Cambridge Professional Development
Key terminology used in AS English
Language
Purpose: the reason why a writer wrote a text and the effect he/she wants to have on the reader.
Audience: the person or people whom the writer intends or hopes will read the text.
Format: the way a text is laid out on the page.
Context: the relationship between a text and its background – when and where it was written.
Structure: How do the main points in the text develop?
Style: What language does the writer use to convey the message?
Simile: a comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’ e.g. standing in the sun was like opening a brick-furnace’.
Metaphor: a comparison between objects without using ‘like’ or ‘as’ e.g. ‘the sky was a giant blue bowl’.
Personification: when a non-human creature or an object is described as if it were a person e.g. ‘the trees
crowded round and listened’.
Pathetic fallacy: a specific type of personification where the weather echoes the mood or emotion of the
character or situation.
Onomatopoeia: a word that sounds like its meaning e.g. ‘splash’, ‘bang’, ‘whisper’.
Alliteration: repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words to creat an effect e.g.’the snake
slithered silently and slowly’.
Dialect: a variety of English spoken in a particular place.
Front-loaded: a sentence where the most important part of it is at the front e.g. ‘Lost on the mountain was
not where I wanted to be’.
Bias: where a writer favours one idea, group or individual more than another, particularly in a way that
seems unfair.
Register: the word used to describe how formal or informal language is.
Slang: non-standard words used in low register (informal) English.
Monologue: uninterrupted speech by only one fictional character.
Dialogue: speech between two or more fictional characters.
Genre: any particular style or category of writing e.g. detective fiction, travel writing, autobiography.
Key terminology used in AS English Language
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