Welcome to English Language A Level

Important information:

• This is a two year course

• All exams are taken at the end of Y13

What can I expect from EdExcel English Language?

• Component 1: Language Variation

• Component 2: Child Language

• Component 3: Investigating Language

• Coursework: Crafting Language

This is what we will be working on today and for your summer

task

What is ‘Child Language Acquisition’?

• Students will explore:• spoken language acquisition and how children learn to write between the ages of 0

and 8

• the relationship between spoken language acquisition and literacy skills that children are taught, including the beginnings of reading

• appropriate theories of children’s language development.

This is what we are going to explore today and over the summer

The Language of Children’s Books

Get the cogs turning…

Paired discussion: –What 5 language features do you expect to find in children’s

early reading books? (up to the age of 5)

Connect…

• On the next slide, there is a page taken from The Snail and The Whale.

• Think/Pair/Paragraphed Response/Share:• What do you notice about the language used in children’s books?

• what comments can you make about the grammar (the sentences) of the text?

• what comments can you make about the lexis (words) and phonology (sounds) of the text?

• what comments can you make about typography (the typeface) and graphology (pictures and colours) of the text?

What comments can you make about the grammar (the sentences) of the text?What comments can you make about the lexis (words) and phonology (sounds) of the text?What comments can you make about typography (the typeface) and graphology (pictures and colours) of the text?

Many children’s books borrow features from the oral tradition

• The oral tradition was a way of passing on stories from one generation to the next at a time when people were illiterate.

Typical features of the Oral Tradition• Alliteration and Assonance

• Repeated Formulae For example through simple speech tags:• ‘Good grief!’ said the goose.• ‘Well, well!’ said the pig.• ‘Who cares?’ said the sheep.

• Message/moral For example, ‘Never talk to strangers.’ ‘A fool and his money are soon parted’

• Rhythmic Language This is best appreciated when the text is read aloud.

• Simple additive structures (coordinating conjunctions) The events of the story will tend to be linked using coordinating conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘but’ rather than more complex structures using subordinating conjunctions such as ‘because’, ‘therefore’, ‘if’ etc. For example: ‘Ruth was only three, but she often went to school.’

Key question: To what extent does The Snail and the Whale use features from the oral tradition?...

1. Alliteration and Assonance2. Repeated Formulae 3. Message/moral 4. Rhythmic Language 5. Simple additive structure

Demonstrate: In pairs, look through various children’s books. You will have 5 minutes with each book…

How many features can you identify in the story?

Feature found in story book:

grammar (the sentences); lexis (words); phonology (sounds) typography (the typeface) and graphology (pictures and colours)

Name of book and quote

Progress check: what did you find?

How is language used in Children’s Reading Books?

Progress check

Quick fire!

• On the next slide, there is a page taken from ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’. Write down EVERYTHING you can about the language of the text.

So, now we know about the language of children’s books, it’s time to introduce

your summer project…

For our first lesson in September, you will hand in the following two items. This will allow us to assess your suitability for the course so it is important that you try your best!

• Item 1: A children’s book, no more than 10 sides long

• Item 2: A commentary explaining your language choices, no more than 500 words long

Grammar (the sentences)In terms of grammar, all of the sentences I have used are simple “ The cat sat on the mat”Lexis (words)Lexically, all of my lexical choices are simple. The word choices are mainly nouns and verbsPhonology (sounds) In terms on phonology, my story has a strong rhythm and includes rhyme throughout… Alliteration has also been used I the naming of my charactersTypography (the typeface) The typeface I have chosen is…Graphology (pictures and colours) Each picture I have used illustrates what is happening on the page of the story. For example, …

So, what now?

• In the time remaining of this session, you can start to put together your children’s reading book

•Over the summer you will complete your storybook and write your commentary

Have fun!