English Language

Course summary

WHY SHOULD I STUDY A LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE? Do you speak like the people on Made in Chelsea or Ru Paul’s Drag Race? Are you ever in ‘Goblin Mode’? Do you style-shift your language for SnapChat? Whatever your answers to these questions, you will approach English from a completely new direction on the English Language A Level course. You will investigate how we really communicate – the accents we use, the identities we choose, even the language rules we abuse and why we do so. You will study written, spoken and computer-mediated language and discover where English came from, how it has spread across the globe and how it is continually changing. Studying English Language will help you develop your writing skills in a variety of analytical and creative ways and will provide you with a new perspective on how we use language to interact with the people around us. COURSE CONTENT The two-year course involves the study of a variety of language topics: Language Diversity and Change You will study how social groups, different occupations, and genders communicate and how the English language has changed over time as well as how technologies like social media and digital communication have a dramatic effect on the words we use and how we express our ideas. You will learn about research undertaken by linguists, patterns of language use that affect us every day mold the views of society, and examine how writers express opinions about language topics. Child Language Development You will also discover how children learn to speak, read, and write – something we have all been through!