English Language
English Language is a popular subject, with 300+ students currently taking it at Bilborough. It combines well with Advanced subjects across the spectrum. If you enjoyed GCSE English, you’ll find yourself on familiar ground. You’ll also find that the subject expands in all kinds of new directions, raising the level of challenge in theory and practical work. Currently, the new specifications look like this:
A/S
Module 1 is an Introduction to the Study of Language. It is tested by examination. This will provide you with the concepts and terms you need for a scientifically precise study of language use, and allow you to practise on a huge range of texts drawn from all kinds of contexts. You’ll also explore how the two main modes of language – speech and writing – operate, and how we adapt them for different purposes.
The second part of the examination is
Language and Social Contexts – will take us into 3 areas where language connects with our personal and social lives. Language and Gender will focus on how language is used differently by males and females and the different ways in which men and women are represented in a variety of texts. You will explore the relationship between Language and Power, for example, the language of government and education and the techniques used by the media to influence your ideas. The language of mobile phones, emails, text-messages, web pages, sports commentary and phone-in programmes will all feature as you track the impact on language of developing technology in Language and Technology.
Module 2 is Original Writing – your coursework unit – and here you will be attempting to create texts which are written for real audiences and can function in the real world. Coursework is fully individualised, and you will be making your own choices of genre, purpose and audience, studying how other writers have designed their texts, and going on to create your own. Your final folder will contain two pieces, each with a commentary reflecting on the process you went through.
A2
Module 3 is the Language Investigation, and this is the coursework element, there are two parts to it. Again, it’s fully individualised and you will be choosing your own theme and your own data. Taking samples of language from any area of language use you find interesting, you’ll be constructing a study to explore them, choosing your analytical tools and methods, and writing up your findings and conclusions in a detailed, organised report. In the second part you will be writing about the same topic in a form that will appeal to the general public: as it might appear in, for example, a feature article.
The final Module, Module 4 Language Development, has two main strands.
In one, you’ll be studying processes of Language Change, exploring how and why language changes over time, and looking at the evidence that we are changing language now. In the other, you’ll be studying Language Acquisition, focusing on how we develop our language abilities over the courses of our own lifetimes, beginning with the early acquisition of speech, moving on to the later development of literacy, and subsequent extensions like learning foreign languages.