A-level english help :/

Hi, im studying English Literature and Language at GCSE level right now, but i'm stuck on which one to choose at A level (combined isn't offered at my school) I like language more than lit, but i have heard Lit is held in higher regard at uni. I like writing creative pieces an reading, but struggle analysing poems etc...
For AS/A2 i want to take- biology, history, psychology (possibly theatre studies) and either English Lit or Language??
Could anyone tell me which best compliments the subjects i want to take? Thanks! xx

Reply 1

Liv284

10

As a Lit student ofc I'd have to recommend Lit :wink:

(and you're definitely right about it being held in higher regard, in fact a lot of unis do not accept undergrads with just a Lang A-Level for English)

I think if you enjoy reading then you should be more than fine, as you do a LOT of it in Lit. Creative pieces are not something you'll have a chance to do, but then again my course allows for such an open coursework for me (I pick my own question + texts) that I still feel the creative freedom if you like. And you might even warm to poetry somewhat, like I have!

Interestingly I also did History and still take Theatre Studies and I felt Lit really complimented both, in terms of the rigour of essay-writing. But I'm sure you'll speak to a Lang student and they'll tell you all about the tedious language analysis essays too!

Reply 2

pinkbullets

12

Original post by megannie

Hi, im studying English Literature and Language at GCSE level right now, but i'm stuck on which one to choose at A level (combined isn't offered at my school) I like language more than lit, but i have heard Lit is held in higher regard at uni. I like writing creative pieces an reading, but struggle analysing poems etc...
For AS/A2 i want to take- biology, history, psychology (possibly theatre studies) and either English Lit or Language??
Could anyone tell me which best compliments the subjects i want to take? Thanks! xx

Depends what you're thinking of taking at university/doing after your A Levels.

I will say that if you struggle to analyse poems then maybe literature isn't for you. I took English Lit at A Level and there was a lot of analyzing poetry/plays/books - in fact that was basically the entire course. However, when I asked about taking English Language, I was told that it was all about the origins of the language etc - I'm not sure how much creative writing you'd actually do. Perhaps the best thing to do is to talk to your teachers.

Reply 3

saladisgreat

2

i do lang and lit, its more about speech in the first year and then its like theatre studies in the second year, courework consists of both analysing and then a creative piece

Reply 4

Elliemc96

Original post by megannie

Hi, im studying English Literature and Language at GCSE level right now, but i'm stuck on which one to choose at A level (combined isn't offered at my school) I like language more than lit, but i have heard Lit is held in higher regard at uni. I like writing creative pieces an reading, but struggle analysing poems etc...
For AS/A2 i want to take- biology, history, psychology (possibly theatre studies) and either English Lit or Language??
Could anyone tell me which best compliments the subjects i want to take? Thanks! xx

I'm currently studying English Lang at A2 and I love it but you should definitely think about this decision and maybe ask your english teachers aswell as sixth form staff. In language you have that creative freedom, for example with your coursework piece, I replicated Jane Austen's style from Pride and Prejudice to produce a missing chapter but when analysing this coursework we focused on the frameworks like phonology and discourse rather than the effect of the novel and the aims of Austen.

After choosing Lang, I strongly regretted it for a few months solely because I wasn't aware of the limitations of only choosing lang when applying to uni. Although, I'm okay now as I've applied to study English language rather than English at degree but you should factor this into your choice. English lit is a safer option I think and from friends I've heard it's still great but if you love the language aspect of it more, such as language and gender and technology then maybe lang is for you.

Reply 5

Caver

13

I'm taking both; single language and single lit purely because I love both :smile:

Reply 6

megannie

OP

9

Thanks for all your hep guys x I think i have a good idea now, i will talk to my teachers as well xx

Reply 7

fluffylittlecat

8

I did combined but much preferred the language side. If you like analysing speech and writing articles then you'll like language. Whereas, if you are more in to literature, books etc you'll like lit better. Both are good A-Levels which ever you choose! :smile:

Reply 8

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by megannie

Hi, im studying English Literature and Language at GCSE level right now, but i'm stuck on which one to choose at A level (combined isn't offered at my school) I like language more than lit, but i have heard Lit is held in higher regard at uni. I like writing creative pieces an reading, but struggle analysing poems etc...
For AS/A2 i want to take- biology, history, psychology (possibly theatre studies) and either English Lit or Language??
Could anyone tell me which best compliments the subjects i want to take? Thanks! xx

You should take whichever you prefer really. I did the single GCSE English and then picked both Language and Literature. In AS, I preferred Language to Literature. But in A2, I preferred Lit to Language. So all things can actually changed.

You do learn a little bit about the nature of how we speak in English Language for example, why men and women speak differently, language and sexuality, language and race and why some people speak differently than others. You also have the opportunity to learn about the way children acquire language (usually either children's spoken language or written language. Sometimes even both). Having said this, Psychology does seem the best bet to go with to be fair.

English Literature at A-level has a lot of history of it, as in historical context. You will need to know a lot of the stuff from the time of your writer's period. So that will go hand-in-hand with your History A-level. However, it depends on what you will study in History. For me, I did WW1 Literature and in History, we studied 3 types of wars; WW1, Boer War and the Cold War I think! So it would all depend!

So it's up to you really! Enjoy A-levels. Well try to they are horrendous! :P

A-level english help :/

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