Eduqas A-Level English Language: Component 1 Language Concepts and Issues, a complete overview

What Component 1 is and how it is structured

Component 1, Language Concepts and Issues, is the first of the three Eduqas A-Level English Language papers: a 2 hour written exam worth 30 percent of the A-level, in two sections that test two different skills. Section A is close analysis of spoken language; Section B is critical argument about language issues. Together they assess the first three assessment objectives, the systematic analysis of language (AO1), critical understanding of concepts (AO2), and the reading of meaning in context (AO3). This overview ties the paper together; each part has its own dot-point page with practice questions.

Section A: the spoken language analysis

Section A presents at least two transcriptions of real spoken language and sets one analytical question, marked out of 60 for AO1 and AO3. The skill is to read the transcript's notation as evidence, lead with the frameworks that do real work in spoken data (discourse, pragmatics, phonology and prosody, with grammar and lexis), move from feature to effect, and build a single argument across the transcripts. The decisive disciplines are reading the notation and never treating normal speech features as errors.

Section B: the language issues essay

Section B is a discursive essay, one question chosen from three set across four topics, marked out of 40 with AO2 dominant. The four topics are:

• Standard and non-standard English - accent and dialect, regional and social variation, overt and covert prestige, and the social basis of attitudes to variation.
• Language and power - instrumental and influential power, power in occupation and institutions, control of discourse, and synthetic personalisation.
• Language and situation - register through field, tenor and mode, the spoken-written continuum, and how context drives language choices.
• Language acquisition - the stages of children's spoken and written development and the four major theories (behaviourist, nativist, cognitive, social interactionist).

The essay rewards arguing a critical case, not surveying a topic.

The assessment objectives in Component 1

The paper tests three objectives, weighted differently across the sections.

• AO1 (analysis and terminology) and AO3 (meaning in context) dominate Section A, the spoken analysis.
• AO2 (critical understanding of concepts and issues) dominates Section B, the language issues essay, supported by AO1 and AO3.

So Section A rewards the feature-to-effect analytical move, and Section B rewards the critical deployment of concepts and theories grounded in examples.

How to revise Component 1

The two sections need two kinds of practice.

1. Drill unseen spoken analysis. Practise reading transcript notation and analysing fresh transcripts under time, leading with discourse, prosody and pragmatics and arguing across both texts.
2. Learn the concepts for all four topics. Build the conceptual range for standard and non-standard English, power, situation and acquisition, so you can argue any of the three essay questions you are offered.
3. Practise timed discursive essays. Rehearse arguing a critical case (thesis, development, counter-view, judgement) rather than surveying, on each topic.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and applied questions on Component 1. Attempt them, then check against the solutions.

1. What are the two sections of Component 1, and what does each assess? (3 marks)
2. Name the four language issues topics. (2 marks)
3. What should you read first in a Section A transcript, and why? (2 marks)
4. Which assessment objective dominates the Section B essay? (1 mark)
5. What is the difference between arguing a case and surveying a topic? (2 marks)
6. Why should you not treat fillers and false starts as errors? (2 marks)
7. Why is it wise to prepare all four essay topics? (2 marks)