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Students in English Session

ENGLISH LANGUAGEAQA

This course will appeal to students who:

have an interest in reading and discussing a wide variety of examples of spoken and written language from the past and present

enjoy expressing their opinions and justifying their comments on texts

enjoy studying a subject which is relevant to their own lives and experiences

want to keep their options open for further study; English Language is a popular qualification for a wide range of courses in higher education or for future careers

have at least grade B in GCSE English and English Literature.

There are some overlaps in the content of the course with the Sociology and Psychology courses, which students have found useful, providing a different perspective on similar issues.
Students with AS or A level English Language have a wide range of possible career and higher education opportunities. You will learn and use a wide variety of transferable skills during the course. These include writing for a variety of audiences and purposes, responding to written and spoken texts, expressing informed and independent opinions and identifying and developing the links between different parts of the subject. English Language can be studied as a single subject in higher education or can be combined with English Literature or a wide variety of other subjects. It could form a good basis for study in any arts-based subject in combination with, for example, history, media studies, philosophy, law, politics or foreign languages.

Points to remember:
The AS is a qualification in its own right but we will normally be assuming that when you start the course you are likely to go on to the full A level in Year 13;
You are able to study both English Language AND English Literature, if you wish.

SUBJECT CONTENT AS Unit 1 – Categorising texts This unit will look at a wide variety of text types and how to analyse them Topic areas for study will be Language and Technology, Language and Power and Language and Gender 60% of AS, 2 hour exam	SUBJECT CONTENT A2 Unit 3 – Developing Language This unit covers 2 topic areas; Language Change (1700 to present day) and Language Acquisition (0-11 years) 30% of total a level 2 hour 30 minute exam
Unit 2 – Creating Texts Encourages students to develop their own writing skills, producing writing for different genres and different audiences 40% of AS Coursework	Unit 4 – Investigating Language Candidates undertake an investigation of their choice The investigation is accompanied by the production of a media text focussing on ideas explored in or issues raised by the investigation 20% of A level Coursework