A-Level English

What is the difference between studying A-level English Language and A-Level English language and Literature

i know nothing about lit Lang combined but i do English Lang (aqa) and here’s what it’s about.
-> extract analysis. for both papers you get two extracts (one modern, one historical) to analyse individually and in comparison to the other, this can be anything from a book, magazine or speech to a blog post, and will always be similar in topic to the other text. it’s very similar to GCSE but with a higher standard for analysis and context
-> child language acquisition. how do children learn to read, write and speak, you use case studies and theories to underpin it, and will write an essay based on a transcript of a child speaking or writing that a child completed, you’ll know how old they are and the context and relate the theories to what they are learning and developing. this is by far my favourite aspect of the course
-> power and occupation. how can people use language to create and maintain power in the workplace and in society, this is rooted in politics in a way but a lot of it is common sense, just with theories to support it. for example, one is that workers in hospitality use banter to get along
-> accent and dialect. how does the accent one has shape their identity and change their life, you look at lots of theories and examples to back this up and could have a question like “evaluate the idea that some accents are better than others” this is super interesting and relevant but a bit hard to understand at times
-> language change and diversity. how language has changed over history and English as a lingua Franca (world langauge), we’ve only just started this so I don’t know tons about it but it’s quite interesting, pretty confusing at times tho
-> gender. exactly what it says on the tin, how does language used change based on the gender of the speaker , lots of theories to back them up and is useful in all other aspects of the course
-> coursework. in the creative piece you create a piece of literature (alternate ending, magazine article, newspaper, children’s book etc) based on a style model (a pre-existing text) then analyse what you did and how it was successful. in the language investigation you pick any topic (mine is on newspaper portrayal of Megan Markle for example), and write an essay, sort of like an academic article, on your findings; it’s very open ended but can be overwhelming at times