English Language and Literature

 

 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE A2 & AS

AQA B SPECIFICATION

 

 

Why choose English Language & Literature?

 

Most students are familiar with the integration of language and literature at G.C.S.E. Consequently; many students find it hard to choose between AS Language and AS Literature which have different contents and methodologies.

 

Another reason students may not wish to choose between these two courses is because they love both reading literature and writing independently, and do not wish to have to choose one path over the other.

 

This course is a very successful hybrid, enabling students to study a range of literary and non literary texts in some depth and to develop their reader’s and writer’s craft. It also introduces students to modern literary theory which students – who may wish to study Communication Skills, Media, Linguistics and Literary Stylistics at university – will find very valuable.

 

 

 

 

What does this course involve?

 

AS

Unit 1: Introduction to Language & Literature

Study 35%

Unit 2: The Changing Language of Literature

35%

Unit 3: Coursework: Production of Texts 30%

 

A2

Unit 4: Coursework: Text Transformation

15%

Unit 5: Talk in Life & Literature 20%

Unit 6: Critical Approaches 20%

 

How is the course assessed?

 

Each course AS and A2 has two examinable units and one coursework unit – the coursework units involving original and editorial writing in a variety of forms and genres.  Unit 6 is the Synoptic unit for the A2 course.

 

 

What can I do to prepare for the course?

 

Read. Widely. Listen. Think before you speak. Examine the complexity of each communicative act. Be alive to language issues in the media and the ways in which the media shape our perceptions.

 

Begin a personal writing and reading journal which you complete carefully and regularly.

 

 

Why is it valuable?

 

Language is for life and Literature is for leisure. Perhaps. Yet while we can escape the world through reading fiction, we can also explore what it means to be alive in the real world in the fictive world. And we may wish to try to change the real world through our own writing.

 

This course enables this exploration in a critical and a challenging manner, and also gives students opportunities to respond to texts and write their own.

 

 

Back to the courses menu