English Language A Level (See Option Blocks on our website)

Key skills developed through studying English Language. These specifications provide opportunities for developing and generating evidence for assessing the following key skills: - Communication, IT, Working with Others and Improving Own Learning and Performance.

The A level specifications cover knowledge and understanding of the following areas:

Year 1 - Skills to be covered:

• Language methods
• Language meanings and representations (spoken, written and multimodal texts)
• Language Varieties (sociolects and dialects)
• Directed Writing (on attitudes to language, e.g. write an opinion article)

Year 2- Further skills to be covered for full A level:

• Investigation
• Original Writing and Commentary
• Language Change (from 1600)
• Ethnicity
• World Englishes
• Child Language Acquisition

Language methods to assist with the systematic study and analysis of language include: phonology, phonetics and prosody, lexis, grammar, graphology, discourse, pragmatics and semantics.

Paper 1: Language, the Individual and Society

What's assessed:

• Textual variations and representations
• Children's language development (0-11 years)
• Methods of language analysis are integrated into the activities

Method of Assessment: written exam: 2 hours 30 minutes

• 100 marks
• 40% of A-level

Paper 2: Language Diversity and Change

What's assessed:

• Language diversity and change
• Language discourses
• Writing skills
• Methods of language analysis are integrated into the activities

Method of Assessment: written exam: 2 hours 30 minutes

• 100 marks
• 40% of A-level

Non-exam assessment: Language in Action

What's assessed:

• Language Investigation
• Original Writing and Commentary
• Methods of language analysis are integrated into the activities

Method of Assessment

• Word count: 3,500
• 100 marks
• 20% of A-level
• Assessed by teachers
• Moderated by AQA

Tasks - Students produce:

• a language investigation (2,000 words excluding data)
• a piece of original writing and commentary (1,500 words total)

Students should have a grade 5 or above in English Language and English Literature GCSE.

There are over 1,700 degree programmes in English and the following are some of the other courses which list A level English as a preferred or required subject: - Law, Journalism, American Studies, Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Media, Theatre Studies.