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Category Archives: Part 1: Language and Cultural Context
WT2 Sample 2
This Written Task 2, Critical Response, uses question 3 – How and why is a social group represented in a particular way? – as the prompt to discuss a magazine cover from a 2012 South African edition of Women’s Health.
Before we look at the Written Task more closely, a few assorted reflections: Students often recognize what a text reveals, but they struggle to show how a text reveals. In the case of this Written Task, some of the linguistic understanding, embedded in sophisticated contextual awareness, is in this instance rather elevated.
Examiner’s Comments
WT2 Sample 1
The sample written task 2 below has taken its inspiration from a United Colors of Benetton advertisement. Students studied language and taboo in Part 1, with a particular focus on AIDS awareness campaigns. ‘La Pieta’, the Benetton ad, was considered very controversial. As you can read in the sample critical response below, an understanding of the context leads to different interpretations of the same text. The question answered in the task is:
“How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?”
The sample examines two different interpretations of the Benetton: a Christian perspective and a homosexual perspective.
Tip: For several written task 2 questions, one can easily risk over-generalizing and stereotyping. This question is not an exception. By writing about Christians and homosexuals, the candidate takes a real risk. However, as you will read, careful wording and good research can prevent generalizations.
Primary source
La Pieta
Oliviero Toscani
1991
Examiner’s Comments
Lang & Lit – Written Task 2
A written task demonstrates the student’s ability to choose an imaginative way of exploring an aspect of the material studied in the course. It must show a critical engagement with an aspect of a text or a topic.
Formal requirements for Written Task 2:
- It is a critical response to one of six prescribed questions.
- The task must be 800–1,000 words in length. Task 2 must be accompanied by an outline.
Aims of Written Task 2
Task 2 takes the form of a critical response. The aims of task 2 are:
- to consider in greater detail the material studied.
- to reflect and question in greater depth the values, beliefs and attitudes that are implied in the texts studied.
- to encourage you to view texts in a number of ways.
- to enable you to give an individual response to the way in which texts can be understood in the light of the prescribed questions.
Formal requirements for Written Task 2
There are two prescribed questions for each of the areas of study listed below. Task 2 is a critical response to one of these six questions. The prescribed questions are designed to be as open as possible and are intended to highlight broad areas within which students can explore and develop their responses to the texts.
The critical response is based on material studied in the course. This material could be a short text or texts such as a newspaper article or a sports blog. A rationale is not included with task 2. Instead, students are expected to complete an outline. This outline is submitted with the task for external assessment.
This outline must be completed in class time and must include:
- the prescribed question that has been chosen
- the title of the text(s) for analysis
- the part of the course to which the task refers
- three or four key points that explain the particular focus of the task.Where appropriate, task 2 must reference, in a bibliography, the relevant support documentation such as the newspaper article or magazine advertisement on which it is based.Where a complete shorter text is chosen (for example, a newspaper article or an advertisement from a magazine) students may refer to other texts to support their response.
The critical response is in the style of a formal essay and must be clearly structured with an introduction, clearly developed ideas or arguments and a conclusion.
Areas of study for task 2
In preparation for task 2, students must address one of the following areas of study, which correspond to the topics and material studied in the course:
Reader, culture and text
Students are encouraged to consider that a text’s meaning is determined by the reader and by the cultural context. The interpretation of a text is dependent on various factors, including:
- the reader and producer’s cultural identity or identities
- age
- gender
- social status
- the historical and cultural settings of the text and its production
- aspects of language and translation.
Power and privilege
Students are encouraged to consider how and why social groups are represented in texts in particular ways. In addition, consideration may be given to who is excluded from or marginalized in a text, or whose views are silenced. Social groups could include:
- women
- adolescents
- senior citizens
- children
- immigrants
- ethnic minorities
- professions.
Text and genre
Students are encouraged to consider the genre in which a text is placed. Certain textual features belong to a particular genre and can be identified by a particular reader or audience. Writers make use of, or deviate from, particular conventions of genre in order to achieve particular effects. Students may also explore how texts borrow from other texts, and how texts can be re-imagined or reconstructed.
Examples of conventions of genre include:
- structure
- storyline
- characterization
- stylistic devices
- tone, mood and atmosphere
- register
- visual images and layout.
The following is an example of a possible task that could be selected as WT2:
Task 2—questions
Reader, culture and text
1. How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?
The following are examples of texts that may be studied for student responses to question 1:
- The study and analysis of a political speech by a world leader that excludes references to certain groups or issues (those excluded will read the speech differently)
- The study and analysis of different views of an article on obesity (this article may be viewed differently by someone from a country with problems of poverty and famine and by someone from a wealthy consumer society)
2. If the text had been written in a different time or place or language or for a different audience, how and why might it differ?
The following are examples of texts that may be studied for student responses to question 2:
- An article from a newspaper and how it would be written in a different newspaper
- The study and analysis of an article about social class from a country that has a very hierarchical class structure (the significance of language that identifies class distinctions is of primary focus)
Power and privilege
1. How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?
The following are examples of texts that may be studied for student responses to question 1.
- The study and analysis of an article in which an urban tribe is represented in a negative way.
2. Which social groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced within the text?
The following are examples of texts that may be studied for student responses to question 2.
- Representations of the Roma (gypsies) in the contemporary popular press.
Text and genre
1. How does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?
The following are examples of texts that may be studied for student responses to question 1.
- The study and analysis of media texts with a particular format, style and register
2. How has the text borrowed from other texts, and with what effects?
The following are examples of texts that may be studied for student responses to question 2.
- The study and analysis of religious imagery and references in political speeches.
Persuasive Techniques
We live in a world of visual stimulation. In the car, on the metro, or strolling through town, we absorb the invitations to look, buy, do, react, often unconsciously. Because we are so accustomed to the barrage of media stimulation that blankets billboards or floats across our screens, we often take for granted our media savvy. Part of becoming more media literate is the ability to identify the techniques used by advertisers to persuade us. These techniques are the tools of advertisers to convince us to buy their product. Once you become familiar with them, you will see them all around you.
Go through the following resource to prepare yourself for Paper 1: PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES
The Big 5 for Text Analysis
At the heart of the English A: Language and Literature course is textual analysis. In order to prepare for Paper 1 and the individual oral commentary, you will want to learn how to analyze various texts. This lesson introduces you to a method of analysis that we call the ‘Big 5’. It presents five lenses through which you can look at texts. Since not all texts are the same in nature, you will find some lenses more useful than others when analyzing different texts. Since analyzing texts is a skill, the more you practice, the better you will become and the more you will see!
The Big 5
There are several questions that you can ask of any text. Here are five major questions that apply to almost all types of texts:
- Audience / purpose – Who does the text target? What does the author wish to achieve through the text?
- Content / theme – What is literally ‘happening’ in the text? What is it about? What are the main ideas of the text?
- Tone / mood – How does the text make you and/or the target audience feel? Describe the atmosphere of the text.
- Stylistic devices – How does the author use language to convey a sentiment or message? What kinds of linguistic tools does he/she employ?
- Structure – How is the text organized, literally (i.e. layout/formatting)? What kinds of structural elements of a particular text type do you see?
Applying this method
Try applying the ‘Big 5’ to the text below. Fill in the right column of the table below.
Change the burden
Tata Motors
2010
Tata Motors
2010
Written Task Sample 2
2. “Hinglish”
The following Written Task doesn’t quite get it right. It’s not, in fact, bad. Indeed, the rationale is reasonably promising; it suggests the student has adequate insight into her Part 1 studies. And, the rationale is well written. The Written Task itself is less effective, albeit most of the ideas are clearly expressed. Interestingly, the student, in her rationale, claims to be writing about codeswitching. However, the student doesn’t really seem to have ownership of ideas, and it may be more accurate to suggest that the student’s focus is language change and code-mixing.
Written Tasks are frequently effective where they are apparently authentic; that is, they seem plausible, having the formal and stylistic features of the text type they replicate. Written Tasks, after all, can be regarded as an opportunity for students to engage in an act of creative imitation; whilst the nature of the task is creative, it seems reasonable that Written Tasks mimic preexisting text types, applying an awareness of appropriate language and style.
This Written Task was not accompanied by any appendix; that is, an exemplar text that the student fashioned her response around. Modeling Written Tasks on precisely defined example texts is often an excellent strategy. As insipid as The Straits Times may sometimes seem, the Written Task doesn’t really capture the linguistic, stylistic, and formal features of an article appearing in its lifestyle pages. Instead, the student seems to write, as students sometimes do, ‘an essay in disguise’. If this Written Task is used for the purpose of teaching students, it may be to warn them of the dangers of just this pitfall.
IB Assessment
Criterion A – Rationale – 2 marks
The rationale explains how the task is connected to the coursework.
Criterion B – Task and Content – 8 marks
The content of a task should lend itself well to the type of text one chooses. The task should demonstrate an understanding of the coursework and topics studied. Finally, there should be evidence that the student has understood the conventions of writing a particular text type.
Criterion C – Organization – 5 marks
The task is organized effectively and appropriately with a regard for the text type. There must be a sense of coherence.
Criterion D – Language – 5 marks
The language of the task must be appropriate to the nature of the task. This means that students use an appropriate and effective register and style. Whatever the nature of the task, ideas must be communicated effectively.
Written Task Sample 1
- “Mandela”
On 9 May 1994, a day before Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President of South Africa, he gave a speech to the people of Cape Town. The student who wrote the sample written task for Part 1 was inspired by this speech and decided to write her own speech about it. In this written task, she pretends to be Antjie Krog, a popular South African, giving her speech to members of the African National Congress in 2014, on the 20th anniversary of Mandela’s inauguration.
Primary Source: Address to the people of Cape Town, Grand Parade
Nelson Mandela
9 May 1994
Mr Master of Ceremonies,
Your Excellencies,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
My Fellow South Africans:
Today we are entering a new era for our country and its people. Today we celebrate not the victory of a party, but a victory for all the people of South Africa.
Our country has arrived at a decision. Among all the parties that contested the elections, the overwhelming majority of South Africans have mandated the African National Congress to lead our country into the future. The South Africa we have struggled for, in which all our people, be they African, Coloured, Indian or White, regard themselves as citizens of one nation is at hand.
Perhaps it was history that ordained that it be here, at the Cape of Good Hope that we should lay the foundation stone of our new nation. For it was here at this Cape, over three countries ago, that there began the fateful convergence of the peoples of Africa, Europe and Asia on these shores.
It was to this peninsula that the patriots, among them many princes and scholars, of Indonesia were dragged in chains. It was on the sandy plains of this peninsula that first battles of the epic wars of resistance were fought.
When we look out across Table Bay, the horizon is dominated by Robben Island, whose infamy as a dungeon built to stifle the spirit of freedom is as old as colonialism in South Africa. For three centuries that island was seen as a place to which outcasts can be banished. The names of those who were incarcerated on Robben Island is a roll call of resistance fighters and democrats spanning over three centuries. If indeed this is a Cape of Good Hope, that hope owes much to the spirit of that legion of fighters and others of their calibre.
We have fought for a democratic constitution since the 1880s. Ours has been a quest for a constitution freely adopted by the people of South Africa, reflecting their wishes and their aspirations. The struggle for democracy has never been a matter pursued by one race, class, religious community or gender among South Africans. In honouring those who fought to see this day arrive, we honour the best sons and daughters of all our people. We can count amongst them Africans, Coloureds, Whites, Indians, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews – all of them united by a common vision of a better life for the people of this country.
It was that vision that inspired us in 1923 when we adopted the first ever Bill of Rights in this country. That same vision spurred us to put forward the African Claims in 1946. It is also the founding principle of the Freedom Charter we adopted as policy in 1955, which in its very first lines, places before South Africa an inclusive basis for citizenship.
In the 1980s the African National Congress was still setting the pace, being the first major political formation in South Africa to commit itself firmly to a Bill of Rights, which we published in November 1990. These milestones give concrete expression to what South Africa can become. They speak of a constitutional, democratic, political order in which, regardless of colour, gender, religion, political opinion or sexual orientation, the law will provide for the equal protection of all citizens.
They project a democracy in which the government, whomever that government may be, will be bound by a higher set of rules, embodied in a constitution, and will not be able to govern the country as it pleases.
Democracy is based on the majority principle. This is especially true in a country such as ours where the vast majority have been systematically denied their rights. At the same time, democracy also requires that the rights of political and other minorities be safeguarded.
In the political order we have established there will be regular, open and free elections, at all levels of government – central, provincial and municipal. There shall also be a social order which respects completely the culture, language and religious rights of all sections of our society and the fundamental rights of the individual.
The task at hand on will not be easy. But you have mandated us to change South Africa from a country in which the majority lived with little hope, to one in which they can live and work with dignity, with a sense of self-esteem and confidence in the future. The cornerstone of building a better life of opportunity, freedom and prosperity is the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
This needs unity of purpose. It needs in action. It requires us all to work together to bring an end to division, an end to suspicion and build a nation united in our diversity.
The people of South Africa have spoken in these elections. They want change! And change is what they will get. Our plan is to create jobs, promote peace and reconciliation, and to guarantee freedom for all South Africans. We will tackle the widespread poverty so pervasive among the majority of our people. By encouraging investors and the democratic state to support job creating projects in which manufacturing will play a central role we will try to change our country from a net exporter of raw materials to one
that exports finished products through beneficiation.
The government will devise policies that encourage and reward productive enterprise among the disadvantaged communities – African, Coloured and Indian. By easing credit conditions we can assist them to make inroads into the productive and manufacturing spheres and breakout of the small-scale distribution to which they are presently confined.
To raise our country and its people from the morass of racism and apartheid will require determination and effort. As a government, the ANC will create a legal framework that will assist, rather than impede, the awesome task of reconstruction and development of our battered society.
While we are and shall remain fully committed to the spirit of a government of national unity, we are determined to initiate and bring about the change that our mandate from the people demands.
We place our vision of a new constitutional order for South Africa on the table not as conquerors, prescribing to the conquered. We speak as fellow citizens to heal the wounds of the past with the intent of constructing a new order based on justice for all.
This is the challenge that faces all South Africans today, and it is one to which I am certain we will all rise.
IB Assessment
Criterion A – Rationale – 2 marks
The rationale explains how the task is connected to the coursework.
Criterion B – Task and content – 8 marks
The content of a task should lend itself well to the type of text that one chooses. The task should demonstrate an understanding of the course work and topics studied. Finally, there should be evidence that the student has understood the conventions of writing a particular text type.
Criterion C – Organization – 5 marks
The task is organized effectively and appropriately with a regard for the text type. There must be a sense of coherence.
Criterion D – Language – 5 marks
The language of the task must be appropriate to the nature of the task. This means that students use an appropriate and effective register and style. Whatever the nature of the task, ideas must be communicated effectively.
IB Written Task
IB Written Task Proposal Form:
WT1 Proposal Form – Language and Cultural Context
IB Written Task Guidelines:
Language & Knowledge
“Any knowledge one possesses that involves abstract thought relies on language. Thus, consciously or not, we are all engaged in producing, consuming and critiquing the world around us in language”
Dear all,
Today, we will be focusing on language and knowledge issues in relationship to a few specific areas of specialist knowledge (using the examples of medicine and sport).
Take a look at the following examples of different media portraying the use of jargon, humorously or not, for the sake of entertainment:
MEDICAL JARGON
LEGAL JARGON
TASK 1: Discuss the following questions within your team:
- How is language used to express one’s knowledge of a particular skill or profession?
- How does one’s use of jargon define him or her as both an individual and a member of a community?
TASK 2: “Becoming a Pirate”
Analyse the following infographic.
How does it use language, style, tone, and visuals to target a “pirate” community?
TASK 3: TEXT ANALYSIS
A. “Advances in Medicine” (pp 89, 90, 91)
B. “Language in Sport” (pp. 92, 93, 94)
G20 English A: Language and Literature 