TOK in English B

Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is inherent in the teaching of any language, and so TOK is naturally and inevitably involved in the teaching of English B. Why?

The teaching of English B should regularly involve considering how language has meaning. And what language does to meaning. And how the meaning we intend will change the language that we choose. And how the language that we choose may have meanings that we don't intend. And how all of these issues affect the way that language is used to deal with the world - and how language may change the way we think, and so who we are. I suggest that all of these issues involve Theory of Knowledge (TOK).

This area of the site aims to address all of these issues.

NOTE - The IB expects that teachers in all subjects will be aware of TOK issues in their particular subject, and should be prepared to address these as an on-going element of teaching the subject. This is not the same as being responsible for teaching the whole TOK course as specified in the Subject Guide. Each school will have their own arrangement for teaching the TOK syllabus as a coherent course.

As a Language B teacher, you may be asked to take part in the formal course, and in such a case, you will discuss with your colleagues what should be dealt with. The materials in this website are primarily designed to help you with inserting TOK ideas into your normal teaching.

TOK Guide

For guidance, you should primarily refer to the Theory of Knowledge Guide (first assessment 2022), which is the current master document. The following pages are important for reference:

TOK Guide 2020 - for a summary of the elements directly relevant to English B, with commentary.

TOK Knowledge Questions  - introduces the examples of key questions provided in the TOK Guide, under the section concerned with Language. The four categories of questions (Scope, Perspectives, Methods and tools, and Ethics) are dealt with in subordinate pages. Each of these pages contain a range of links to pages elsewhere in the site, relating to the question concerned.

Teaching TOK in English B

Start with the page  How to teach TOK , which explains the general approach adopted by this site towards TOK.

You can then explore the rest of the pages in the TOK section, considering how to link them to the mass of resources available in the Themes section.

It may be useful to know that the pages of teaching material in this section (i.e. not the Subject Guide and TOK Questions pages) are organised in ascending order of difficulty. Well... more or less: the first are more general and easy for students to grasp, the last are quite challenging - but that is only approximate, and will depend on your students' capabilities anyway.