A very high percentage of students who stay on into the sixth form, go on to study either English Language or English Literature at AS and A2 level. In the last two years, the proportion of the year group taking one or both subjects has been between 60 and 70%. Our English courses are popular with our students for a number of reasons : they encourage excellent communication skills, both in speaking and writing; we follow syllabi which are stimulating and rewarding to study; and last but not least, the lessons are often discussion-based and the students participate actively. Extra-curricular activities designed to enhance students’ learning are always popular; the Literature groups enjoy theatre visits, including to Stratford, and residential visits, e.g. to Haworth to extend their understanding of the lives and the work of the Bronte sisters and ‘Wuthering Heights’ in particular (an A level set text). These visits have combined serious study with lectures given by Bronte Society members, with an invigorating climb up to Top Withins and social events such eating out together in the evening and being spooked by ghost stories in the Youth Hostel afterwards. The Language groups have visited primary schools to work with Year One and Year Five in their study of Child Language Acquisition, and have enjoyed hearing from practising primary school teachers about their experience of helping children learn to read and write.
Full details of the English Language and English Literature courses taught, can be found either on the AQ website (AQA Syllabus B, new specification from 2008 in both subjects), or a synopsis of it can be read in the College’s Sixth Form prospectus. However, very briefly, the English Literature course aims to extend the students’ knowledge of and enthusiasm for a wide variety of literary texts and genres; it involves wide reading, discussion, critical analysis and essay writing. It involves looking at literary texts from different eras through a range of perspectives and considering other readers’ responses an interpretations as well as one’s own. The English Language course inculcates a methodological approach to the analysis of written and spoken language in its many forms, and introduces students to a wide range of ideas about how and why language is used in different ways in different contexts …everything from what makes some people fascinating to listen to and some very boring, to why some people call a spade a shovel, to why students of English as a foreign language are often baffled by our spelling system…As well as the systematic analysis of speech and written texts of many types, we look at Language and Gender, Language and Power, a Language and Technology; Language Acquisition and Language Change.. and the students create their own texts and commentaries – of publishable quality – for their coursework.