A-Level in English Language

The English Language course enables students to develop and apply their understanding of the concepts and methods appropriate for the analysis and study of language.

Students can take this course to complement any other Advanced Level courses in either Arts or Science subjects. Psychology can complement the Child Language module and History can complement the Language Change Over Time module.

Students explore an exciting and varied range of written, spoken and multimodal data, allowing them to understand how and why we use language in different situations to create different effects. The varied and interesting components encourage students to engage creatively and critically with our language.

Students will explore how children acquire language and how language choices can help to create personal identities. Learners will also explore language variation from Early Modern English to the present day. As well as developing their ability to interpret different forms of language, students have the opportunity to demonstrate their creative writing skills in the independent coursework unit.

• Component 1: Language Variation (Exam) 35%
• Component 2: Child Language (Exam) 20%
• Component 3: Investigating Language (Exam) 25%
• Component 4: Crafting Language (C/W) 20%

For all Sixth Form courses, students must have five GCSE (or equivalent) passes at Grades 9- 4, which must include Mathematics. For this course both GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature must be at a Grade 5 or above.

Both English courses are highly valued A levels, opening doors into a whole range of careers such as publishing, journalism, law, teaching and the media.

A few students may be sure they wish to study English at university and both English courses may be chosen