Exam Board – AQA

Qualification – A Level

Entry requirements – 5 x GCSEs at grades 9-4, including a grade 5 in English

Course specification

The English language is all around us, always changing, never static and incredibly powerful. It can be used to bring communities together, it can be used to incite violence, and it can be used to paint striking images.

This course will enable you to understand where the English language has come from, how it has changed over time, how we learn it and how it is used. It will also give you the tools needed to become a skilled writer and allow you to use language to persuade, inform, instruct and entertain – skills necessary for whichever career path students decide to take.

To be successful you will have a genuine interest in language, a spirit of adventure and inquiry, and show a real keenness for learning something new.

Syllabus content:

  • textual variations and representations
  • children’s language development
  • language diversity and change
  • language discourses
  • writing skills
  • language investigation
  • original writing

Students are examined by:

  • written examination
  • a language investigation
  • a piece of original writing and commentary