English Language and Literature
AS/A Level

You will gain a two-fold benefit from this course which offers a unified approach to the study of language and literature. Two units will be covered for AS in Year 1 and two for A2 (the full A Level qualification) in Year 2. Firstly, you will be able to develop your personal writing skills by adapting material for different audiences and purposes as well as experimenting in original writing and studying spoken language in use. Secondly, you will, through the study of set texts, extend your critical awareness and develop an increasingly mature response to a range of literature: poetry, prose and drama. We expect you to buy two of your set texts in each year of the course and we hope you will join in any theatre trips we make to see our plays in performance (on average one per year).

As this course emphasises the development of language skills as well as exposure to literary set texts, it is particularly attractive to those students who wish to build on their success in both GCSE English and English Literature and has been specifically designed to provide continuity from GCSE. Students will explore a wide range of written and spoken material in order to gain experience of how language works in various contexts and to assess how variations in language can shape meanings and forms. In each year of the course students will be required to present coursework for one of their two units, while the other will be assessed through examination.

A number of recent Language and Literature students have gone on to read English at university (as a single or joint honours subject) and journalism, broadcasting, advertising, the Civil Service, law and teaching remain popular career choices for many English students.