1. AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 50%
Paper 2 50%
Section A:
Reading
1 unseen literature fiction text
Section B:
Writing
Descriptive or narrative writing
Section A:
Reading
1 non-fiction and 1 literary non-fiction text
Section B:
Writing
Writing to present a viewpoint
Total exam time:
1 hour and 45 minutes
Total exam time:
1 hour and 45 minutes
All exams will be at the end of Year 11. You will also sit an English Literature GCSE.

2. AQA GCSE English Language Assessment Objectives
AO1: Identify and understand explicit (obvious) and implicit (hidden) information and ideas. Select and synthesize (blend) evidence from different texts.
AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology.
AO3: Compare writers’ ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed, across two or more texts.
AO4:Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references.
AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, adapting tone, style and register for different TAP. Organise information & ideas, using structural and grammatical features.
AO6: Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

3. Question 1 Identifying explicit information and ideas
This question assesses your ability to identify and retrieve specific information and ideas that have been presented straightforwardly in a specific section of the source text.
Generally question 1 does not present most higher-level students with a great deal of challenge. But…
You are likely to be nervous.
You may think of it as too easy and rush it.
You may ignore what you think it ‘too obvious’.
You may miss the focus of the question, or answer outside of specified lines.

4. Have a go…
Read lines 1 – 14 of the source text on and list four things that we learn about Mr Black’s office.

5. Progress Check Have you:
Found evidence in the text the prove the truth of each of the points you made?
Do all the points you have made relate only

6. Question 2 Analysing a writer’s choice of language.
Higher grades will:
show detailed and perceptive understanding when you analyse the effects of the writer’s choice of language
make sophisticated and accurate use of subject terminology appropriately, linking references to language features to the results they produce
select and use a judicious range of textual detail (i.e. quotations) to support your analysis.

7. What do they mean?
Using a dictionary, write a clear definition for each of these terms. When writing question 2, think about what they might mean in that context. Detailed: Perceptive: Analyse: Sophisticated: Judicious range:

8. Analysis
Can you link these two phrases? Look at ‘holed’ and ‘something vital torn out’? Also, what does ‘we’ suggest?
I knew we were holed deep under the waterline, I could more or less feel it in my body, something vital torn out of the ship echoed in the pit of my stomach, some mischief done, deep, deep in some engine room or cargo hold.
How does this phrase link him to the ship?

9. I knew we were holed deep under the waterline, I could more or less feel it in my body, something vital torn out of the ship echoed in the pit of my stomach, some mischief done, deep, deep in some engine room or cargo hold.
‘How does the writer use language to describe the experience of being on board a ship struck by a torpedo?’

10. Analyse the final clause of the sentence, ‘… some mischief done, deep, deep, deep in some engine room or cargo hold’ and write the next part of the response you felt was most effective.

11. Detailed and Perceptive Understanding
Detailed – take a forensic approach. Closely explore the effect of specific words, phrases or language choices.
Perceptive – look beneath the surface meanings and develop more insightful comments.

12. Look at lines 5-11. Annotate the text in the margin with detailed and perceptive notes.
A long sentence, punctuated by commas to give the impression of a series of quick, linked actions and events.
The next second the huge ship started to pitch to port, and before I could grab him, Ned Johns went off sliding down the new slope and smashing into the rail, gathered himself, stood up, looked back at me, and then was wrenched across the rail and out of view. I knew we were holed deep under the waterline, I could more or less feel it in my body, something vital torn out of the ship echoed in the pit of my stomach, some mischief done, deep, deep in some engine room or cargo hold.
Write question on the whiteboard.

13. Now read from lines 6-23, find and analyse the extended metaphor
Now read from lines 6-23, find and analyse the extended metaphor. Demonstrate a detailed and perceptive understanding.
The next second the huge ship started to pitch to port, and before I could grab him, Ned Johns went off sliding down the new slope and smashing into the rail, gathered himself, stood up, looked back at me, and then was wrenched across the rail and out of view. I knew we were holed deep under the waterline, I could more or less feel it in my body, something vital torn out of the ship echoed in the pit of my stomach, some mischief done, deep, deep in some engine room or cargo hold. My other helper, Johnny ‘Fats’ Talbott, a man so lean you could have used him for spare wire, as poor Ned Johns once said, in truth was using me now as a kind of bollard, but that was no good, because the ship seemed to make a delayed reaction to its wound, and shuddered upward, the ship’s rail rearing up ten feet in a bizarre and impossible movement, catching poor Johnny completely off guard, since he had been bracing himself against a force from the other direction, and off he went behind me, pulling the trouser leg off my uniform as he did so, sending my precious half-crowns firing in every direction.

14. Sophisticated use of subject-terminology
Another important quality of a higher-grade answer to Question 2 is the sophisticated and accurate use of subject terminology.
To make sophisticated and accurate use of subject terminology, you need to:
refer to the specific language features a writer uses as well as exploring the effects these create
identify and explore more ambitious language features, such as metaphors, symbolism, lexical fields and sibilance, as well as straightforward features, such as adjectives, exciting verbs and nouns.

15. Search lines 6 – 23 for more techniques. Highlight them.

16. How does the writer use language to describe the experience being on board a ship struck by a torpedo? (lines 6 – 23)
Write your response. Use detailed and perceptive analysis, subject terminology and judicious range of textual detail (short and appropriate, embed it into the sentence).
8 marks. 12 minutes. Write two detailed paragraphs, including all of the above.