English B or A2?

[goingtoib]

 

I am about to enter the IB DP programme by the end of this summer. Having to choose subjects, I am pondering wether to study English B or English A2 (language and literature). Swedish is my first language and I will study Swedish A2. English is my second language but I am fairly good at it and it has always been one of my stronger subjects. However, I am concerned with the "literature" part in A2. Reading isn't of my greater interests, so having exams related to literature could stand in the way for me to get a 7. However, as the course also includes "language" it might not be as hard? But I obviously don't know much about the subject as I haven't started the IB, therefor, I would appreciate it if you could share some thoughts based on experience.

Btw, my other HL subjects are Economics and Biology. 

 

Thanks a lot! 

[Rosalina]

Your written English is very good, so I would say that you're probably going to find English A2 very easy. After all, the goal of an A2 course is language acquisition, which you already have.

I cannot comment on English Lang and Lit as I've never taken it myself. However, this website gives you a brief overview of the course, as well as give you a general idea about the type of assessments you will have. I suggest that you take a look and see if the amount and content of literature is satisfactory for you.

Good Luck!

[lovinpeople]

Having finished my Lang and Lit course in English, I can tell that if you don’t like reading and aren’t interested in textual analysis and interpretation, you’re probably not going to like the “literature” part. I am not saying that it is beyond your abilities, because SL most certainly isn’t, but it is still four books to read and discuss, creative written tasks to do, and Paper 2 strictly concerning literature to write (questions are the same for both SL and HL). The “language” component is no less important, i.e. you speak much more about context, history and media than in a typical Lit course, but you’re not going to be able to escape literature.

I do not know about English B in details but in general it is more “typical” language acquisition — learning idioms and vocabulary, reading short texts (and one novel if I’m not mistaken), discussing topics relevant for contemporary society. Text types are also more specific and technical than English A essays, e.g. diary entry or review. So English B is perfect for improving your language abilities in terms of grammar and vocab, while English A is more about putting into use abilities you have already acquired — that’s also why English B now belongs to Group 2 and English A to Group 1. 

Ah, finishing two Lang and Lit courses will also give you a bilingual diploma but I don’t think it is extremely relevant unless you’re going to study languages at university. So if you feel like one Lang and Lit already demands a lot from you (I know some people at my school with subjects similar to yours thought so), then I’d recommend English B — and if you choose English and Swedish A, I wouldn’t go for both of them HLs.

[ellie]

There's no A1 and A2 anymore! Only languages A, B, ab initio.

If you're doing IB in English, doing English A won't be a problem.