A-level English Language

This is a collection of official documents relating to the qualification called “English Language” which is offered at Advanced level (i.e. for Years 12 and 13) by the examining boards in England and Wales.

• The government specification
• The individual examination boards’ specifications (for exams from 2016):
  • AQA
  • OCR
  • Edexcel
  • WJEC

History

• The A-level English exam only started in 1983.
• It was developed initially by and for literature-trained English teachers who were interested in broadening the scope of language work beyond literature.
• It was inspired by linguistics and informed by individual linguists, notably Catherine Perera and Michael Halliday.
• It is now one of the most popular choices at Advanced level, as reflected in the entry statistics
  • Since 2012, the entries for the second year (A2) exam exceed the total entries for French, German and Spanish combined.

Geography

Other countries offer similar qualifications, which (presumably) are derived historically from the UK qualification:

• Australia (Victoria): The VCE “English Language”
• Singapore: The SEAB “English Language and Linguistics”
  • offered since 2009