English Language A Level

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Introduction

Like many A Level subjects, English Language A Level is nothing like its GCSE counterpart. It is challenging at times, and requires a knowledge of terminology. Analysis is a major part of the course and you will encounter countless texts of countless different genres and subjects – and not only written data either. Are you interested in why certain people speak like they do? Have you ever noticed how men and women speak differently? Do you know what makes a good communicator? Are you sure you know your nouns from your verbs? English Language is interesting, stimulating and allows you a chance to actively engage with everyday language and understand how it works.

AS

At AS Level (AQA A syllabus), the course covers 3 modules.

Discovering Language, ENA1: This module is really an introduction to the course so examiners don’t expect amazing feats of academic knowledge. The exam is split into two sections; linguistic analysis, and language issues, which is a recurring theme throughout the exams of the course. Discovering Language introduces students to AS grammar and analysis, so be expected to remember and understand a number of linguistic terms. As for issues, firstly is Language Representation. The main idea here is political correctness, and what part language plays in it all. This area looks at linguistic representation of gender, age, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality. There are some theoretical ideas to back up the module, such as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of Linguistic Determinism. Secondly is Child Language where students learn how children acquire their mother tongue, with the aid of differing theories and explanations – for example, the age-old debate of whether language is a result of nature (innate) or nurture (learned). Candidates are required to write essays on either one of these topics.

Like the previous module, Using Language, EA2W, is still fairly introductory but differs in its form and content. Here again is a text to analyse (and this time they expect a little bit more technical terminology, including sentence functions). The second part of the exam is called Language Production. Using a number of provided texts, candidates have to extract main ideas and opinions and formulate their own piece of writing from them. Appropriate ideas need to be selected and adapted to fit the audience and purpose of the production. After this, students must complete a small linguistic commentary on their own production.

There is also a coursework option for this unit available, EA2C. It consists of an analysis of some pieces of language in use (1000 words), two texts derived from the language analysis and produced with a definite audience and purpose (1000-1500 words in total), and finally a commentary discussing the linguistic choices used in the two pieces (500 words).

Interacting Through Language, ENA3, is the last of the AS modules and may be considered the most challenging. Linguistic analysis is different in this module as attention focuses on spoken language data. Students analyse transcripts of spoken conversation and consider:

• Different participants roles and purposes
• The structure of the interaction
• Interactive features of speech
• Turn-taking and interruptions
• Vocabulary and grammar

As well as transcription analysis, the module also looks at gender and language, and interaction of language in different contexts, including the rules of conversation, what makes a good listener, Grice’s Maxims, and so on.

The AS modules of the course act as a prerequisite to A2. Your knowledge of terminology and grammar is constantly being updated and is used as a platform for the next year’s modules.

A2

At A2, for AQA A, there is some old text analysis for ENA5 Language Variation and Change; it's not too daunting. Just remember all the lingustic frameworks from AS, and add some of the A2 ones (e.g. phrase structure; noun, verb, adjective phrases). The period is limited from 'Early Modern English' onwards.

You can study accents for ENA5 too! Here a lot of linguistics is incorporated. You learn how accents vary, regional features such as "h" dropping and the glottal stop, social views on different accents. It helps if you want to imitate different accents! It's limited to the British Isles though, so be wary of inserting too many references to American or Australasian linguistic features.

Then there is how language has developed:

• Lexical change: words that have come into use, how they are formed;
• Semantic change: the change in meaning, such as how a word can have several meanings e.g. "cool"- cold, "cool"-popular, "cool"-ok;
• Why languages changes;
• Views on language change (prescriptivism, descriptivism) - highly relevant and quite fun!

For the exam, the Texts from Different Times section is compulsory in Section A; but there is a choice between the Section B questions on Contemporary Language Variation and Change in the British Isles - one will be on dialectal variation, the other on language change. Both parts of Section B are restricted to 1950 onwards.

Research project is required incorporating anything learnt in the course for EA4C Investigating Language. You need to gather data, produce a lot of analysis using specified linguistic frameworks, to come to a conclusion. It's 1500-3500 words long, excluding data, so can be moderately lengthy.

There is a written exam option for in EA4W instead of the research project coursework; 2.5 hours' worth of analysis of (a selected sample from some) given texts, using hypotheses you develop youself. Highly pressured, but generally grade boundaries are fair. The time allotted looks like a lot, but it really isn't enough, so you have to be pretty focused.

Then it gets synoptic for ENA6, Language Debates. The synoptic paper follows a pretty constant format every year, but it is really hetereogeneous and feels like every skill is being tested, even though each paper is centred on a single debate based on an article (generally) e.g. language change and representation of women.

• Q1a: an initial 5 marks for some analysis of simple data, e.g. a selection of words;
• Q1b: a methodology question worth 5 marks for an investigation on some linguistic aspect (e.g. people's attitudes;
• Q1c: 20 marks on the analysis of the main article, but as well as examining how a particular effect is produced, you also have to discuss what the lingustic arguments within the article are about
• Q2a: a 35 mark language production task - editorial, radio script, cover article for a broadsheet, article for a particular magazine have all come up. It ties into a linguistic topic, but you don't need to remember too much, as a lot of information from linguistic experts is given in extra texts.
• Q2b: 5 marks for a commentary, analysing three features that you have incorporated into you produced text.

Other Exam Boards

AQA B

Edexcel

OCR

WJEC

Extra reading at A-Level

As mentioned above, students of English Language at A level need to become familiar with advanced linguistic terminology to attain the highest grades. You will receive notes on grammar, but you may also feel the desire to expand your own vocabulary of terminology. 'Grammar: A Student's Guide' may be particularly helpful, and is available from websites like Amazon. In addition, many AS and A Level English Language text books are also available. Either way, knowing your grammar is essential, which ever variant of the A level course you take.

General advice

Also See

The main English subject guide.