Hi

I'm trying to decide if I should take English language, English literature or English Lang/lit at Alevel and I would like some opinions
I love creative wrighting but have yet to make it past a B (which has more to do with English language I assume)
And I also love poetry which I am very good at (English literature)
Can anyone explain the course a bit as well (much appreciated thanks x)

Reply 1

existential

Original post by Sophymia

Hello

I take both English Literature and English Language at AS level (not combined, both separate A levels). My exam board is AQA for both and they are the two new specifications for English.

Firstly I'll start by explaining English Literature. English Literature is my favourite out of the two as it allows for your own interpretations to be expressed. In English Literature our theme that we are studying is comedy and we study 2 plays, 1 novel and a collection of poetry. The plays we're studying are The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. The novel we are studying is Wise Children by Angela Carter and we are studying seven comedic poems. You do have to learn a lot of quotes, different interpretations and critic quotes for English Lit. English Literature is by far one of my favourite subjects and it is highly respected by universities. While you may think English Language is more closely related to Creative Writing you would still get onto a BA Creative Writing course with English Literature.

Now I'll talk about what English Language entails (well, for the new AQA specification, you may have a different exam board). There are two exam papers. Paper One is all about analysing texts, you get given 2 pieces of texts and you have to write about both of them individually and then you have to compare them. Paper One is all about knowing grammar and terminology and being able to identify the grammar within the texts and applying the correct terminology. Paper Two (which I find more interesting out of the two papers!) includes writing an essay and an article on two of these four topics you will study: Social Groups, Accent & Dialect, Occupational Language and Language and Gender. These four topics (in my opinion) are very interesting and you will get to study researchers and what they say about them.

After the AS year I am thinking about dropping English Language as I just prefer my other subjects more. I think English Language is a valuable subject to have though. However English Literature is more respected by universities as it is classic subject.

Good luck with your AS level choices. :smile:

Also, may I add, I got a B in GCSE English Language (I was predicted an A) and I have been working at an A/B in AS English Language all year so please don't let your GCSE grades affect your A level choices too much.