A Level English Language and

Literature
 Section One: The Novel
Whether you go on to study English Language and Literature or English Literature A-Level, you will
be reading widely, regularly and critically. A universe of fiction awaits you (yes that’s a metaphor)
and this week ground you in some of the types of texts you will be experiencing.

This week, you will have two mandatory tasks and the choice of an optional one. If you have time
(between now and September) there is nothing to stop you reading even more widely.

TASK ONE– Making sense of the novel, a timeline

The novel has come a long way since Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte D’Arthur, a story based on a
collection of tales about King Arthur, in 1470, generally thought to be the first English novel.

Your job is to research some classic novels (see below) and create a chronological timeline. You
should detail the dates and important events (literary and world) around that time. For example, if
you were going to place ‘An Inspector Calls’ on a timeline, you would want to detail that World
War Two had just ended and there was a wave of ‘realistic’ drama plays around this time (AIC is a
play and not a novel so it would not go on this timeline of course!)

Make sure you include at least five texts – you do not need to have read them at this point, but
you should know their background and the key reasons why they are considered important.
Whether you want to do this by hand or electronically in entirely up to you. Include a famous
quote from the book – this could be the opening line.

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/50-great-21st-century-novels-for-6th-formers A great
list from the EMC – who have a wealth of other good resources
https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/the-100-best-novels A number of good lists here
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century For books
written since the year 2000 – mostly within your lifetime

The sites below are the main literary prizes – a good guide to more recent classics.
https://thebookerprizes.com/
https://carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/
https://www.costa.co.uk/behind-the-beans/costa-book-awards/welcome
https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/
https://thecwa.co.uk/the-daggers Crime
https://wellcomebookprize.org/
https://www.ed.ac.uk/events/james-tait-black

As well as this, do your own research. Evaluate the quality of your sources (there will be plenty of
lower quality sources on the wild, wild web that you should take with a huge pinch of salt as well
as treasure!)
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 TASK TWO– Choose, read and review
Now you have conducted your research, select a book to read.

Allow yourself a good amount of time to read this week and be realistic.

If you are unable to obtain these books you can find a number of them online. You can also listen
to a range of books for free below (there is no need to sign up or give any payment details.)
https://stories.audible.com/pdp/B004Y0K5V6?ref=adbl_ent_anon_ds_pdp_pc_pg-1-cntr-0-13

Once you have listened, write a review. This should be somewhere between 150 and 250 words
and, like the previous task, can be written electronically or by hand.

Before you start, look at some reviews of another novel you have read (do not look up reviews for
the same book you are about to review at this point.) Look at sites such as The Independent, New
York Times, The Guardian or Slate. You will see that there is no formula for writing reviews, but
they should be informed and opinionated.

Be honest – what is your personal response? If you didn’t enjoy a ‘classic’ book that many
important people say is very important, there is nothing wrong with this – as long as you can
justify it.

Limit your focus. Will your review focus on a particular character? A specific theme? An important
point in the story or the overall writing style? Once you make this decision you will find it much
easier to write.

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 TASK THREE– Your choice of (a) audio or (b) audio
visual
Podcast

Listen to a range of podcasts on books (some listed below.)

After you have researched, record your own for a book (or a range of books) of your choice. Whilst
adhering to our lockdown rules, you could invite someone else to discuss or contribute. Aim for
around a 10-minute recording.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/books-and-authors/id331296649?mt=2
https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/books
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-literary-salon/id495583876?mt=2
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/not-another-book-podcast/id1370122551?mt=2
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/simon-mayos-books-of-the-year/id1402579687?mt=2
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/anything-but-silent/id1464701909

The screen

Choose a text that has been adapted to a series of film. Recent classics include David Copperfield
(staring ex Whitmorian Dev Patel,) Little Women, Noughts and Crosses and many more. Watch and
consider how similar or different it is to the source material. Now, decide how you would adapt
the novel you read to the screen. Design an advertisement or pitch for your idea.

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 Section Two: Leaping into language!
The key difference between the two A Level English courses on offer at Whitmore is that the
English Language and Literature course gives you the opportunity to study non-literary texts. This
means you get to study (in addition to a novel and plays): newspaper articles; blogs; interview
transcripts; reviews; diary entries and TV scripts, to name just a few.

This week you will have three mandatory tasks. If you have time (between now and September), it
would be fantastic if you took some of the skills and observations you develop in this lesson and
apply them to the language you encounter in everyday life. This includes: online, in conversation
with others, in newspapers and even in shops.

TASK ONE– Your own language profile

One of the most interesting aspects of studying language is that you learn more about your own
language use, so let’s make this first task all about you…

Create a ‘language profile’ of yourself by answering the following questions. Highlight what you
think are the most interesting and important aspects of the language you use:

• What’s your earliest language memory? Can you remember a nursery rhyme, song or picture
book from when you were little?
• Have your family or extended family kept any records (video, audio, family memories) of any of
your earliest words?
• Have you kept any school books from when you were learning to read and write?
• Where were you born? Where in the UK, or the wider world, are your family from? Go back a
few generations and consider any other languages that family members might have spoken.
• Are there any words or expressions only you or your family use, which others don’t really
understand?
• Do you or your friends at school use language in any ways that you notice as being different
from other people around you? These could be other people in your year, your teachers, your
family, whoever.
• Do you listen to or watch anyone on TV, online or in films or music videos who uses language in
a way that interests or annoys you?
• Do you ever look at or hear someone else using language in a way that you find is totally new or
strange to you?
• Have your teachers or family ever talked to you about the way you speak?
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One of the most useful resources for language on this course is you. Language is made up of so
much more than the words we see printed on a page, so when you are thinking about language,
come back to these ideas here to keep the range wide. We are often told there is a right way and a
wrong way to use language, but the more you study about language, the more you’ll realise that
it’s more complicated and interesting than that.

And you’ll also start to build up a bigger picture of the different influences on your own language
identity as this course goes on- all the factors that influence who you are linguistically and how you
can choose to behave with language in different situations.

TASK TWO– Do we need new words?

The English language is always generating new words. New words can be created out of nothing
(neologisms) or be formed by using other words- or parts of words- together in new combinations
(called compounds and blends). Sometimes initials of words in a phrase might be used (acronyms
and initialism) and you might also see parts of words being added to the front or end of another
word to give it a new form (prefixes and suffixes).

Look at the list of some of the new words that have appeared (or suddenly become much more
popular) in English over the last few years on the next page.

1. Have you heard of these words before? Have you used any of them? Tick the relevant columns
for each word.
2. Choose two words from the list that you think are an important addition to the language. Try
to come up with a sentence or two explaining why they are so important.
3. Then choose two words from the list that you think are pointless and insignificant. What’s the
problem with these words? Why do you think they shouldn’t be included? Again, write a
sentence or two explaining your thinking.
4. Are there any other new words- or new meanings for older words- that you have heard about?
Perhaps you could make a note of new and interesting uses of words over the next few
months.
5. What are your predictions for the most popular and widely-used words for the next 12
months?
6. Have a look at the following article by one of the world’s most respected slang lexicographers
(people who compile dictionaries of slang): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27405988

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Word Definition Have Have
heard/ used this
seen this word
word being myself
used

Floss A dance in which people twist their

hips in one direction while swinging
their arms in the opposite direction
with their fists closed. Popularised by
the game Fortnite.

VAR Video Assistant Referee. A system

used in football to assist refereeing
decisions.
Gaslight To manipulate or trick someone by
pretending that they cannot trust
what they see or hear until they
doubt their own sanity.

Influencer A person who uses social media to

promote a particular way of life or
commercial products to their online
followers.
Nonbinary A word describing a sexual identity
that does not conform to binary
categories of male and female.
Hamsterkaufing Stockpiling food like a hamster
storing food in its cheeks (from
German).
WFH Working From Home.
Mansplaining A patronising way of explaining
something (by a man to a woman).
Yeet An exclamation of excitement,
approval, surprise or all-around
energy.

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 TASK THREE– Language fingerprints

As you learn more about language use, you’ll start to see that everybody has their own unique
language style. Lots of things influence this: where we’re from; how old we are; the type of work
we do; our interests; our family backgrounds and our own individual personalities. We all have
what’s called an idiolect (an individual language style). It’s not quite the same as a fingerprint, but
there are some similarities. And while detectives can use fingerprints to track down individuals,
forensic linguists can also use this idea of individual language style to identify people, or aspects
of a person’s background.

This activity puts you in the role of a language detective trying to solve a crime. The police need
your help to work out who might have sent an abusive social media message from an anonymous
account to a local politician. They have three suspects in custody and your job is to offer a view on
which one you think is most likely to have sent the message, based on possible language clues.

1. Read Exhibit 1, the abusive message that the police are investigating. Is there anything that
stands out in this message as being potentially interesting about how language is being used?
2. Social media messages about the same issue which were used to identify three suspects. Read
through these in turn, again making a note of anything that strikes you as interesting about
how language is being used.
3. Based on this small amount of data, have you got any suggestions about who might have sent
the abusive messages? Write a short police report explaining your thoughts. Try to pin your
thinking down to specific bits of language evidence in the data.
4. You can check your ideas against our suggestions at the end of the booklet.

Exhibit 1: the abusive message

Hope your really proud of yourself for what you done but gotta no that one day your gonna
get payback!!! We have had enough pf politicians like you not listening to you, you should
of listened!!! Watch your back

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Suspect 1’s social media message

I don’t like what’s been happening in this area since the new housing development started. This
used to be a nice place to live!!! I’m so disappointed in are local representatives for not sticking
up for us!!!

Suspect 2’s social media message

When are local councillors gonna realise that should have been standing up for us and not for
they’re mates in the big building firms, these people are gonna make a fortune from this

Suspect 3’s social media message

Your joking! Are they seriously going to build 200 new houses on the fields up by the hospital?
That is crazy. There’s not enough facilities for the rest of us at the moment. Madness!!!

The Aston Institute For Forensic Linguistics (at Aston University) is the UK’s leading centre
for this kind of work and can be found here
https://www2.aston.ac.uk/lss/research/lss-research/forensic-linguistics

Its director Tim Grant has spoken at the emagazine English Language conference. His
emagClips can be found here
https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/video-clips/clip-listing/leaping-into-language-emagcl
ips

Or you can watch one of his longer lectures here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r32PDyV9wU

John Olsson’s website is also very interesting and tells you more about him and his work:
https://www.thetext.co.uk/
 ANSWERS- DON’T PEAK!

Suspect 1’s Social Media Message

I don’t like what’s been happening in this area since the new housing development started. This used
to be a nice place to live!!! I’m so disappointed in are local representatives for not sticking up for us!!!

Points of similarity
o Uses !!! twice
o Are used instead of our (a homophone)

Where is it different?
o Uses end punctuation and avoids comma splices
o Largely first-person (I and us)

Suspect 2’s Social Media Message

When are local councillors gonna realise that they should of been standing up for us and not for
they’re mates in the big building firms, these people are gonna make a fortune from this

Points of similarity
• Uses gonna twice
• Uses should of been
• Uses they’re instead of their – a homophone
• Uses a comma splice: mates in the big building firms, these people
• Doesn’t use end punctuation (A ? could go where the comma is used and a full-stop at the end of the
whole message)

Where is it different?
• No appearance of !!!
• No second person address

Suspect 3’s Social Media Message

Your joking! Are they seriously going to build 200 new houses on the fields up by the hospital?! That is
crazy. There’s not enough facilities for the rest of us at the moment. Madness!!!
Points of similarity
• Uses your rather than you’re
• Uses !!!

Where is it different?
• Uses !!!, !, ?! and a full-stop – some mixture of end punctuation
• Where gonna could have appeared, they have used going to
• Some quite short sentences compared to the first piece of evidence.

On balance, Suspect 2 is the most likely match. While there are some differences, there are more
similarities than the others. There’s use of second person address in the threatening message and not
in the other evidence, but then if you’re threatening someone you might tend to address them
directly. Of course, if people are posting messages online, not only can they hide their identity, they
can also pretend to be someone else in their language style. There are quite a lot of features in the
threatening message and some of those might have been deliberately inserted to hide the sender’s
real style!

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 Section Three: Shakespeare
Yes, we’re sure you saw this coming! Whether you study A Level English Literature or A Level
English Language and Literature, you certainly won’t be missing out on the experience of delving
deep into at least one of Shakespeare’s famous plays.

This week, you will have the pleasure of re-acquainting yourself with the Literary Legend that is
William Shakespeare through undertaking three mandatory tasks (or four if you’re really enjoying
yourselves!).

The tasks have been designed to take you out of your comfort zone (i.e. GCSE Shakespeare) so that
you can get a taste of what it’s really like to be a confident and successful student of A Level
English Language/Literature. You will experience being a Shakespeare Critic, Lecturer, and
Researcher – with a chance to even question and challenge the Bard’s ideas!

Hopefully, you will enjoy the journey 

TASK ONE– Appreciating and reviewing online productions

So, you may have read a Shakespeare play. You may have even watched a film adaptation. But…
Have you experienced a live performance?

If you have answered ‘Yes’ then, well done, you are already ahead of the game. For the rest of
you, there is good news: whilst we’re currently unable to visit theatres, we can certainly access a
wide range of theatre productions online! One such platform is Digital Theatre – please use the
following login details to access its invaluable resources:

https://edu.digitaltheatreplus.com
Username: student_1063
Password: Whitmore1
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A Shakespeare Play

Choose a Shakespeare play you have never studied before.

Watch the play on Digital Theatre and then record a 2-minute (audio) review of it. It would be
great if you could arrange to do this at the same time as a friend; you could then share your review
via the WhatsApp audio feature.

On a different day, watch ‘Macbeth’ online. What difference does it make to the experience of
watching it to have already studied it? What difference does watching it make to your
understanding? Make notes in response to these questions.

Discussion

A key skill you will develop over the course of the two years of studying A Level English will be the
ability to critically review a performance text to really appreciate its production and reception.

Write the script for a podcast/online discussion between a critic and the director. (If you have
been watching the same play as some of your friends, hold an ‘After Show’ discussion. One of you
could play the director, one a lead actor and one the interviewer/critic. Again, you can use the
WhatsApp group video chat for this).

You can see examples of this type of discussion on the following websites (all free to access!):

1. National Theatre YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/ntdiscovertheatre

2. National Theatre Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-national-theatre-podcast/id1238646120

3. Young Vic
https://www.youtube.com/user/YoungVicLondon

4. Shakespeare’s Globe
https://www.youtube.com/user/ShakespearesGlobe

5. RSC
https://www.youtube.com/user/theRSC

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 TASK TWO– Experiencing a university lecture
There are a series of undergraduate lectures on Shakespeare plays available via Apple podcasts (
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/itunes-u/id399194760) and via Oxford University (
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/people/emma-smith).

These lectures (by Emma Smith) are a great way to experience what it means to be a student of
literature because they entail different approaches, a variety of different ways to think around a
central critical question and, enjoyably, more questions than answers!

Read the following short description in bold of the lecture on ‘Macbeth’ and make a note of your
own ideas and questions about this idea:

Macbeth: This lecture explores ideas of agency – who or what makes happen the things that
happen in Macbeth?

Listen to the lecture in the background, whilst you are doing something else, just to get used to the
approach and style. Don’t worry about taking notes but, afterwards, do jot down 2-3 ideas that
interested you. Listen to the lecture again on another day and see if you can add to your notes.

Listen to a second lecture on a play you haven’t studied. In fact, it would be a good idea if it’s on
the play you watched a theatre production of in Task 1.

Reflect on what it was like to listen to a lecture: what did you enjoy? What did you find
challenging?

Draft an email to Emma Smith in which you explore your response to one of her ideas.

Draft and record your own short lecture (10 minutes) on your Shakespeare play. Follow Emma
Smith’s model and focus your lecture on a specific idea or question.

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 TASK THREE– Immerse yourself in a virtual library
The British Library’s Discovering Literature website is a real treasure trove for anyone interested in
Literature. It includes hundreds of articles on texts from the medieval times to 21st century texts,
plus images of the fascinating items in the British Library Collection.

Visit the Shakespeare section on https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare.

The first thing you could do is simply spend an hour or so exploring the different sections of the
website, allowing yourself to follow whatever paths interest you. (t might be worth having a Word
document open so that you can copy and paste titles and web address of anything you might want
to return to later).

You could then move on to completing the British Library Critical Treasure Trail

Read an article that’s caught your attention and select one key point – bit of treasure – from it
Use the links on the right-hand side of the web page to follow a critical trail through the site.
Read two more articles, collecting bits of treasure as you go
Record your treasure as quotations to share with fellow students on WhatsApp
Produce a written guide to the trail you followed and the treasure you found

OR

TASK FOUR– Take a Risk by Sharing an Idea You’re Not

Too Sure about!
At the heart of becoming a confident and successful student of Language/Literature is to be able
to share your ideas, even if you’re not 100% sure about them, in order to open up a whole new
way of thinking about a text. All interpretations deserve to be shared, questioned and challenged
because, as we all know, there is no right answer in English!

The questioning and challenging of your ideas will help you further clarify, develop and refine
these – a key objective at A Level English Literature and A Level English Language and Literature.

Choose an idea (on a new text you have read or one of your GCSE set texts) that’s been nibbling
away at the back of your mind – an idea you think is interesting but you are unsure of.

Spend a few minutes pursuing your idea either in writing or by recording yourself thinking out
aloud. Think around this idea, being open to its complexity.
Now take the plunge and share your idea with someone.
After your discussion, let the new ideas brew and settle, then have another go at developing them
– this time, in writing.

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 Section Four: Modern drama

Digital Theatre - Includes plays you can watch, interviews with actors and
playwrights, and much more:
https://edu.digitaltheatreplus.com
Username: student_1063
Password: Whitmore1

National theatre – Streaming a different play each week on youtube:

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/nt-at-home

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 Click on this link, and watch at least
the first five minutes:
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=16rSsTh
MDiU

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 Summary – Read ALL of these! Watch TWO!
Symbolism, Although there were differences in their philosophies, Symbolists, https://www.y
Dadaism and Dadaists and Surrealists all thought that plays that tried to be “realistic” outube.com/w
atch?v=Fx0Z6y
Surrealism ironically failed to reflect the “real” experience of what it is like to live 2HmlM&list=PL
life. 8dPuuaLjXtON
For Symbolists, exploring the deep mysteries of life was of much more XALkeh5uisZqr
interesting than replicating the reality of life on stage. This influenced AcPKCee&t=0s
Dadaists (who believed that all logic should be abandoned in favour of
randomness and chaos) and Surrealists (who wanted to recreate a
dreamlike world by merging the real and the imaginary).
Theatre of This movement was pioneered by Antonin Artaud, who believed that https://www.y
Cruelty plays should assault the senses of the audience in order to “wake them outube.com/w
atch?v=DK_vZu
up” to the disturbing realities of the world around them. LYHcw&list=PL
The audience was exposed to loud noises, intense lighting, and abstract 8dPuuaLjXtON
movement including dance. They were not expected to enjoy the XALkeh5uisZqr
experience! AcPKCee&inde
x=44
Epic Theatre Epic theatre sought to engage its audience intellectually so that they https://www.y
might become more critical of the world around them. outube.com/w
atch?v=c7fqMP
Unusual techniques were used to prevent the audience from becoming DcKXM&list=PL
too engaged in the world of play – for example, characters might speak 8dPuuaLjXtON
some of the stage directions aloud, or the entire theatre (including the XALkeh5uisZqr
audience) might be brightly lit. AcPKCee&inde
x=45
This movement was pioneered by Bertolt Brecht, who used theatre as a
political tool through which he could criticise Nazism and capitalism.
Absurd Absurdists believed that we ought to come to terms with the fact that https://www.y
Theatre life is meaningless – an idea known as existentialism. To absurdist outube.com/w
playwrights, if nothing makes sense in life, then nothing ought to make atch?v=eJ7w2I
83ba4&list=PL8
(Choose this sense in theatre either. dPuuaLjXtONX
one if you The dialogue in absurdist plays often goes round in circles, breaks down, ALkeh5uisZqrA
want to learn and ends in silence. Plots tend to be illogical – or lacking altogether. cPKCee&index=
46
more about
Samuel
Beckett!)
Post-War In the mid 20th century, American playwrights began to create their own https://www.y
American style of “serious” plays amongst the lights of Broadway. outube.com/w
atch?v=qgajQD
theatre These playwrights didn’t reject realistic ideas all together – for example, 7PJp0&list=PL8
their plays had easily understandable plots, dialogue, and real-world dPuuaLjXtONX
(This one is locations – but they also tried to reach beyond the real in order to access ALkeh5uisZqrA
most directly something more poetic. Emotional truth was the most important goal. cPKCee&index=
47
relevant to These plays often used working class characters as their protagonists, but
Y12) structured their plays in creative ways (for example, through the use of
flashbacks) and used lighting and music creatively to heighten the
emotional effect.

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