English A: Literature
This course is designed for students from a wide variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds who have experience of using the language of the course in an educational context. More specifically, it is intended to meet the needs of students for whom English is the first language or who speak the language to native-speaker standards.
Throughout this course, students will focus exclusively on literary texts, adopting a variety of approaches conducting a textual analysis. They will explore the nature of literature, the aesthetic function of literary language and textuality, and, more importantly, they will discover the relationship between literature and the world. In frames of this course, students will study literary works of great value, which are written both in the original language of instruction and translated into the language of the instructions. The selected literary works will be from a variety of literary genres, such as fiction prose, non-fiction prose, drama, poetry, and new textiles (graphic novels). All of this will provide students a focus for understanding how meaning is constructed within belief or value systems and how it is negotiated across multiple perspectives generated by single or multiple readers. The instructional model for this course is the same both at SL and HL, but there are significant quantitative and qualitative differences between the levels. At SL, students will study in a total of 9 and at HL 13 literary works.
Aims
The aims of the language A: literature course both at HL and SL are to enable students to:
1. engage with a range of literary texts from different periods, genre, and cultures
2. develop skills in interpretation, analysis and evaluation of literary texts and an appreciation of how they contribute to diverse responses and open up multiple meanings
3. develop an understanding of relationships between texts and a variety of perspectives, local and global issues
4. develop an understanding of the relationships between literature and other disciplines
5. communicate and collaborate in a confident and creative way
6. foster a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of literature.