A2 Scheme of Work
GCE English Language A
Teacher Resource Bank / GCE English Language A / A2 Scheme of Work / Version 1.1
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SCHEMES OF WORK: ORGANISING THE A2 YEAR
Locating the coursework (ENGA4)
Model 1: Separate coursework tasks
One way of approaching the coursework is for students to follow their own interests and negotiate
individual tasks. If this is the pattern then it would be possible to devote a third of lesson time to the
carrying out and supervision of coursework tasks. Here is a possible structure for timing the
coursework.
Timing Model 1
Language
Variation and
Change
ENGA3
Investigation
Intervention
Term 1a
Term 1b
Term 2a
Term 1a
Term 1b
Term 2a
Term 2b
Term 2b
It would of course be possible to begin some preparatory work at the end of the first year after the
completion of the AS assessments.
Model 2: Integrating coursework tasks with Unit 3 teaching and learning
A different approach to the coursework would be to use the tasks as part of the teaching and
learning activities for ENGA3.
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Students could explore an ENGA3 topic by doing some fieldwork. For examples the variation
topic of gender and interaction would provide opportunities to examine a range of types of
speech in the context of gender. Similarly the user related variation topics of regional, social,
ethnic and national accents and dialects could be enriched by fieldwork. Students could
explore accommodation in interactions or the frequency of HRT or glottal stops in the speech of
different age groups.
The investigation would help them explore methodological issues in a practical context. They could
try out replication studies of Trudgill and Labov’s quantitative approaches which would offer them a
critical perspective. As part of their investigation they would need to carry out critical reading of
background and secondary linguistic sources which would support their study of examination
based topics.
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It would also be possible to use an Intervention task to develop an ENGA3 topic such as:
• attitudes to language change
• political correctness
• attitudes to accents and dialects.
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Students could use the ENGA3 evaluation of, and response to, popular, nonspecialist texts as a
stimulus for their own writing. They could draw on the writing techniques they have looked at in
well-written popular texts as models. They would then carry out critical reading of
background/secondary linguistic sources to enable them to make a linguistically informed
intervention. The benefit of such transformational learning activities should be the deep learning of
topics and the development of understanding beyond simple mastery of knowledge.
Timing Model 2
Language Variation and
Change
Investigation
Intervention
Term 1a
Term 1b
Term 2a
Term 2b
Term 1a
Term 1b
Term 1b
Term 2a
Term 2a
Term 2b
In this model students would do an investigation task after a period of study of the ENGA3 topics. It
would be possible to get all students to focus on a particular area of study. A centre could develop
its own specialism in the study of local dialect or gender and speech for example. The investigation
could be conceived as quite a tight and focused piece of research.
The intervention (as a smaller task, for which more than one text can be submitted) is used as a
recurrent teaching and learning activity, enabling students to do a range of writing and select their
most successful work for assessment.
In this model the learning provides opportunities for assessment and the assessments are not a
decontextualised end in themselves.
Content for a scheme of work
The content for an Intervention scheme of work is discussed below, as part of an integrated
ENGA3 scheme.
When preparing an Investigation scheme students are likely to need input on the following topics:
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the asking of questions and generation of hypotheses about language
the formulation of aims and objectives
the design of methodologies
issues affecting the validity of data and analysis
ethical issues
spoken data collection
spoken data transcription and processing
using secondary sources
selecting linguistic frameworks for analysis
carrying out data analysis
drawing conclusions
evaluating their investigation methods and conclusions
academic referencing
A series of small activities could be designed for each of these topics, perhaps using scenarios and
examples of investigations. They could be deployed at the appropriate stage of the investigation
work.
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Ways of breaking down ENGA3 into topics
The subject matter of ENGA3 is Language Variation and Change. The assessment forms require
students to be able to analyse data, to write discursively about linked language issues and to
analyse critically popular texts that write about variation and change matters. A scheme of work
needs to address these skills in a synoptic way.
These topics could be broken into the following topics:
1. Language Change
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Types of change: grammatical, lexical, etc
Case studies: Political Correctness, technology, etc
Texts from different times.
2. Language Variation
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Geographical: regional, national, international
Social: gender, class, age, ethnicity, groups.
An obvious approach might be to run two schemes of work, one for each topic.
It might be possible to run Language Variation alongside the Investigation on a 2/3rds to 1/3rd
basis in term 1.
In term 2 it would be possible to teach Language Change topics alongside a Texts from Different
Times strand on a 2/3rds to 1/3rd basis.
Texts from Different Times strand could be organised in three different ways, or a mixture of the
three:
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a chronological structure
a thematic structure
a linguistic structure.
Texts could be explored chronologically in order to show the development of language alongside a
sense of socio-historical developments. It would be possible to look at pairs or sets of texts that
draw on a similar theme or topic (eg warfare) but come from different periods. Texts could also be
selected in order to illustrate key stages in the development of the English language.
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Planning an integrated ENGA3 Scheme of Work
The following table can be used as a starting point for planning the knowledge, resources and
activities for a topic scheme of work.
What primary textual
data am I going to use?
What features of primary
data will students need
to describe and respond
to?
What graphical, tabular
or word list data will I
use?
What research and
concepts should
students know to place
data in context?
What are the big
academic debates about
this topic?
What popular
nonlinguistic texts about
this topic will I use?
What aspects of
language and genre will
I focus on?
How can I build in a
Language
Intervention writing task?
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Below are two sample mini-schemes of work for Language Change. One takes as its topic a case
study of language change: txting. The other takes an aspect of language change as its topic: word
formation processes (which is linked with two period case studies). Such units or blocks could be
built up to produce an entire scheme of work.
Topic
Case Study: Txt language
 Features of txt language: spelling,
punctuation, lexis, grammar, discourse
 Uses and users of txt language
3. Crispin Thurlow’s classifications of the
functions of txts
 Attitudes to txt language
 Crumbling Castle, Damp Spoon and
Infectious disease attitudes to change
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Introducing Lexical Change
• New Words:
Formation/causes/attitudes
Lexical Change: Borrowing
• Social/cultural borrowing
• Adoption / adaptation; Guilbert’s
stages
Lexical Change: Word formation
processes
• Phonological neologism:
onomatopoeia, ex nihilo
• Morphosyntactic neologism x 8:
affixation, compounding, conversion,
back formation, clipping, blend,
acronym, initialism
Case Studies: 90s and 80s.
Activities
 Starter: Writing and sending a txt
summary of film/book
 Star article Text Maniacs data →
feature analysis
 Expansion/analysis of students’ own
txts → analysis of features
 Wider reading: Thurlow: Generation
txt, BBC website articles
 Mini investigation (use and users):
planning and execution → presentation
 Wider reading: Jean Aitchison A Web
of Worries
 Analysis of John Sutherland Cn u txt?
from The Guardian → identification
and evaluation of attitudes; analysis of
language features conveying attitudes
 Intervention – Letter to paper in
response to Cn u txt?
• Independent article about new words
in Collins dictionary → identify the
examples’ new meanings, formation,
causes, attitudes
• Data analysis of borrowings (by
decades): source and fields;
adopted/adapted; social/cultural
• Introduction of formation processes
• Matching exercise: Processes and egs
• 1990s data: new words (alphabetical)
(Ayto: 20th Century New Words)
analyse for formation process
• Reading: Introductory article on 1980s
new words (from Ayto) → identify
examples by fields and classify
formation processes
• 1990s data categorisation by field
• Analyse Ayto’s style in Introductory
article on the 1980s decade: how topic
is made entertaining and accessible
• Intervention Assignment: Ayto style
introductory article for 1990s
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Below is a partial scheme of work for a Texts from Different Times strand. It is organised
chronologically and takes students back through time. The texts have been selected to take
students on an historical journey through time. They are studied for the interest of the experiences
they provide access to (a thematic study), the way they reveal the language of their period and the
way their contexts and genres affect language use. The scheme has been developed from one for
the previous specification. It can be developed for the new specification by a linked text from a
different period for comparison with the text from the main timeline.
Main Text and Topic
1945: Reportage: Visiting
Hiroshima – Junod
(from Faber Book of
Reportage)
• Revision of word classes
• Active and passive voice
• Sentence and clauses
1943: Letter: WAAF’s
posting
• Contextual factors:
speaker identity,
audience, purpose,
genre, mode, period
• Women’s voices and
experiences
1916: Oral History: The
Battle of the Somme
Ernest Deighton’s story
(Lyn MacDonald Somme)
• War
• Narrative structure
(Labov)
• Spoken Mode
• Different interpretations
and the effect of
historical knowledge
1847: Victims of the Great
Hunger – Elihu Burritt
(Faber Book of Reportage)
• Famine
• Eye witness testimony
1807: Poster: A few plain
questions answer’d
(Shelley Martin: Language
Change)
• Political persuasion and
slavery
• Long/short s
Activities
• Student presentation:
Atomic bomb
• Identify WW2 lexis
• Analyse/evaluate:
structure, word
choice/classes,
passives, sentences,
clauses
• Student PowerPoint
Presentation: Women in
WW2
• Structured analysis of
contextual factors
• Analysis of topics and
meanings
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Comparison text
1940: My East End Gilda
O’Neill – the Blitz on
London
(See TRB section on
sample questions for the
texts)
1898: A Word to Women Advice book for women
(See ENA5 January 2007
for the text)
Narrative structure
analysis
Effect of speaker
identity on language
Chart filling exercise:
mode features
Sentence analysis
How historical
knowledge affects
interpretation
Radical Summary
Cloze: word class
analysis
Sentence and clause
analysis: re-writing
exercises
Data analysis:
long/short s rules
deduction
Participant analysis:
Lascelles/ Milton
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1647: Diary: Josselin’s
son
• Death of a child
• 17th century language:
punctuation, lexis,
spelling, grammar
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Analysing how
language expresses
feelings, attitudes and
ideas
Using historical facts
about child mortality to
enable different
readings
Analysing 17th century
language features
Below is a scheme of work for a Language Variation topic on British accents and dialects. It looks
at their features, their origins and attitudes towards them. It does not look at the issue of gender
and non-standard English. It does integrate ENGA3 Section B preparation and provide an
opportunity for a Language Intervention coursework piece.
Topic
Contemporary variation and change
• Pronunciations, vocabulary and grammar
• Causes
• Analysis of Magazine Article:
Speaking in Tongues (from railway
complimentary magazine)
• Identifying and mapping dialect areas
– Isoglosses.
Origins of regional and standard
varieties
• Origins and causes of dialectal
variation
• The origins of standard English and RP
Describing Accents
• IPA: Consonants, vowels and diphthongs
• Ashington and Hampshire accent features
Describing Dialect Grammar
• Pronoun revision; Strong and weak verb
• Verbs
• Negation
• Pronouns
• Plurality
• Prepositions
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Activities and Resources
Video Viewing and note-making:
Word on the Street BBC
Chart of own family and language variation
Guided questions on style
Plimsolls map drawing (from Peter Trudgill
Dialects)
Readings and Discussion
Video viewing: An English Accent OU
Powerpoint Presentation creation on
origins of SE and RP
Phonetic transcription: Ashington data
from Dennis Freeborn Varieties of English
Trudgill The Dialects of England: Reading
and notes
Introduction of method and approach
Worked examples
Case studies; Hants; Liverpool; London
Assignment: Analysing dialect samples
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Topic
Attitudes to dialects
• Giles and Trudgill pleasantness
research
• Attitudes: Media Representations
Quantitative Sociolinguistics
• Accents, dialects and class, age, context
• Trudgill, Petyt, Wolfram/Fasold; Labov
• Romaine: arbitrary significance of accent
Matched Guise research
• Giles: Matched guise experiment: rewards
of RP/RA
New accents
• Estuary English: origins/features
• HRT: origins/users/uses/attitudes
• Attitudes to new accents
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Activities and Resources
Replication study: Class rate 10 accents by
pleasantness
Video: Say it like it is BBC; Analysis of
cartoons and adverts
Video clip: Talking Proper BBC - adverts
Assignment: accents in adverts survey
Analysis of graphical data
Reading / note-making: Howard Giles
Our Reactions to Accent
• Video viewing and note-making:
Blimey BBC
• Reading & Note-making: articles, letters.
Websites, Our Reactions to Accent
• Analysing accommodation examples
• Analysis of Kisten Sellars article We wanna
talk like common people (Source ENA6
June 2004)
• Intervention: Magazine Article about HRT
(Source ENA6 June 2004)
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England and Wales (number 3644723). Our registered address is AQA, Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX.
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