Career-related Programme
Language and cultural studies
(formerly: Language development)
Final curriculum review report
Published October 2024
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2024
International Baccalaureate® | Baccalauréat International® | Bachillerato Internacional®
Curriculum development in the Career-related Programme
All International Baccalaureate (IB) Career-related Programme (CP) core components
undergo a simultaneous curriculum review, in which both the curriculum and the
assessment models are examined to inform their future development. The aim of this
collaborative process is to ensure that the new version of each component is fit for
purpose in a changing world, incorporates the latest educational research and responds to
opportunities for improvement highlighted by a thorough evaluation of the existing
curriculum.
Background
The language development component is currently in the production and implementation
phase of the curriculum review.
The review will culminate with the production of a new guide, under a changed name:
language and cultural studies (LCS). This is scheduled for first teaching in
September 2025/January 2026 and first assessment in May/November 2027.
This is the final curriculum report, and provides the overview of changes in the new
iteration of this core component.
Educators are invited to contact the curriculum review team with their feedback on any
aspect of this report.
Curriculum review timeline
Research phase
2018–2019 Researching language development: academic literature
review; evaluation of comparable courses; feedback from
workshops, focus groups and school visits; educator and
alumni surveys; commissioned reports
Curriculum review report published internally
First internal review meeting
External review meeting
Development phase
2019–2023 Development meetings
Internal review meetings
Trial
Reports to educators published on the Programme Resource
Centre (PRC)
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2023–2024 Production of new guide and teacher support material (TSM)
Production and implementation phase
2024–2025 Development of subject-specific seminars and categories 1
and 2 workshops
2025 Publication of new guide and TSM
2025–2026 First teaching of revised guide
(September 2025/January 2026)
2027 First assessment of revised guide (May/November 2027)
Goals of the curriculum review
The goals of the curriculum review have been to:
1. refine the component, so that it responds to the diversity of candidates and
contexts of the CP
2. further articulate the purpose and operationalization of this core component in the
CP
3. strengthen the pedagogical underpinnings of this core component
4. create a clear framing and learning outcomes that help educators and students to
design appropriate experiences and engagements for this core component
5. offer tools and methodologies for assessing students’ progress and engagement in
authentic ways
6. ensure that changes align with thinking about the other elements of the CP
framework.
Scope of the curriculum review
The goals listed above, which are underpinned by research, were translated into the
following recommendations.
• Place the learner at the centre of design, implementation and assessment, and
foster student agency, prioritizing the development of individual students’
repertoires and honouring multilingual repertoires (goal 1).
• Widen the linguistic and cultural scope of the component (goals 1 and 2).
• Reexamine how the component is “assessed” and “completed” (goals 2, 4 and 5).
• Strengthen pedagogical underpinnings, and introduce a framing and structure to
support implementation (goals 3 and 4).
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• Prioritize the creation of appropriate professional learning opportunities, and the
enhancement of the guide and support materials (goal 6).
These recommendations have led to proposals for change that aim to ensure that schools
retain the desired autonomy for determining how the component is delivered, and that
modality of delivery does not drive or limit how students can engage with this core
component. The starting point is no longer the “delivery mode”, but the student.
To support this, a reorientation of the component has been proposed: it will have an
explicit, dual and integrated focus on language(s) and culture(s), and it will intend to
provide an opportunity for students to deepen and/or broaden language and intercultural
skills and understandings that can be transferred to life beyond the CP.
It is firmly believed that the refinements proposed so far in the curriculum review will
enhance student engagement, and result in more beneficial and transferable outcomes.
Developments since the third curriculum review report
Since the publication of the previous report, the review team has confirmed and further
refined the revised nature, aims and learning outcomes, as well as finalizing the curriculum
and assessment models and the implementation parameters. The review team has also
developed a new set of TSM to support the new iteration of this core component with
robust resources and authentic teacher and student tools.
The new guide and TSM are currently in production.
Production and implementation phase
Overview of changes in the new component
Component name
As previously announced, to reflect the recommended reorientation of the core
component, its name will change from language development to language and cultural
studies (LCS).
Nature and aims
The LCS core component invites students to better understand and expand their linguistic
and cultural repertoires, and imagine how they could further engage with a range of
linguistic and cultural groups. As partners in inquiry, students and teachers explore their
linguistic and cultural repertoires and reflect on them in the context of local and global
communities.
LCS enables students to engage in inquiry and consider broad questions about language,
culture, identity, meaning and their interrelationships.
The interests and experiences of students are central to LCS. This core component aims to
foster student agency by enabling students to set personally relevant goals that reflect
their personal, academic and professional needs and aspirations. It enables them to shape
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their learning journeys, making choices that are relevant, meaningful, authentic and
empowering.
Recognizing that multilingualism and intercultural understanding are cornerstones of
international-mindedness, which is at the core of the IB mission, and that multilingualism is
a fact, a right and a resource, LCS aims to create opportunities for students to:
• explore and expand their linguistic and cultural repertoires develop curiosity,
openness and empathy through awareness and appreciation of linguistic and
cultural diversity, locally and globally
• develop transferable knowledge, skills and attitudes for present and future study,
work and leisure.
Syllabus
The syllabus structure of LCS outlined in the previous report has been finalized. It
emphasizes inquiry over language proficiency, creates a balance of structure and flexibility,
and supports the development of conceptual understanding. It also accommodates both
independent and guided learning.
Syllabus component Requirements
Introductory unit
Introduction to the nature, aims, learning outcomes and
concepts of LCS
Laying the foundations for students’ learning in LCS:
engaging students in self-inquiry that is captured
through the language and cultural portrait, and offering Required for all students in a
initial opportunities for students to reflect on the LCS teacher-guided setting.
aims, learning outcomes and concepts in relation to their
own lives, contexts and identities
Orientation towards a personal focus for learning in LCS:
choosing an area of exploration, and setting personally
relevant goals
Areas of exploration
Career: A focus on language and intercultural capabilities
Students choose one of these
for specific purposes, either professional or academic.
three areas of exploration as the
Community: A focus on a language/language variety focus of their LCS learning
within the context of a local or global community or journey, based on their interests,
linked to the student’s personal/family, cultural, historical aspirations and language-
connections with a community. learning goals.
Personal: A focus on learning a new language/language
variety as a code within a cultural context or
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consolidating an aspect of the student’s linguistic and
cultural repertoire out of personal interest.
Total learning hours = minimum 70
Guided hours = minimum 30
There are four concepts which structure the learning and teaching in LCS: communication,
identities, perspectives and power. These concepts play an important role in understanding
the interrelationships between language(s) and culture(s). Students are expected to
explore all four concepts, even if some concepts are engaged with more deeply or
extensively than others.
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Additional resources have been designed to support the new syllabus:
• suggested inquiry questions
• suggested outline for the introductory unit
• example lesson plans and unit planners
• examples of conceptually focused learning engagements.
Focus on the learning
Inquiry-based learning process
As outlined previously, LCS places the learner at the centre of the learning in order to
ensure that the process of developing multilingualism and intercultural understanding is
personalized, authentic, engaging and inclusive. Since the previous report, the learning
process in LCS has been further refined, also considering alignment with other core
components.
Learning in LCS is rooted in an inquiry-based approach. Figure 1 represents what the
dynamic and iterative learning based on inquiry into language(s) and culture(s) looks like
for the student; it focuses on the types of activities students engage in.
Figure 1: Visual representation of the dynamic nature of learning in LCS
Inquiry in LCS starts with the self and expands to inquiry into broader questions about
language and culture, and it moves from guided to more open, student-led inquiry. As
such, the inner cycle in figure 1 includes the students’ exploration of their linguistic and
cultural repertoires and linguistic and cultural experiences, captured through the
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language and cultural portrait. This supports a guided form of inquiry and informs the
student’s choice of focus for their LCS journey, through the selection of an area of
exploration, and the setting of personally relevant goals. The introductory unit
supports these stages of the student’s journey. The choice of area of exploration and the
setting of goals marks the transition to more open, self-guided inquiry. Subsequent
planned learning engagements, as well as more unplanned experiences, in turn lead to
new understandings and reflection on the language and cultural portrait, as well as the
refinement of goals. Teachers calibrate their support accordingly to enable more self-
guided inquiry as students go through their journey in LCS.
The outer cycle suggests the ongoing nature of assessment and reflection and
reflexivity, and it interacts with the inner cycle at multiple points, as part of inquiry-based
learning. The assessment model includes three review points—these create structured
evaluation moments throughout the inquiry journey.
It is the interaction between these two cycles that constructs multilingualism and a more
nuanced intercultural understanding; the external ring captures this pedagogical
orientation through the key descriptors: multilingual and intercultural.
The learning journey
Authentic tools have been designed to support students along their journey in LCS,
including:
• portrait tool and examples of student language and cultural portraits
• resources to support choice of area of exploration and goal-setting
• examples of student LCS journeys
• suggested questions to guide reflection and reflexivity.
The manifestation and timing of the different stages of a student’s learning journey in LCS
will vary depending on the implementation option chosen, on the students’ approach
and/or on school context (e.g. the structure of academic years and timetables). However,
the journey will always tend to include the same milestones, sequenced as suggested in
figure 2.
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Figure 2: Linear representation of the two-year LCS learning journey
Assessment
The school continues to be responsible for monitoring and assessing the progress of
learners and for determining and reporting completion of LCS.
Assessment in LCS will consider whether, or not, there is evidence of the learning
outcomes. Some of the outcomes may be demonstrated many times in a variety of
activities/learning engagements, and others occasionally, but there must be some
evidence of every outcome.
Learning outcomes
With the overall goal of expanding their linguistic and cultural repertoires, students will be
able to:
LO1—articulate how personal identity is shaped by engaging with languages and cultures
and diverse perspectives
LO2—identify their own strengths and aspirations, set personally relevant goals, and
monitor their multilingual and intercultural learning through ongoing reflection
LO3—apply communication skills and understandings to various contexts
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LO4—practise reflexivity and develop self-awareness as communicators within and across
languages and cultures.
Assessment model
The assessment model has also been refined and finalized since the previous report. The
new model clarifies the purposes and types of assessment in LCS, and includes a number
of required elements that are intended to support ongoing assessment through authentic
and manageable methods.
While a distinction is generally made between two types of assessment, namely formative
and summative, assessment in LCS can be represented as a continuum. This reflects the
fact that assessment in LCS is ongoing and that it focuses on developmental progression
centred on the learning outcomes.
Figure 3: Continuum of assessment in LCS
All students will:
• maintain a learning journal recording their sustained engagement and evidence of
learning
• engage in three review points
• record a reflection in the progress and reflection form for each review point.
To achieve successful completion of LCS, students will need to demonstrate progress in
learning in relation to the learning outcomes and sustained engagement over the two
years.
Enhanced guidance and resources have been designed to support ongoing assessment;
these include:
• the learning outcomes in more detail
• generic descriptors of levels of engagement
• a developmental rubric (recommended, not prescribed)
• questions to support and guide discussion and reflection around the learning
outcomes in the review points
• a simple progress and reflection form.
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Implementation
Options for implementation
As communicated previously, implementation options have been streamlined. LCS can be
implemented, for all or some students, as either:
• a school-designed taught course, where there is a shared focus for learning among
students (e.g. on “career” as a common area of exploration), or
• school-supported self-directed study, where students design their own learning
journey, learn independently and are supported and monitored by the LCS teacher.
Schools are encouraged to manage the component in a way that suits their students and
their particular circumstances and resources. It is crucial, however, that the school supports
student agency in LCS and ensures that students are appropriately supported throughout
the two years of the programme, and that all requirements are met, irrespective of which
option is chosen.
Time requirements
As outlined in the previous report, time requirements have also been revised, as follows.
• A minimum of 30 hours of guided time will be required.
• The total learning time has been increased to a minimum of 70 hours (including the
guided hours).
Learning hours refers to the total minimum learning time the IB recommends for
students to devote to a core component, including guided time requirements and
independent or self-directed student work.
Guided hours refers to time the IB requires schools to plan for structured engagement
with students, for example, in teaching, supervision or guidance. In LCS, guided time:
• can be face to face, online or blended
• will accommodate the introductory unit and review points, and will also allow for
structural opportunities for group discussion.
These requirements are intended to ensure structural guidance and support for all CP
students in this core component, including cases where the school-supported, self-
directed option is chosen.
Schools determine the most appropriate distribution of hours across the different parts of
LCS. Sufficient guided time should be allocated to support the introductory unit, as well as
to ensure support for students throughout their LCS journey.
Roles and responsibilities
The roles and responsibilities outlined in previous reports, namely the LCS coordinator
and the LCS teacher, have been confirmed. While mandating these roles may represent a
change to how this core component is currently supported, this will bring this core
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component more in line with the other core components and, in practical terms, it would
not necessarily mean additional resourcing, as the roles already exist in many schools.
Depending on the structure of the teaching staff and the size of the student cohort, the
school may designate one or more LCS teachers; the LCS coordinator role may be part of
the CP coordinator’s role (as long as the coordinator has the appropriate amount of time
release and resources to fulfil all aspects of these roles); the LCS coordinator may also be
the LCS teacher, or these roles may be fulfilled by different staff members; the LCS
coordinator and/or LCS teacher may also teach or supervise other CP core components
(e.g. PPS), or other elements of the CP (e.g. Diploma Programme subjects or career-related
study).
The LCS teacher does not necessarily need to be a language teacher, but they need to be a
member of the teaching staff with an understanding and appreciation of language
learning and intercultural understanding.
Support materials
In addition to the support materials mentioned above in relation to learning, teaching and
assessment, a range of tools and support materials have also been designed to support
schools in planning and implementing LCS, including:
• a school orientation tool
• questions to guide decision-making on implementation options (school-designed
taught course vs school-supported self-directed study)
• examples of approaches to scheduling LCS
• examples of job descriptions and how the roles could be brought to life in different
school contexts
• suggestions for recognizing and celebrating LCS in the school.
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Next steps
The remaining activities for the curriculum review include the following.
• Development of workshops (2024)
• Workshop leader training (2024)
• Publication of the new guide and the TSM on the PRC (February–March 2025)
• Workshops or other forms of professional development (February 2025 onwards)
Questions, comments and feedback
If you have any questions about the next LCS guide, or any feedback about this report, you
are welcome to get in touch. Please email
[email protected] and indicate that your
query is for the attention of the LCS curriculum manager.
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