English Language

Choose English Language to explore language as it used in the world today. From conversations to digital messaging, adverts to news articles: in English Language, everything is a text.

Do women and men communicate differently? How does power influence language? And how has English changed over time to become the global language it is today? These are just some of the issues you will explore as an English Language student.

Careers

An English Language qualification can be the first step to careers in a wide range of settings:

Following undergraduate and post-graduate study in Linguistics at university, specialist areas include forensic linguistics, speech and language therapy, translation and academic research.
The skills you gain from A Level Language are also highly desirable in careers related to law, politics, journalism, psychology, publishing, media, public relations, marketing, and education.
English Language is flexible and can prove to be invaluable with other A Level subjects such as Biology, Business, Film Studies, History, Media Studies, Politics, Psychology and English Literature.

What makes this course unique?

Explore key areas of current language research, from how social factors influence our use of language (Sociolinguistics), to how children learn to speak (Child Language Acquisition)
Analyse language in action by examining spoken conversations and digitally mediated communication, in addition to written and multi-modal texts
Run your own research and creative projects. Conduct a language investigation in your chosen area, including collecting your own data. And complete a creative writing piece in a genre of your choice - from investigative journalism to short stories - inspired by a text you have chosen as a ‘style model’.

Assessment overview

For the full exam board specification from AQA, click here.

Component	Content	How is it assessed?
Paper 1: Language, the Individual and Society	Textual variations and representations Children’s language development (0-11 years)	Written exam 2 hours 30 minutes 100 marks 40% of A-level
Paper 2: Language Diversity and Change	Language diversity and change Language discourses (texts that explore, discuss or debate language issues) Writing skills	Written exam 2 hours 30 minutes 100 marks 40% of A-level
Non-exam assessment: Language in Action	Students produce: A language investigation (2,000 words excluding data) A piece of original writing and commentary (1,500 words total)	Word count: 3,500 100 marks Assessed by teachers Moderated by AQA 20% of A-level

Course entry

We would expect students to have met the expectations for entry to 6th form and to have a grade 5 in English Language.

We welcome conversations with individual students about their suitability for the course; for these and any other enquiries, please email us at enquiries@beverleyj6.co.uk.