English Language & Literature A Level & AS Level Courses
English Language and Literature is a broad and demanding subject, which develops a range of skills in reading and writing. Our students acquire a wide variety of linguistic and literary approaches in their interpretation and analysis of texts, which includes language frameworks, varieties of English, language in social contexts, rhetorical devices and metrical analysis. At Westminster Tutors, students are able to choose their own texts according to their personal interests, and they have plenty of opportunity for stimulating discussion with their teachers.
Course outline
AS Level English Language & Literature
Component 1 – Voices in Speech and Writing
- Creation of voice
- Comparing voices
Component 2 – Varieties in Language and Literature
- Prose Fiction Extract
- Exploring Text and Theme
A Level English Language & Literature
Component 1 – Voices in Speech and Writing
- Creation of voice
- Comparing voices
Component 2 – Varieties in Language and Literature
- Prose Fiction Extract
- Exploring Text and Theme
Assesment
AS Level English Language & Literature
Component 1
- 50 marks
- Closed book
- 1 hour 30 minutes written paper
- 50% of total AS level
Component 2
- 50 marks
- Open book
- 1 hour 30 minutes written paper
- 50% of total AS level
A Level English Literature
Component 1
- 50 marks
- Open book
- 2 hours 30 minutes written paper
- 40% of total A level
Component 2
- 50 marks
- Open book
- 2 hours 30 minutes written paper
- 40% of total AS level
Non-examination assessment
- 60 marks
- 2500-3250 words
- 2 assignments
- 20% of total A level
Set Texts
Comparing Voices
- Voices in Speech and Writing: An Anthology
Drama Texts
Students study one drama text:
- All My Sons, Arthur Miller
- A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
- Elmina’s Kitchen, Kwame Kwei-Armah
- Equus, Peter Shaffer
- The History Boys, Alan Bennett
- Top Girls, Caryl Churchill
- Translations, Brian Friel
Prose Fiction and other Genres
- Theme: Society and the Individual
- The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
- Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
- The Bone People, Keri Hulme
- Othello, William Shakespeare
- A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
- The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer
- The Whitsun Weddings, Philip Larkin
- Theme: Love and Loss
- A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
- Tess of the D’Ubervilles, Thomas Hardy
- Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
- Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare
- Betrayal, Harold Pinter
- Metaphysical Poetry, editor Colin Burrow
- Sylvia Plath Selected Poems, Sylvia Plath
- Theme: Encounters
- A Room with a View, E M Forster
- Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
- The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare
- Rock ‘N’ Roll, Tom Stoppard
- The Waste Land and Other Poems, T S Eliot
- The New Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry, editor Jonathan Wordsworth
- Theme: Crossing Boundaries
- Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
- Dracula, Bram Stoker
- The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri
- Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
- Oleanna, David Mamet
- Goblin Market, The Prince’s Progress, and Other Poems, Christina Rossetti
- North, Seamus Heaney
Specification
Teachers
BA (Cambridge)
Richard Searby
BA (Exeter)
Sophie Harrold
BA (Cambridge), MA (King’s), PGCE (Goldsmith’s)
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