English Language

Welcome to English Language

Welcome Message

Dear Year 11

We are so pleased that you are planning to start your English Language A Level in September and we are looking forward to working with you.

English Language is an ever - evolving and exciting field of study; language is, as a tool for communication, inextricably linked to so many societal factors and this course allows us to experience sociolinguistics and understand how language, power and identity are all so integrated.We think it is a fabulous course, and our students agree.

Charlie and Grace, who have just completed Year 13, have written this review of English Language and why you should study it:

A Subject That Changes With the Times

Why do we use words? How do we use them? What are they used for? English Language provides an in-depth understanding into the use of language. You learn about your language, individual to you, and also the impact of English on the world.

If you’ve thought about taking English Literature instead, think again. You don’t have to study Shakespeare, or poetry and you can always weave your own opinion into your answers. English Language gives you the ability to explore your own interests in terms of language. The coursework element allows you to do exactly that, whether you want to explore gendered language in TV shows, racist language or language in the court, the options are endless!

An area of the course which standouts from other subjects is Child Language Acquisition, in other words how children learn to speak and write. Favourite amongst many, it is a prime example of language use in everyday action and how the course vastly differs from GCSE. English Language offers students the opportunity to gain a wide knowledge of understanding which is helpfully reinforced in other subjects including Psychology and even Media Studies.

Most importantly the teachers are great and the lessons are fun. They’re interactive and change depending on what you need help with. DO ENGLISH LANGUAGE!

For your transition assignment, we would like you to immerse yourselves in the world of English language research, conducting your own mini investigation. We shall be using your findings at the beginning of the course to focus our discussions on language and identity, and how our language varies according to our own social contexts. Please work through the PPT and complete the assignment: you will then be ready to start your A Level in September.

Enjoy the summer!

Jo Colby

Lexis

A podcast about language and linguistics for A Level English Language students, teachers and anyone else who's interested in language. Choose an episode that apeals to you and enjoy!

Word of mouth

Join poet Michael Rosen in his Radio 4 programme (also available on iplayer) exploring words and the ways in which we use them. Fascinating and varied, from the language of facism to emojis!

Accent Bias

The Accent Bias in Britain project examines current attitudes to accents in Britain, and investigates whether unconscious accent bias plays a role in how job candidates are evaluated.

MOOC

Why not enrol on a MOOC, a free online course, to learn more about sociolinguistics?

The University of York is a leading centre for sociolinguistics. On this course, join renowned linguists to learn what your attitude to accents and dialects says about yourself and society.We all have preferred accents and ways of speaking, but what makes something ‘good’ or ‘bad’ English? On this course, you will explore where our attitudes to language come from, how they are formed, and what they tell us about society.

For a more detailed Reading List, please follow this link to the Bohunt Sixth website.

Summer Assignment

Work that is expected will be completed and will form part of the first few weeks of teaching.

BBC Voices Project, with the University of Leeds

In 2004, the BBC and the University of Leeds started a project called BBC Voices, in order to record the ways in which we actually speak.

They undertook more than 200 face – to – face group interviews, involving more than a 1000 people. Over a million people also did the same survey online.

They discovered some fascinating insights into how elements of social identity, geography, family and individual history all have an impact on the language an individual uses.

Our words, our grammar, and our accents are all intimately connected with where we come from and where we are now and with our view of who we are. They connect us to our families and to our local communities, and to the experiences we are accumulating throughout our lives.”

Professor Clive Upton

Your task

Your task is to conduct your own mini – investigation into the words your own friends and families use. We would like you to use the accompanying documents to interview at least 5 other people, ideally from a variety of ages and backgrounds, both social and geographical.

You need to use the Spidergram and Words documents for this activity.

The spidergram includes the words you need to ask your participants to engage with.

For example, in the ‘how you feel’ area, you need them to tell you their word of choice to describe when they feel hot, cold, annoyed, pleased, tired and unwell. There are 6 aspects to cover with each person.

Mine, for example, would be boiling, freezing, tamping, made up, shattered and bad. I’m from South Wales but I have lived in England, Italy and Australia and I’m married to someone from the Home Counties of England. So my accent and dialect are pretty mongrelised now!

"Words" is a chart for you to record the answers given by your participants. You should also make a note of variables for each person such as their age, gender and occupation. This will provide you with valuable information to interpret the words people choose, allowing you to draw some conclusions.

Once you have the answers, you should complete one of the following tasks. Bring it with you to your first lesson please.

Make a visual representation of your key findings, such as a graph
Write a summary of your key findings.

Extension Activity

Read more about this project and listen to some of the interviews on

https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/BBC-Voices

Get in touch

For more information about the course or for questions on any of the activities above, don't hesitate to email us:

Jo Colby - jcolby@bohunt.hants.sch.uk

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