Course Details

English A1

Higher Level

English A1 HL is a literature course which includes fifteen texts studied over a two-year period. The works represent several time periods, including at least one 17th Century Shakespeare play, as well as poetry and prose from the 19th and 20th Centuries. Half the curriculum is prose from the 20th century, including works from countries including Canada, India, Australia, England, Norway, Zimbabwe, Argentina, South Africa and the United States.

Class meetings will be based on discussion rather than lectures, with all participants contributing to the group’s appreciation of literature through interpretation, debate, presentations and flashes of internal insight! We will develop a toolbox of approaches to literature, including social, political, economic and historical contexts, the role of the author, the role of the reader, traditional English literature in relationship to literature written in English from outside the United Kingdom and the study of texts in translation. These approaches will be enhanced by the core literacy skills of close textual reading, which include the recognition and interpretation of figurative language, narrative strategies, themes and everything else that makes a work of literature an enduring piece of art.

Standard Level

At the Standard Level, English A1 is very similar, only less intense. Over a two-year period you will be expected to read and evaluate around eleven works of different genres. Through an enriching experience of reading and evaluating plays, novels and short stories and poems of diverse authors from different continents, you will be transported to the joys of serious reading and analytical discussions.

Spanish A1 (HL & SL)

See English A1 course (above) for structure and syllabus.

Hindi A (SL Only)

The course is literature-oriented and it is likely that only Indian students with a high school level of Hindi and/or native speakers will have the background necessary to pursue this course. Students will begin an independent study of their texts in the first term with a tutor who will be present at least once every fortnight to help with difficulties and questions.

The Hindi A (SL) course basically follows the development of Hindi as a literary language The detailed study section includes an excerpt from Tulasidasa’s ‘ Ramcharitmanas’ and a collection of Hindi short stories. You will study two novels: Renu’s ‘Maila Aanchal’ and Raza’s ‘Andha gaon’, together with the wellknown Hindi play ‘Aashad Ka Ek Din’. There is also a World Literature component to the course where you will study five works written in a language other than Hindi and normally studied in translation in English.