English Language and Literature

Course summary

You will study texts from literary genres such as prose, drama, and poetry, but the course also explores a range of non-fiction spoken and written texts and offers opportunities for original writing. You will engage creatively and critically with a wide range of texts and learn to develop your skills as a producer and interpreter of language. You will learn to apply your knowledge of literary analysis and use linguistic and literary approaches in reading and interpreting texts. This course can be studied as part of the communications pathway. Students studying English Language and Literature at A level will study the OCR EMC specification, which offers students a broad range of texts to engage with, including non-fiction spoken and written texts, novels, poetry, and plays, as well as providing opportunities for original writing. A-level English Language and literature students will develop the analytical tools to explore language in detail, in a range of contexts, and to become confident and insightful readers. They will also develop their skills as producers and interpreters of language through independent study and wider reading in an area of particular personal interest, offering excellent preparation for study at the undergraduate level. In the AS year students will study The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake, and non-fiction spoken and written texts from the OCR EMC Anthology. In A2, in addition to the prose and poetry studied at AS, students will study the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. They will write analytically about the novel studied at AS, and produce a passage of narrative writing of their own. They will produce an Independent Study, comparing two texts, one non-fiction and one of their own choosing (fiction or non-fiction), as coursework (worth 20% of final A Level grade).