English Language Welcome to A Level!

To gain insight into the basic structure of the course; English Language Learning Objectives To gain insight into the basic structure of the course; To consider our opinions about our own language use and exposure to texts; To begin to analyse how something is represented via the frameworks of English Language study.

Starter Opinion This course is not about reading books. It does, however, involve us reading a lot. What is your opinion of the headline? Is he right?

In pairs Please work backwards, from this moment, and mind map all the times you have: ‘Read’, or interacted with, language of any kind Used language to communicate Try to think about the context in which you did so.

Let’s have a look at the course

First Piece of Learning We are going to start by looking at the kinds of things you will read/analyse for Paper 1. This is focussed on the topic of representation. Representation – the portrayal of events, people and circumstances through language and other meaning-making resources (e.g. images/sounds/colours) to create a way of seeing the world.

First Piece of Learning

Where to start when looking at a text for the first time Here are some of your basic areas to think about: -GENRE & MODE = What type of text is it? (e.g. article: planned & public or phone conversation: spontaneous & private) -AUDIENCE = If it is a non-interactive text, who is it aimed at? (e.g. children, parents, women etc) -INTERLOCUTORS = If it is an interactive text, who are the participants? (e.g. husband and wife / boss and employee / group of teenage friends) -PURPOSE = Why has the text been produced? (e.g. persuade, entertain, inform, social function etc) -TENOR = Relationship = How well do speakers/writers know each other? (e.g. Intimate, familiar, professional, strangers etc)

So how are things represented? Look at: The Tramlines festival Sheffield and its people The wider music community

What else can I use at this point? Grammar Word, sentence and text level: e.g. nouns adverbial phrases subordinate clauses Graphology Images, layout and presentation: e.g. logos, font, images Lexis and semantics Words and meanings e.g. vocabulary, connotations

Summer Work Use your work from today and your own knowledge to produce two pieces of work. Piece One Choose two of the texts I have provided for you. Compare the two texts in terms of: Genre/mode, audience, purpose etc… Grammar etc… Compare how the texts create representations. (e.g. How Sheffield is represented.) Aim for about 500+ words. Piece Two Find three different texts that are linked by theme (just like I did with Sheffield). At least one text must be electronic and one must involve an element of interaction with the audience.