A step-by-step preparation frame for the IB Language ab initio Individual Oral. You get two photographs on two different themes — describe one of them in simple, accurate sentences, link it to its theme and culture, then keep a simple conversation going. Built for beginners, with the three assessment criteria and worked French & Spanish examples throughout.
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This is roughly how your exported DOCX / PDF will read. Use it to rehearse a clear photo description and a simple, confident conversation that answers your teacher's questions.
The IB Language ab initio Individual Oral is a supervised internal assessment for beginner language learners (SL only). You are given a short supervised preparation time (about 15 minutes) and a visual stimulus of two photographs. Each photograph is clearly linked to a different one of the five prescribed themes and to a culture where the target language is spoken. You choose one of the two photographs and describe it in simple, accurate sentences; your teacher then has a conversation with you about that photo and its theme, and finally a general conversation that extends to a second theme. This examiner-written preparation frame walks you through the method step by step — understand your two photos and their themes, describe your chosen photo clearly, link it to its theme and the target-language culture, build the description into a short spoken turn, anticipate the questions you will be asked, and get ready for the general conversation.
The oral is marked across three criteria: A — Language (how correct, clear and varied your simple language is); B — Message (how clearly and relevantly you describe the photo and develop your ideas and opinions); and C — Interactive skills, or communication (how well you understand your teacher's questions, answer them in full simple sentences, and keep a natural two-way conversation going). At ab initio you are a beginner, so the aim is simple, correct, connected language and learned phrases — accuracy and clarity at a simple level score better than ambitious but broken speech.
The five prescribed themes are Identities, Experiences, Human ingenuity, Social organization and Sharing the planet. The skill is to describe what you actually see in your chosen photo — who is in it, what they are doing, where they are — in full simple sentences rather than single words, then link the photo to its theme and to the target-language culture, and finally keep the conversation going by giving basic opinions with reasons and talking about your own life. Worked good-and-bad examples are given in simple French and Spanish with English glosses, and your practice notes export to DOCX or PDF.
The ab initio Individual Oral tool is free to start: the planning sections are free, and the later sections are a one-time unlock per tool. You sign in to save your work to your own account and sync it across devices. The frame and its guidance are written by experienced IB educators.