Help Needed: English A Level

[Tom_]

Right at GCSE level i much prefered english language (you no using metaphors in your writing etc.) all that descriptive writing you no its fairly easy.

HATED lit. shakspear and pride and prejudice writing essays about them used to be my most hated thing to have to do in a night.

Now In my GCSEs i got a B in both so there is nothing to go on there really.

However i always planned on doing language; however after speaking to someone whos just finished there a2 exams aparantly its abit different at A level?

suposedly lit. becomes more about metaphors and all that and language becomes about language analysis and thigs eg. looking at why a person uses b.4 instead of before.

Now i dont no as i have only spoken to one person about it.

So I need you lot to help me out.... which one is which basically?

cheers xx

p.s spell checker is being gay.. how ironic

Edited August 28, 2007 by tom132

[Jules]

At the moment I'm taking English Language, from what I've heard it involves looking at how the language has developed, and where it has come from etc. I think you also have to write descriptive writing (metaphors and stuff like that) and I think you have to analyse different pieces of text.

Doesn't sound that fun but I had nothing else to take. Oh well lets hope its remotely interesting. Literature will be reading loads of books and writing about them - well thats what i think.

Hope I've helped.

[Dr. Nick Riviera]

don't take either. just have some chips.

[Sneakers O'Toole]

I did english language at A level. Alot of it was learning how to write political speechs, learning how language developed over the centuries, how kids learn to speak, about regional dialects. There was other stuff but i've forgotten alot of it. It was a good subject though and i got to do a unit on Pink Floyd lyrics which was cool.

[Sam Nichols]

I took English Language&Literature A-Level which was one course as there was no option for a purely Language based course. I'm not sure if this is the same with you or if it was just the college that I attended?

Anyhow, the first year was very much centered around creative writing, poetry etc. The second year the syllabus changed considerably however and the majority of the work I did was English Literature.

So if you hate the Literature side I'd be dubious about taking the course without talking to the course tutor and finding out what will be on the syllabus for both years.

Something else to note; I recieved a double A for English Lang. and English Lang. and Lit. GCSE without reading any of the books that we studied.. Lord of the flies, animal farm etc

HOWEVER

At A-Level I struggled a bit to begin with because you do actually have to read understand and be incredibly analytical about the texts you study.. So don't treat it like a GCSE!

Hope that helps a little.

[BONGO]

you're asking on here instead of looking at Websites designed to teach students about different A level courses so they can accurately choose the correct course?? you're better off doing some proper research mate. I probably wouldn't base my choice of A level on the fact that you want to use metaphors!

[Tom_]

Yea, but i meant the whole metaphor and crative writing shidadle. Couldnt really be bothered to explain the lot, most people should be able to get the idea.

And yea, i went on some sites last night, just asked on here aswell for some people who have actually sat through the courses advice and experiences..

cheers for the help think im doing lang. now

xx

[Wing]

The two are very different subjects, although they seem to have blurred the lines at GCSE.

If you want to take creative writing any further I would suggest taking Lit. I don't think you'll actually do much creative writing on the course, but you'll do a lot of textual analysis, you'll have to learn all the rules in writing before you attempt to copy or break them yourself.

Language will go into a different direction. In my A-Level course there was an emphasis on discourse (spoken language) and pragmatics. If you take English Language any further than A Level it will be likely you will end up in the Linguistics field. This is the study of the English Language with a scientific approach. This spans from the history and conception of English (and foreign languages), Sociolinguistics: shifts in non-standard spoken forms vs written forms, e.g. slang and dialects. You'll study systems which categorise language, such as phonetics, which groups units of sounds. Oh, and also Grammar.

At A-Level i took English Lit. and Lang. In the Lit course we had to study two books, two plays (including Shakespeare) and and a lot of poems by Robert Frost. We got to do a little creative writing, the emphasis being on the different narrative forms and copying the styles of the authors we were studying. If you don't like reading, i would not suggest this course. Some people may argue that you only need to read the books on the syllabus, but it will put you at a disadvantage.

In the language course the first year was about studying discourse and it's features, comparing it with written language. This is a lot more interesting than it sounds as a political speech may carry the nature of a fully planned written medium, but it is written with the intent of being spoken, so it's interesting to analyse it's features.

At the moment i am doing English Language with Creative writing for my degree. If I had done only one of the A-Level courses, i think I would still be able to take this course, even though each part is based on Lang. and Lit. respectively. If you think English is a choice for Higher education, i would put a little more thought into this as there are very specific fields of English you can go into.

I haven't really explained anything in too much detail, so if there's anything you'd like to know more about just let me know. I chose my A Levels without knowing what Language was really about either, but it managed to work itself out somehow, but it's not recommended.

Edited August 29, 2007 by Wing

[Tom_]

lots of helpfull explaining

thanks for such a detailed reply! that was a really helpfull and educated responce ! Im not so into the reading, last thing i read was harry potter! The slang etc. sounds quite interesting to me.

think il go with lang. hate shakspeare and things to much for lit.