A AND AS LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
(AQA specification)
Studying AS and A Level English Language and Literature offers students the opportunity to read, discuss
and evaluate literary, non-literary and spoken texts using integrated frameworks for analysis. This
qualification would particularly suit students wishing to study English and other humanities subjects at
degree level.
Students are expected to have B grades or better in both GCSE English Language and English Literature.
The AS and A Level qualifications have been ‘uncoupled’ in the latest educational reform, but the
specification has been designed to ensure that no subjects studied at AS Level will be wasted, as they are
also required for the A Level examinations at the end of the upper sixth.
AS LEVEL
There is no longer any coursework at AS level, so assessment will be entirely by examination. Students will
sit two examination papers.
Paper 1: Views and Voices – 50% of the AS – 1 hour 30 minutes examination
This is a closed book examination. There will be one essay question on the set poetry text and one essay
question on their set prose text.
Paper 2: Remembered Places – 50% of the AS – 1 hour 30 minutes examination
This is a closed book examination. There will be one compulsory question on the AQA selection of nonliterary writing about Paris. There will then be a question requiring a re-creative piece of original writing
which aims to re-shape an extract provided. Students will also be asked to write a commentary explaining
their language choices.
A LEVEL
There will be 20% coursework in the A Level.
Paper 1: Telling Stories – 40% of the A Level – 3 hour examination
There are three sections to this paper. Students will study an AQA Anthology of writing on Paris on which
they will answer one question. They will also study and answer on one set prose text and one set poetry
text.
Paper 2: Exploring Conflict – 40% of the A Level – 2 hour 30 minutes examination
There are two sections to this examination. In the first, students will be required to write one original recreative piece of writing about conflict in society using a set text. They will also write a critical commentary.
In the second, they will write one analytical essay from a choice of two on their drama set text.
Coursework – 20%
Students will complete a personal investigation that explores a specific technique or theme in both literary
and non-literary discourse (2500-3000 words).
GCSE requirements:English Language – B
English Literature – B
Set Text and Coursework Details
An example of some of the literary set texts that can be covered:
Mary Shelley
Bram Stoker
Margaret Atwood
Alice Sebold
Frankenstein
Dracula
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Lovely Bones
Robert Browning
John Donne
Carol Ann Duffy
Seamus Heaney
(selected from Mean Time)
(selected from New Selected Poems 1966-1987)
Shakespeare
Arthur Miller
Tennessee Williams
Rory Kinnear
Othello
All My Sons
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Herd
Coursework Details
Investigation - Making Connections
It is called 'Making Connections' because it requires students to make active connections between a literary
text and some non-literary material. The connections must be based either on a chosen theme or on the
idea that particular linguistic strategies and features may occur in the different types of material. This area
of the course provides an individualised experience for students, enabling them to demonstrate their ability
to initiate and sustain independent enquiry.
Some examples of possible types of exploration:
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A comparison of openings in a novel and an autobiography.
Representations of particular themes in literary and non-literary sources.
What is a character? An exploration of the idea of character in literature and in other texts.
How does storytelling work in different modes?
An exploration of the use of non-literary genres within literary texts.
An exploration of speech features in literature and in real-world communication.
An exploration of new language in literature and non-literary contexts.