Course overview

Assessment overview

Course content

Unit 1: Language, the Individual and Society

Representation and Meaning:

For this unit, students will develop their understanding of how language works and how text producers (of spoken and written texts) manipulate language to create meanings and representations.

Language Development:

For this unit, students will develop a strong theoretical and linguistic understanding of how children learn language by exploring real data from children at different stages of development.

 Unit 2: Language Diversity and Change

The aim of this area of study is to allow students to explore language diversity and change over time focusing on the following key topics of study:

• Language Change
• Language and Gender
• Language Variation (Accent, Dialect and Social Groups’ usage)
• Language and Ethnicity
• Language and Occupation
• World Englishes.

In this unit, students will also develop discursive, analytical and creative writing skills when writing about language.

 Unit 3: Language in Action

The emphasis in this unit is to allow students to explore and analyse language data independently, as well as develop and reflect upon their own writing expertise. Students will write a language investigation focusing on an individual interest in an area of language study. Past investigations have covered diverse topics, such as; regional dialect; the language of the media; gendered talk and children’s language use. Students will also write one piece of original writing and accompanying commentary based on either: The Power of Persuasion, The Power of Storytelling or The Power of Information.

Assessment

Unit 1 Examination in June in Year 13. One exam, lasting 2 hours 30 minutes.

Section A contains three compulsory questions based on Textual Variations and Representations requiring analysis and comparison of unseen data.

Section B focuses on Children’s Language Development with a choice of two questions using unseen data.

40% of A Level

Unit 2 Examination in June in Year 13. One exam, lasting two hours and 30 minutes.

Section A contains a choice of two essay questions on Language Diversity and Change.

Section B contains two compulsory questions based on Language Discourses, including a directed writing response.

40% of A Level

Unit 3 Non-exam assessment. Two sections: a language investigation and a piece of original writing supported by a commentary.

20% of A Level