The Student Room Group
Reply 1
English Literature is considered much more prestigiously than English Language, which I think is seen as a Soft Subject.
Reply 2
Even though English Literature is seen as having greater value, I wouldn't consider English Language to be a 'soft' subject as such.
Dpends what angle you want to do it at surely and what future careers you are interested in.
english Language seems a little more scientific in some ways, because on some course you do child development and how language has changed through time.
Though i am very biased because i never liked literature due to reading books i didn't enjoy and trying to find out their 'meanings' plus having a teacher who spoke to us like ******s didn't help at all.
I hope it's not a soft subject. I'm doing Lit, Psychology and Lang because I ****ed up History and had to drop it.

It was really crushing to try so hard and get a D, and then for the TV to tell me that every A level is so easy that every single student gets AAA, and that if you get anything less you're as dumb as ****.
Reply 5
Also, off topic, do you think a Sixth Form would let me do Biology considering I only did Single Sciene (my school didn't offer anything else but single, it was a small boarding school), I acheived a B in it.
English Language is very different from English Literature, and represents a very different approach - it leads into Linguistics rather than English at university. The A-level has a bit in common with Psychology (especially child language acquisition) and a bit with Sociology, so it could complement these as well, rather than EngLit. I do also find EngLang is more 'scientific' than EngLit.
Reply 7
Despite what some people say about English Literature being more "prestigious", I've found English Language to be a lot more challenging - and, in some ways, it's a lot more relevant to contemporary society e.g. we've studied gender theory and the differing ways in which males and females use language and for what purposes etc. It's definitely not a soft subject, so don't worry about that :smile: As others have said, it can even be described as "scientific" in some respects, so it's a very dynamic and interesting subject - but completely different to GCSE!
Personally, I prefer English Literature, but that's for no reason other than that it's always been my favourite of the two. English Language can definitely be studied alone as it complements so many other subjects - social sciences, for example, or even maths and the like if you want to have some variety! Basically it can be studied alongside anything, in any subject combination, as it has so many transferable skills. In a class of twenty people last year, I was the only one who studied English Literature as well as Language, so it's certainly not exclusive!
I think universities regard English Literature as more "traditional" than English Language, but unless you're hoping to apply to an English Literature based degree course - in which case they'd prefer you to have English Lit at A Level - you're not at any disadvantage by studying English Language whatsoever. If you're interested in media/journalism, Language is preferred more than Lit; it's entirely dependent on what you want to do!
If you're not considering studying anything related to English at university, you'll be absolutely fine regardless of which of the English A-Levels you choose as they're both really strong, worthwhile subjects to pursue.
Hope this helps! :smile:
English Language is really interesting! You get to learn about:

Features of Spoken Language - Why men and women say different things in conversations, accents, why richer people speak differently to poorer people etc.

Parts of speech - Verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.

Children's speech - Why children don't pronounce some words correctly, how adults speak to children etc.

Writing styles - How to write and comment on advertisements, articles, children's books etc.


I personally really really like it!
Pollywollydoodle
English Language is really interesting! You get to learn about:

Features of Spoken Language - Why men and women say different things in conversations, accents, why richer people speak differently to poorer people etc.

Parts of speech - Verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.

Children's speech - Why children don't pronounce some words correctly, how adults speak to children etc.

Writing styles - How to write and comment on advertisements, articles, children's books etc.


I personally really really like it!


me too! and for all the reasons you've listed!
Was easily the most boring A-level I took, but pretty easy really tbh :smile:
Reply 11
Fran Katzenjammer
I hope it's not a soft subject. I'm doing Lit, Psychology and Lang because I ****ed up History and had to drop it.

It's not exactly among the 'best' subjects to take, but I wouldn't class english language as a doss subject either. On a personal level I found it pretty boring though, dropping it next year :p:

Fran Katzenjammer
It was really crushing to try so hard and get a D, and then for the TV to tell me that every A level is so easy that every single student gets AAA, and that if you get anything less you're as dumb as ****.

yeah it is indeed a bit ridiculous how easy the media make A-levels out to be sometimes just ignore it tbh