This guide is for the examined part of AQA English Language A2 A: ENGA3, entitled “Language Explorations”.
It has a far broader scope than the previous year’s AS paper, requiring students to look far beyond their own linguistic experiences in the study of three topics:
- Language Change
- specifically, changes in the English Language since 1600.
- Language Variation
- specifically, differences in the usage of the English Language by user and context.
- Language Discourses
- specifically, how language issues are written about and discussed in the public sphere. This will need to be focused on specific aspects of language debates: change, variation, political correctness and gender.
The final two and a half hour exam paper tests students on three main skill areas:
- AO1: Select and apply a range of linguistic methods, to communicate relevant knowledge using appropriate terminology and coherent, accurate written expression (10 marks per question)
- AO3: Analyse and evaluate the influence of contextual factors on the production and reception of spoken and written language, showing knowledge of the key constituents of language (15 marks per question)
- AO2: Demonstrate critical understanding of a range of concepts and issues related to the construction and analysis of meanings in spoken and written language, using knowledge of...
