English Language

Course summary

English Language is a well-established course that enables you to approach the English Language with an analytical and critical eye; to understand the forces shaping the use of your native tongue; and to begin to understand some of the complexities of communication. The Course AQA English Language (7702) Please note: we are always seeking to improve our provision, so this course is currently under review for 2024/25. Other course options might include OCR H470 and Edexcel 9ENO. Compared with IGCSE English Language, you will find A-Level focuses far more on the structures and systems used by English speakers. While literary texts are not ignored, you will be applying a wide range of critical and theoretical approaches to an equally panoramic selection of contemporary spoken and written texts. You will study a range of texts about various subjects, from various writers and speakers, for various audiences, and for various purposes, in a variety of genres, and using a variety of modes (written, spoken and electronic). You will explore how language is shaped according to audience, purpose, genre and mode, and context, and how it used to construct meanings and representations, or to enact relationships between writers, speakers and audiences or between participants within a text. You will learn about methods of language analysis, how identity is constructed; how audiences are addressed and positioned; the functions of the texts, the structure and organization of the texts, and how representations are produced. There will also be focused study on child language acquisition, and a section of the course examining language diversity and change. When studying language acquisition, you will review the functions of children’s language; phonological, pragmatic, lexical, semantic and grammatical development; different genres of speech and writing; different modes of communication (spoken, written, and multimodal) and theories and research about language development. Change and diversity in language will involve the study of texts using different sociolects and dialects (including global, national and regional varieties of English), and texts from different periods, from 1600 to the present day.