A Level English Language

For reading you will cover a broad range of written texts. This will involve how different types of texts are used for different purposes and how meaning is created through language. Examples include:

• Advertisements
• Brochures
• Leaflets
• Editorials
• News stories
• Articles
• Reviews
• Blogs
• Letters
• Podcasts
• Travel writing
• Diaries
• Essays
• Narrative writing
• Descriptive writing

You will cover language features such as vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, rhetorical speech and tense. Another part of reading will involve unseen texts. In your own writing, you will learn to analyse, produce short responses and re-write texts into a different form. For example taking a formal article and turning it into a blog style text. You will also compare these styles.

For paper 2, the knowledge and understanding is the same as covered in paper 1. However, learners will now need to demonstrate their skills and techniques through writing. You might be asked to write for a specified audience and purpose or produce an appropriate structure for longer pieces of writing. This might include Freytag’s Pyramid in imaginative writing, dialectical structure in discursive writing; introductory, summary and evaluative sections in review writing.

Learners will need to use appropriate language features such as imagery in descriptive writing or rhetorical speech in argumentative pieces. They will also need to reflect on and assess the effectiveness of their own piece of writing analysing its purpose, form and audience.

Paper 3 involves: Section A: Language Change For this topic, learners will develop an understanding on how language has developed over time. This will include Early Modern English to Contemporary English and cover key concepts, terminology and theories. This also includes how different language levels change, such as spelling (orthography), sounds (phonology), word forms (morphology) and sentence structure (syntax). You will also cover major theories and theorists of language change along with n -gram graphs representing changes in language over time. Section B: Child Language Acquisition For section B, learners will focus on early development in child language. This section will explore ages 0-8 years and consider the features and functions of spoken language use during this period. Examples will include the following stages:

• Babbling
• Holophrastic
• Telegraphic
• Post-telegraphic

Different functions of children’s language will also be covered such as using language to ask for things (instrumental), interact with other children (interactional) or imagine and create. Learners will then move onto theories and theorists of child language acquisition including cognitive development theory and child-directed speech.

Paper 4 is split into two sections: Section A: English in the World For this section, learners will cover the history of English as a ‘global’ language. This will include the development of standard and nonstandard forms of English and varieties used by first-language users outside the UK. Finally, you will cover ethical considerations related to the continuing expansion of English usage around the world. Section B: Language and the Self Learners will investigate how language shapes who we are. Examples will include:

• Behaviourism
• Innatism
• Nativism
• Empiricism

The relationship between language and thought will also be covered and how they are both interwoven with, and separate from, each other. Finally, you will cover the relationship between language and social identity. This will involve:

• Speech communities
• Prestige
• Idiolect
• Dialect
• Sociolect
• Standard and nonstandard features
• Inclusion and exclusion
• Accents

Unit 1:

This unit introduces students to how language is used across a range of different sources. Students will explore how the contexts of production and reception affect language choices in spoken and written language.

Students will explore how writers and speakers present themselves to their audiences, constructing identities through their language choices. They will also demonstrate their understanding by creating a new text.

By concentrating on what language does and how it varies to perform different functions, teaching can build on students’ prior knowledge from GCSE and International GCSE English Language and on their experience as language users.

Candidates answer two compulsory questions: one question from Section A and one question from Section B.

1 hour 45 mins

50 marks

50% of the AS Level 25% of the A Level

Unit 2:

This unit introduces students to the ways in which the English language can vary and change, with a focus on English in a global context and the role of English as an international language.

They will learn to explore and critically evaluate how language varies over time in relation to the mechanisms of language change, rather than the historical development of English.

Students answer two compulsory questions: one question from Section A and one question from Section B based on unseen transcripts. The unseen transcripts are presented in a Source Booklet for students.

1 hour 45 mins

50 marks

50% of the AS Level 25% of the A Level

Unit 3:

In this unit students will demonstrate their skills as writers, crafting texts for different genre, audience, purpose and context. They will also reflect on their work in an accompanying commentary, making connections with their study of a range of specified writing genres and styles.

Students answer two compulsory questions: one question from Section A and one question from Section B.

2 hours

50 marks

25% of the A Level

Unit 4:

In this unit, students will have the opportunity to develop their research skills. They will consolidate their knowledge of language frameworks and key language concepts gained from Units 1, 2 and 3.

Students will apply these skills to one topic area from a choice of:

• Global English

• Child Language Development

• Language and Power

• Language and Technology.

A subtopic for each of the specified topics will be pre-released to provide a focus for students’ research and prepare them for examination.

Pre-released materials will be provided in order for students to focus their research. For each topic a subtopic pre-released on the website (in May for the January examination series and in January for the June examination series).

Students answer two compulsory questions on one overall subtopic: one question from Section A and one question from Section B.