Click on the link below to download Alan Thomas’s AQA A ENGA3 / ENGA4 Language Change within Language Explorations Guide.

Language Change within Language Explorations Guide.docx

This 110-page editable guide, written by a very experienced A Level English Language teacher, should prove helpful. It’s in Word (.docx) format, if you can only open Word (.doc) format files use the link below to convert it.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats

We’ve also included a PDF version to help with printing.

The topic of interaction could be huge, including concepts which are important in a range of sub-topics in linguistic study, including speech, general textual analysis and power.  Many A Level specifications do not require students to have considerable knowledge of studies into conversational behaviour, but only to use the terminology which arose out of that research (e.g. three-part exchange or initiation/response/feedback). This guide therefore covers a selection of broad and conceptual theories relating to speech and interaction, which...

This topic is concerned with how language stands for things in the real world and how language is able to affect our impressions of things in the real world.  There is therefore some overlap here with concepts such as language and thought and some power issues in language (NB: theories relating to the effect of power/status on interaction will be found in the guide to discourse, speech and pragmatics).  This whole topic is highly conceptual, requiring considerable engagement with theory.  Although some of this theory is not explicitly tested...

This topic is concerned with the study of differences between male speech and female speech. The guide to Language and Power will cover theories relating to the representation of gender in language and concerns about sexist language. Some specifications put these together under the topic of ‘gender’ whilst others treat them separately. Specifications including Variation as a topic of study often include gender as one possible variable. The topic has been treated separately here since there has been so much work carried out in this area,...

This topic is concerned with changes to the English Language over time.  In different specifications, students are asked to compare and analyse texts from different periods, to trace the usage of a word or phrase, and/or to discuss how and why language changes, and how people react to those changes.

Studying change is therefore concerned with three main questions:

• How has the English language changed over its history?

This is largely an AO1 concern, dealing with the particulars of usage in terms of lexis, semantics, grammar and (possibly)...

This guide explores the key theoretical positions, and some useful case studies and research findings needed for the study of how children develop language.  It is not exhaustive – there are further case studies and sets of research findings which are useful to students in studying acquisition – but there are enough here to be able to discuss theories with sensible reference to evidence.  At the same time, different specifications will have different expectations in terms of students’ familiarity with research and theory, so some of the...

This topic is concerned with dialect, in terms of regional and social variations which impact people’s use of phonology, lexis, semantics and grammar.  These social variations include aspects such as class, age, race and occupation, all of which can affect people’s language use (note that gender and interaction has its own guide as so much work has been done in this area, and some English Language specifications treat it as a separate topic to Variation).

Studying variation is concerned with three main questions:

• How does one variety...

This series is written to outline the principal conceptual aspects needed for the study of English Language at A Level.  These guides are not exhaustive – no such guide could be.

Each guide seeks to cluster and organise the relevant ideas and theories, and to explain the most important (or most commonly-taught) research studies and case studies for that topic.

Some of the ideas here and even some of the topics in the series may not be relevant to your specification, as they are all quite different.  We recommend checking against...

Contextual knowledge is needed in certain types of task in studying both Literature and Language.  In Literature, for example, contextual knowledge might arise in terms of social, historical or political background, or an overview of a particular writer, movement or genre, while in Language, this might be similarly socio-historical, but could also focus on the history of print and/or literacy.

Both kinds of English study also require students to apply theoretical knowledge to texts in some exam and coursework questions.  In Literature, this...

For teachers coming into Language as Literature specialists, teaching linguistic theory is perhaps the most alien aspect of the course.  It is often seen as the most factual aspect within English teaching at A Level, and is sometimes (frustratingly) viewed by students as the only thing they can revise, as they see it as more explicitly ‘content’ than other elements of the course.

This is a collection of suggestions for different ways of introducing theoretical and research-based content to students, as well as ways of developing...