A Level English Language

How is the course externally examined?

80% of this course is exam based and 20% is coursework.

Paper 1: 100 marks, 40% of A Level.

• Language and the Individual - Study a range of texts from Shakespeare to a twitter feed!
• Methods of Language Analysis - Learn how to analyse any text using a set of linguistic tools.
• Children’s Language Development - How children acquire language- both speech and writing.

Paper 2: 100 marks, 40% of A Level.

• Language Diversity and Change - How the English Language changes according to time, place, mode, purpose and audience and how it continues to develop in the present day.
• Language Diversity - Learn about dialects, sociolects, language and gender, language and occupational groups, technology.
• Writing Skills. - How to write about language in both an academic form and for a “lay” audience.

Non-exam component: Language in Action

Writing Skills –

• How to present the investigation material for specific audiences, purposes and genres.

• Original Writing - writing to persuade, tell a story or inform a specified audience.

How is the course internally assessed?

Students in KS5 are prepared for assessments and mock exams by sitting past or replica A Level questions on a half termly basis. We take a staged approach to A Level assessment, by assessing students on individual questions initially, before building up to longer assessments when students have studied more content.

Initially, assessments will test the section of the A Level course that students have focused on most recently but as student progress through the course, they will be required to draw from knowledge learnt earlier in the year in order to tackle longer assessments. 

A Level Language and Literature exams are up to three hours long and our school day cannot always accommodate full mocks in our exam windows. For this reason, the English department may, on occasion, offer an out-of-hours full mock opportunity (for example, starting a paper on an early morning or finishing after 4pm). While these are typically optional, we strongly recommend students take up this opportunity; we feel it offers invaluable experience of these long papers and helps students build vital writing stamina before their final exams.