Frequently Asked Questions

A Level English can take you directly, or indirectly to a range of different careers. Here are just a few of the occupations some of our previous students now work in:

• Social Media Managing

• Journalism

• Public Relations

• Speech and Language Therapy

• Nursing

• Editor and Content Manager

• Primary Teaching

• Publishing

• Fundraiser

You will sit two exams at the end of the course, both are 2.5 hours long.

80% of your A Level grade for English will come from the two exams you will sit, the other 20% will come from coursework.

Paper 1: 'Language the Individual and Society'

Section A gets you analysing language features of a modern day text and an older text (eg. websites, newspaper articles) looking into how language is used in different contexts to create meanings and representations.

Section B is all about children's language development, you will analyse an example of children's speech or writing and evaluate their development using theories and research studied during the course.

Paper 2: 'Language Diversity and Change'

Section A combines your studies on language diversity and language change, you'll be given a contentious view about a language topic which you will evaluate, argue, and discuss using theories, case studies, and wider reading.

Section B : Language Discourses

Analysing how language in journalism tries to influence readers

Creating your own piece of journalism on a linguistic topic

• Much more variety in tasks and a much wider range of topics - children’s language development, how and why language changes, analysing and writing journalism...

• Includes interesting coursework (now called NEA) - you get to write short stories and opinion articles with accompanying commentaries. In the second year, you create your own language investigation on a linguistic topic of your own choice.

• More connected to future careers. For example, in the Language Discourses, you will be developing skills in journalistic writing. In Language Diversity, you’ll study about occupational discourse such as the language of the law. In children’s language development, you’ll cover literacy topics which relate closely to primary school teaching. In your language investigation, you’ll learn how to construct a formal, extended written report.

• Promotes higher-level communication skills - a good mainstream national curriculum subject which gets you to develop higher-level skills in reading and writing.

Because of the wide range of topics covered and the skill sets you'll acquire, English works perfectly with lots of subject combinations. Here are just a few of our current students' programs of study:

• History, English Language, and Sociology

• English Language, English Literature, and Law

• English Language, Health & Social Care, and Media

• Sport & Leisure, English Language, and Film Studies

You need a grade 4 in English Language to get onto the A Level course.