English Language and Literature

AQA

Lang/Lit is a popular and excitingly diverse course which challenges the whole concept of ‘literature’. The course takes as its underpinning assumption that Elizabethan sonnets or Jane Austen’s fiction are as linguistically interesting as graphic novels, text messages or personal ads (and can be analysed in similar ways). Therefore, it deals with a greater number and range of texts (both literary and nonliterary) but fewer in depth. The course gives you the opportunity to write in different styles, both critical and creative, allowing you to demonstrate your understanding in a variety of ways.

AS English Language
and Literature

At AS you will explore intriguing questions such as:
• What makes a text ‘literature’ and is it possible to define what we mean by this?
• How can language be used to convey different attitudes and values?
• How does spoken language differ from written language?
• How has language changed over time?
• What sort of constraints and considerations influence the choices you make as a writer and how can you respond to them?

The course is divided into two units:
• An anthology of texts linked by a central theme of food. One day you might be studying the celebrated scene from Oliver Twist where Oliver famously asks for ‘more’ and on another day, you could be looking at a restaurant review or the careful mechanics of a crisp packet. You will gain the core skills of linguistic analysis and prepare for the unseen texts in the exam.
• Coursework. You read and work on Mark Twain’s ‘great American novel’ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and J.D Salinger’s modern classic The Catcher in the Rye, producing two written responses, one critical, one creative.

Assessment

One written examination and a coursework folder.

Entry requirements

A minimum of BBCCC at GCSE including English/English Language and Mathematics or a science.

A2 English Language and Literature

At A2 you will build upon your work at AS and study two units.
• Talk in Life and Literature explores the ways we use language in ‘real’ conversations before applying the same theoretical models to talk in literary texts and looking at the ways writers represent speech in their work. You also study Tennessee Williams’ powerful tragedy of social and sexual conflicts A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).
• For coursework, you produce two transformations of literary texts which you choose for yourself from a varied and interesting list of writers. Previous students have reworked Macbeth as an episode of Desperate Housewives, transformed an episode from Jane Eyre in the style of Lauren Child’s Clarice Bean books, and recast Measure for Measure as a tabloid gossip column.

Assessment

One written examination and a coursework folder.