[Popple]

I need to choose between English Language or English Literature for an A Level, and I'll be doing it along with Art, Psychology, & Biology. Which one should I choose and why? What are the differences? What does each course involve? Which would complement my other A Level subjects? Thanks! X

[RubyMay]

Language! it's so interesting, learn about language and gender, language and power and language and technology and how each have changed from 30 years ago. 2nd year you learn about how children learn to talk and read. It's so so interesting. You do have to lean a lot of theorists, especially with psychology this is a tad overwhelming as I studied psychology as well and have over 50 theorists to learn (in OCR you do anyways)


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[HolyFuzazzle]

The two are quite different. In short, English Literature involves analysis and study of novels, poetry and drama, as well as the context surrounding it.

English language focuses on the ways in which language is used in different contexts, and some technicalities of language, different effects of language. In A2, you learn stuff like how we learn to acquire language as children, and how language has evolved over time. You also get to investigate an area of language that interests you. I found language change and language and gender at AS awesome, as did I love doing my investigation.

I did both for A level, and was good at both (though I messed up for English Lit), and I've found that people who are good at English in general (in GCSE and so on) find both the A levels easy.

I always advocate that English Lit goes excellently with Psychology but to be honest so does English Language. You'll find some ideas that you pick up in in Psychology cross over in language in A2, particularly regarding theories of how children learn to speak etc. Generally, however, Literature is perceived as the more difficult, more challenging and slightly more impressive one.

If you like to read, and have an interest in literature, go for Lit. You might find Lang easier (most people do, and I definitely found it much easier). I enjoyed both, however.

I found English language much easier, but not as fascinating, as English lit. There were topics in both that I loved and hated but they are very different subjects so pick wisely!

And what you want to do at university will affect this. As the person below me said, if you want to do linguistics or anything pertaining to language, then pick English language, if not, literature will generally look better.

[Id and Ego seek]

If you're not interested in taking Linguistics or English Language at university, take English Literature.

[Thatstudentdude]

Doing both, I would personally say that I think Language is the more interesting option between the two. However, like someone said above, it will be ultimately down to what you think you might want to do at uni (providing you would like to go to uni!) Obviously if you want to do a Literature degree, then I think we know what the most blatant option would be...

If you don't want to do English at uni, but you still want to go to a prestigious university, I think the subjects you do will be fine if you pick Language. Literature is generally more highly regarded as the 'harder' or more 'rigorous' subject, but you're also doing Art and Biology, which are both respected subjects, so I do not feel it would hamper your chances of getting into more renowned universities if you pick Language.

Do you enjoy reading? If you do, and are willing to put in extra reading time outside of lessons, then pick Literature. You will have to have a continuously strong interest for this subject though, as you will analyse so many different texts through the year, some that you may have no interest at all!

Language is completely different - yes, the element of analysing is still there, but it's in a totally different context. You look at how and why certain language is used in everyday conversation and how much it has changed with time. I find this more interesting than reading a book and taking notes down about it.

Since you're doing art, and that will require a heck of a lot of time and effort put into it outside of college, I would pick Language because it will take the stress off of you somewhat from having to read numerous books and meet art coursework deadlines at the same time.

[MAM360]

Remember that some Unis wont accept an A Level in your own first language as part of their offer on some courses. Literature is seen as the harder more academic subject so I would go for that. You have to be prepared to read a bit (not just the novels but criticism on it and other background info) but because I had good English teachers I was pretty much given all the material I could ever need.

Oh and adding to thatstudentdude - the two people who never met coursework deadlines in my set did Art (but they are known to be quite lazy). Ask your teachers what specification you're doing. We did AQA and we had two coursework pieces for the whole year of 1500 words each and even though it was the only subject I had coursework for it actually required the least amount of work as I had months to work on them (as opposed to my other subjects where I had weekly essays and exam practice to do). If you are doing AQA PM me and I'll let you know a bit more about the course and what I found hard or easy.

[HolyFuzazzle]

(Original post by MAM360)
Remember that some Unis wont accept an A Level in your own first language as part of their offer on some courses. Literature is seen as the harder more academic subject so I would go for that. You have to be prepared to read a bit (not just the novels but criticism on it and other background info) but because I had good English teachers I was pretty much given all the material I could ever need.

Oh and adding to thatstudentdude - the two people who never met coursework deadlines in my set did Art (but they are known to be quite lazy). Ask your teachers what specification you're doing. We did AQA and we had two coursework pieces for the whole year of 1500 words each and even though it was the only subject I had coursework for it actually required the least amount of work as I had months to work on them (as opposed to my other subjects where I had weekly essays and exam practice to do). If you are doing Edexcel PM me and I'll let you know a bit more about the course and what I found hard or easy.

English Language isn't really counted as a foreign language thing like French or Spanish, that's a given. It's a study of the technicalities of language, so as for some universities not counting it as 'it's the OP's first language' is inaccurate as it's not regarded as a 'language' subject in that sense anyway, it's just a humanity. You aren't taught how to speak or write English better or about English culture like people who study language are in their given language. If the OP was fluent in French and did French A-level, then it wouldn't count.

But yeah, I agree with what you said about English Literature.

[MAM360]

(Original post by HolyFuzazzle)
English Language isn't really counted as a foreign language thing like French or Spanish, that's a given. It's a study of the technicalities of language, so as for some universities not counting it as 'it's the OP's first language' is inaccurate as it's not regarded as a 'language' subject in that sense anyway, it's just a humanity. You aren't taught how to speak or write English better or about English culture like people who study language are in their given language. If the OP was fluent in French and did French A-level, then it wouldn't count.

But yeah, I agree with what you said about English Literature.

Yes but it is not accepted by some universities. I can't remember which Unis specifically but I remember when I was looking up the requirements for Law and some didn't accept English Language if English is your first language along with the obvious non academic A Levels such as Critical Thinking, Business Studies etc. I have seen it listed in many universities' "non preferred subject list."

[HolyFuzazzle]

(Original post by MAM360)
Yes but it is not accepted by some universities. I can't remember which Unis specifically but I remember when I was looking up the requirements for Law and some didn't accept English Language if English is your first language along with the obvious non academic A Levels such as Critical Thinking, Business Studies etc. I have seen it listed in many universities' "non preferred subject list."

I agree it's not on the whole an extremely respected subject, but I really don't think it's regarded quite like that, especially not by the many Russel group unis I've looked at, though obviously that would depend on course and stuff.
The only university I know where it's listed in the 'non-preferred' list is Cambridge.