choices in non-literary texts, then shows how those same analytical muscles apply to the literary works on the syllabus. Her conversational teaching style makes the Paper 1 unseen commentary feel less intimidating.

Studying Bilingual Elementary Education alongside Human Development gives Alicia a concrete understanding of how language works differently across contexts — how a children's picture book and a public health pamphlet can use the same words but construct entirely different meanings for their audiences. She brings that bilingual, cross-register awareness directly into the Individual Oral and Paper 1 commentary, where students need to articulate how cultural context and audience shape a text's impact. Her fluency in Spanish adds a practical edge when unpacking how translation and code-switching alter meaning in multilingual texts.

The Language and Literature course splits attention between literary analysis and the study of how language functions in non-literary texts — advertisements, speeches, op-eds. Emma's background as a writer and blogger gives her a practical feel for how audiences are constructed and persuaded, which is exactly what the Paper 1 textual analysis demands.

What sets IB Language and Literature apart from a standard English class is its dual focus — students need to analyze both literary texts and non-literary texts like advertisements, speeches, and media. Sebastian teaches the specific toolkit for each, from rhetorical analysis of persuasive texts to close reading of narrative prose, so students aren't applying the same generic approach to everything.

The Language and Literature course splits attention between literary analysis and the rhetoric of mass media, advertising, and speeches — and many students struggle with the shift between those two modes. Shua breaks down how to analyze both a poem's imagery and a political campaign's persuasive strategies using the same core toolkit of audience, purpose, and stylistic choice.

The Language and Literature course demands something tricky: toggling between close literary analysis and the study of how language functions in ads, speeches, and media. Naomi unpacks both sides, teaching students to identify rhetorical devices in non-literary texts with the same rigor they'd bring to a novel. Her philosophy background is especially useful for the Paper 2 comparative essay, where building a coherent argument matters as much as textual knowledge.

Creative writing training teaches you to manipulate language deliberately — choosing register, tone, and structure for a specific audience — which is exactly what IB Language A asks students to recognize and analyze in texts ranging from novels to newspaper editorials. Alexandra applies that writer's instinct to Paper 1 commentaries, showing students how to articulate why an author made a particular stylistic choice rather than simply naming the device. Her dual focus on English and Spanish at UNT also sharpens her awareness of how cultural context reshapes a text's meaning.

What makes a travel memoir persuasive while a detergent ad feels manipulative — even when both use the same emotional appeals? Jennifer digs into those kinds of questions with students, connecting her background in social sciences and organizational studies to the way texts construct meaning for specific audiences. That organizational lens is particularly useful for the learner portfolio, where students must curate and reflect on how language functions across vastly different contexts.

The Language and Literature course asks students to move fluidly between literary analysis and the study of language in cultural context — advertisements, speeches, media texts — which can feel like two different subjects crammed into one. Jessica unpacks both sides, showing how rhetorical strategies in a political speech connect to the same persuasive techniques found in a novel's narration. Her legal career gave her daily practice in exactly this kind of cross-genre textual analysis.

I'm Jay! I'm currently going to college at the University of Texas at Austin. I am majoring in fine arts and I am also in the pre-medical program. Even though I'm not done with college, I have already published papers in the field of epigenetics since my freshmen year of college. Even though I consider myself to have an expertise in languages, I decided to teach areas in the field of natural sciences because those are the subjects that I am most passionate about.

The "Language" half of this course trips students up because analyzing an advertisement or a political speech feels nothing like analyzing a poem. Faith breaks down how to identify audience, purpose, and stylistic choices in non-literary texts, then shows how those same analytical muscles apply to the literary works on the syllabus. Her conversational teaching style makes the Paper 1 unseen commentary feel less intimidating.

Studying Bilingual Elementary Education alongside Human Development gives Alicia a concrete understanding of how language works differently across contexts — how a children's picture book and a public health pamphlet can use the same words but construct entirely different meanings for their audiences. She brings that bilingual, cross-register awareness directly into the Individual Oral and Paper 1 commentary, where students need to articulate how cultural context and audience shape a text's impact. Her fluency in Spanish adds a practical edge when unpacking how translation and code-switching alter meaning in multilingual texts.

The Language and Literature course splits attention between literary analysis and the study of how language functions in non-literary texts — advertisements, speeches, op-eds. Emma's background as a writer and blogger gives her a practical feel for how audiences are constructed and persuaded, which is exactly what the Paper 1 textual analysis demands.

What sets IB Language and Literature apart from a standard English class is its dual focus — students need to analyze both literary texts and non-literary texts like advertisements, speeches, and media. Sebastian teaches the specific toolkit for each, from rhetorical analysis of persuasive texts to close reading of narrative prose, so students aren't applying the same generic approach to everything.