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AQA A2 ENGB3 English Language June 19th

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Reply 80
Original post by notcoolnerd
ok thank you! I was watching some revision videos this morning, and they were equating the two-word stage to the telegraphic stage, which made me second guess myself! I have looked it up as well, and the site I'm looking at says the telegraphic is different from the 2-word stage, and that it's 3-4 word utterances which omit GFWs.

Thank you!


Before you were talking about OED dictionary questions. Could you give me some generic points you'd speak about for a question like that? Would be massively appreciated!
Original post by msr176
Before you were talking about OED dictionary questions. Could you give me some generic points you'd speak about for a question like that? Would be massively appreciated!


I'll PM you :smile:
I'm extremely confused, as I fear my teacher has neglected to tell me certain details about the types of questions that can appear. After some scim reading of the first page of this message board, I learned that there can be questions on extracts from dictionaries and even opinion articles about Language change. So I was just wondering, have any of these ever come up and is anybody willing to hazard a guess of the probability of them coming up on Friday?

More with language acquisition, apparently you can get amalgamated ones with spoken transcripts and a written text? When they say written texts, are they referring to children's books extracts or some childs writing? (This was all taken from the A2 Nelson Thornes guide) Thanks.
Quite a few people have been asking me for the OED (Dictionary) essay, which I have now found. It scored 39/48, which in this particular paper was 1 off of an A*. I hope you can see it, the photos are being a pain and not loading properly! Also, apologies for my somewhat illegible handwriting.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by notcoolnerd
ok thank you! I was watching some revision videos this morning, and they were equating the two-word stage to the telegraphic stage, which made me second guess myself! I have looked it up as well, and the site I'm looking at says the telegraphic is different from the 2-word stage, and that it's 3-4 word utterances which omit GFWs.

Thank you!


What videos were you watching?

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Original post by notcoolnerd
Quite a few people have been asking me for the OED essay, which I have now found. It scored 39/48, which in this particular paper was 1 off of an A*. I hope you can see it, the photos are being a pain and not loading properly! Also, apologies for my somewhat illegible handwriting.


What does OED mean?

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Original post by pakhtungem
What does OED mean?

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Oxford English Dictionary :smile:
Original post by pakhtungem
What videos were you watching?

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oh i just youtubed "aqa child language acquisition" and chose the shortest clips i could find. they were alright, but nothing worth recommending :smile:
Reply 88
Sorry guys does anyone have good essay plans for both sections? Thank you! x
Reply 89
Might help! image.jpg
Original post by lafa
Sorry guys does anyone have good essay plans for both sections? Thank you! x
Reply 90
I've attempted a past paper for Language Change could anyone offer some comments on how to improve it because I feel totally unprepared for this question :frown: It's the June 2012 paper for reference!

Because all three texts are derived from the early modern period, we would expect, according to Fairclough’s view, that the register of the texts will be highly formal as register gets more informal overtime. Lexis and grammar should all be standardised by 1779 due to the text being published after Johnson’s dictionary (1755), therefore we should expectthat the language used is all in Standard English. As all three texts are glorified begging letters we should also expect that the purpose of the texts are to influence thus using persuasive lexis whilst being affected by social change as it is expected that in the late 1700s not many people would be ableto read and write.

All three texts appear to be extremely formal by the use of elevated lexis including phrases such as “especially with an audites of authority” from Text F and “now you are acquainted with the necessity of it” from Text G thus making the piece sound extremely sophisticated and helping toappeal to its affluent audience. The polysyllabic, precise and literal words such as “circumstances” and “pitiable” clearly emphasise the situation the family are in and the emotive lexis used throughout all three letters such as“poor little daughter” from Text E and “his dear Harriot” from Text F aim to pullon the heartstrings of the wealthy merchant audience aiding the persuasivepurpose of the texts. The manipulative use of women and children portrayingthem as poor and helpless also tells us much about social change, as the texts clearly present women and children as inferior to males which would be expectedof the time as women were expected to stay at home, cook, clean etc.

There appears to be a lexical field of capital throughout Text E, shown by words such as “remittance”, “expense” and “cash”.This sums up the purpose of the text, as the writer writes with a tone of despair in order to gain financial support. The informal phrase “Ready Cash”appears to be an anomaly in the formality of the piece whilst having connotations of greed and impatience. Additionally, there is a semantic fieldof illness and desperation in both Texts F and G shown by phrases such as “havinggiven up all hopes” and “confined to his room with gout” which acts as afurther persuasive device, creating a tone of hopelessness and aiming to forcethe wealthy into action. The colloquial and emotive metaphor used in Text F “my heart bleeds for em” makes the language more intimate and relatable unlikesophisticated lexis, which gives a more pretentious superior tone. The sentence constructions of all three texts aremostly compound and complex, for example “poor Mr. Atherton arrived here onMonday evening, and on Tuesday we took her to her final resting place…”. Thepurpose of this extensive syntax is to convey as much information as possiblewhilst reflecting spoken discourse, as not many people could read and write inthe 18th century. The idiom “resting place” is used as a politenessfeature instead of using the more inconsiderate word “graveyard” along withother polite lexis such as “your friend and humble servant” in order to act asa influential device.

There are a variety of non-standard sentenceconstructions such as “you was kind enough” from Text E and “the youngest poorlittle boy is sent to Hulton”. This highlights that education on grammar wasseverely limited in the 18th century and despite all spelling andgrammar supposedly being standardised after Lowth’s publication of AnIntroduction to English Grammar in 1762, not everyone followed these rules.Furthermore, there are a number of misspelt words throughout all three textssuch as “woud”, “immagining” and “afording” thus it is clear that despite thepublishing of Johnson’s dictionary not everyone would get their hands on ittherefore phonetic spelling was often used in letter writing, along with thevarious examples of shorthand “favd” and “recd” which again highlights anexample of social change as it is expected that many men learned how to writein shorthand whereas today it is limited only to places such as courtrooms. Finally, there are a number ofexamples of random capitalisation, mainly on nouns and verbs such as “expense”,“boy” and “bleeds”. The purpose of this may be to emphasise those certain wordsor the practice came from one of the of English Language’s influentialcountries such as Germany.

In conclusion, it is evident that although the textwas produced after Johnson’s dictionary my hypotheses were incorrect as allthree texts are not in Standard English whilst showing examples of poorspelling and typographical conventions. Social change has a clear effect on thetext through the manipulative use of women and children, the fact that readingand writing was limited and the practice of writing in short hand. However myhypothesis on the register of the piece was correct as it is written largely inthe formal register despite some colloquial anomalies.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by m0lly
I've attempted a past paper for Language Change could anyone offer some comments on how to improve it because I feel totally unprepared for this question :frown: It's the June 2012 paper for reference!

Because all three texts are derived from the early modern period, we would expect, according to Fairclough’s view, that the register of the texts will be highly formal as register gets more informal overtime. Lexis and grammar should all be standardised by 1779 due to the text being published after Johnson’s dictionary (1755), therefore we should expectthat the language used is all in Standard English. As all three texts are glorified begging letters we should also expect that the purpose of the texts are to influence thus using persuasive lexis whilst being affected by social change as it is expected that in the late 1700s not many people would be ableto read and write.

All three texts appear to be extremely formal by the use of elevated lexis including phrases such as “especially with an audites of authority” from Text F and “now you are acquainted with the necessity of it” from Text G thus making the piece sound extremely sophisticated and helping toappeal to its affluent audience. The polysyllabic, precise and literal words such as “circumstances” and “pitiable” clearly emphasise the situation the family are in and the emotive lexis used throughout all three letters such as“poor little daughter” from Text E and “his dear Harriot” from Text F aim to pullon the heartstrings of the wealthy merchant audience aiding the persuasivepurpose of the texts. The manipulative use of women and children portrayingthem as poor and helpless also tells us much about social change, as the texts clearly present women and children as inferior to males which would be expectedof the time as women were expected to stay at home, cook, clean etc.

There appears to be a lexical field of capital throughout Text E, shown by words such as “remittance”, “expense” and “cash”.This sums up the purpose of the text, as the writer writes with a tone of despair in order to gain financial support. The informal phrase “Ready Cash”appears to be an anomaly in the formality of the piece whilst having connotations of greed and impatience. Additionally, there is a semantic fieldof illness and desperation in both Texts F and G shown by phrases such as “havinggiven up all hopes” and “confined to his room with gout” which acts as afurther persuasive device, creating a tone of hopelessness and aiming to forcethe wealthy into action. The colloquial and emotive metaphor used in Text F “my heart bleeds for em” makes the language more intimate and relatable unlikesophisticated lexis, which gives a more pretentious superior tone. The sentence constructions of all three texts aremostly compound and complex, for example “poor Mr. Atherton arrived here onMonday evening, and on Tuesday we took her to her final resting place…”. Thepurpose of this extensive syntax is to convey as much information as possiblewhilst reflecting spoken discourse, as not many people could read and write inthe 18th century. The idiom “resting place” is used as a politenessfeature instead of using the more inconsiderate word “graveyard” along withother polite lexis such as “your friend and humble servant” in order to act asa influential device.

There are a variety of non-standard sentenceconstructions such as “you was kind enough” from Text E and “the youngest poorlittle boy is sent to Hulton”. This highlights that education on grammar wasseverely limited in the 18th century and despite all spelling andgrammar supposedly being standardised after Lowth’s publication of AnIntroduction to English Grammar in 1762, not everyone followed these rules.Furthermore, there are a number of misspelt words throughout all three textssuch as “woud”, “immagining” and “afording” thus it is clear that despite thepublishing of Johnson’s dictionary not everyone would get their hands on ittherefore phonetic spelling was often used in letter writing, along with thevarious examples of shorthand “favd” and “recd” which again highlights anexample of social change as it is expected that many men learned how to writein shorthand whereas today it is limited only to places such as courtrooms. Finally, there are a number ofexamples of random capitalisation, mainly on nouns and verbs such as “expense”,“boy” and “bleeds”. The purpose of this may be to emphasise those certain wordsor the practice came from one of the of English Language’s influentialcountries such as Germany.

In conclusion, it is evident that although the textwas produced after Johnson’s dictionary my hypotheses were incorrect as allthree texts are not in Standard English whilst showing examples of poorspelling and typographical conventions. Social change has a clear effect on thetext through the manipulative use of women and children, the fact that readingand writing was limited and the practice of writing in short hand. However myhypothesis on the register of the piece was correct as it is written largely inthe formal register despite some colloquial anomalies.


Hi :smile: so I've read this through. Before I say anything, please don't trust what I say entirely! I appreciate we've all been taught this course differently, so this is only my opinion and I in no way believe I'm necessarily right!

It reads well, and I think you'd definitely get all of the context marks. You've got good knowledge of the period and there's some good, accurate labelling.

I'd say areas for improvement:

Firstly, I don't know about other people, but I've never been told to hypothesise. Remember you aren't investigating the texts, in order to prove something, you're more making observations with regard to how language has changed over time.

This leads onto another point. Remember your focus is how language has changed between the texts you are looking at. Discussing changing social context is important, but this is only worth 8 marks. Try to discuss ways in which the language has developed between the three texts. Yes you can integrate social change into this, but talk about the impact this change has had on not only the meaning of words, but their formation. So if we take your example of grammar, where you say:

"There are a variety of non-standard sentence constructions such as “you was kind enough” from Text E and “the youngest poor little boy is sent to Hulton”. "

This is a goldmine for picking up your AO1! Try to label specific words.
So I would say:

There are a variety of non-standard sentence constructions such as "you was kind enough" from Text E. Here, the primary auxiliary verb "was", a past participle of the infinitive "to be" is placed after the second person singular personal pronoun "you". In comparison, today's standard sentence construction would read "you were kind enough". This non-standard form is indicative of how, even though grammar was beginning to become standardised, in the 1700s this standardisation was in its very early stages. With mass production of books still being a novelty, many did not have access to a standard form of grammar, perhaps explaining why common grammatical rules were not widely adhered to.

So here you can gain a lot more AO1 marks, just by honing in on some specific word classes and labelling. You don't have to do it all the time, but instead of saying "word", say "dynamic verb" or "common concrete noun". Remember your AO1 is worth 24 marks, that's 50% of the paper!!

Another point, when talking about how language has changed, try to get some word processes in there. Has the term been pejorated/ameliorated over time/between the texts? Has there been a conversion in meaning, or a transfer? Are they using archaic terms? You don't have to explain all of your observations.

When you quote- “having given up all hopes” - talk about how "hope" is pluralised.
This inflection is removed in later centuries, but here, they've applied a pluralisation rule to the abstract noun. When you discuss "gout", you could consider that an archaic term today, mostly because this is no longer a common health problem.

This is how you weave context in, without needing to write a long paragraph. Always remember, your answer needs to be data led. So lots of examples, with detailed grammatical labelling, and linking back to context.

I read an examiner report which said some students wrote a conclusion where they could have written another point. This could gain them more marks than just repeating what they wrote in their essay. I avoid concluding, but perhaps at the end of the paragraph, just round off with a concluding phrase, something like "demonstrating how language has changed over the period" or ending with a quote about language change. But even that isn't essential in my opinion.

I'm sorry if this reads like I'm criticising. Your answer is really good, and like I said you evidently know your stuff, especially context (which I'm weak on *laughs nervously*) but I hope I helped a little. Like I said though, I'm just another student like you, so no reason to believe what I'm saying is correct, and please ignore me if you don't agree!!
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 92
Original post by msr176
Didn't find a thread for this so thought I'd make one (if there is one I've been oblivious to then I'm sorry!).

How is everyone feeling about the exam? What are you struggling with? What are you confident with? Hopefully we can help each other out and all do well.

I'm feeling good for both sections currently, but who knows how I'll feel next week before the exam. For acquisition I've made a revision guide for myself on all the theories I know which I'll attach as it could help others. Sorry if there are any mistakes in it, just my knowledge.

Good luck for the exam everyone!


Thanks so miuch x :smile: Im struggling with structuring my answers do you have any tips ?x
Reply 93
hey does anyone know what key dates we need to know for language change ?x
Are people just doing essay plans for questions or actually writing full answers to them for practice?

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Original post by roseb6
Might help! image.jpg


Hi have u got one for cla?:smile:

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As I'm sure most of you are aware, our paper was involved in the robbery so we will probably get the replacement paper.

However, PSYA4 (psychology) was also involved, and today some people have had the replacement and some had the original.

So what I'm saying is, some of us may get different papers with different questions. I don't know this for certain, it may only be like that for psychology, but yeah, it could happen
How are you all planning to structure language acquisition (speaking)?
Original post by dottielottie
As I'm sure most of you are aware, our paper was involved in the robbery so we will probably get the replacement paper.

However, PSYA4 (psychology) was also involved, and today some people have had the replacement and some had the original.

So what I'm saying is, some of us may get different papers with different questions. I don't know this for certain, it may only be like that for psychology, but yeah, it could happen


Wait what?! I'm assuming this is specifically for your centre?
Original post by notcoolnerd
Wait what?! I'm assuming this is specifically for your centre?


i think its for everyone, i heard english was affected so any predictions could be way off now! :frown:

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