Wales Β· WJECSyllabus
English Language syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the Wales English Languagesyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
Unit 1: Exploring Language (AS)
Module overview β- How do you analyse a text closely using the language levels, and how do those methods answer the compulsory Section A question on Unit 1?Analysing language: using the language levels (phonetics, phonology and prosodics; lexis and semantics; grammar and morphology; pragmatics; discourse) plus genre, audience, purpose and mode to analyse an unseen text in Unit 1 Section A.14 min answer β
- What is contemporary English in the digital age, and how do you write the compulsory Section B response on present-day language in use?Contemporary English: present-day language in use, including the influence of technology, electronic communication and social change, analysed for Unit 1 Section B.13 min answer β
Unit 2: Language Issues and Original and Critical Writing (AS)
Module overview β- How do you write the critical commentary in Unit 2 part (c) that analyses your own original writing?Critical writing (part c): a reflective commentary analysing the language choices made in the part (b) original piece, explaining how they suit genre, audience and purpose.13 min answer β
- What are the main language issues debated at AS, and how do you write the part (a) essay on a language issue in Unit 2?Language issues (part a): the key debates including standard and non-standard English, accent and dialect, language and power, language and gender, and language acquisition, discussed with reference to data.14 min answer β
- How do you write an effective original piece for a given genre, audience and purpose in Unit 2 part (b)?Original writing (part b): producing a piece of writing for a specified genre, audience, purpose and mode, using deliberate language choices.13 min answer β
Unit 3: Language over Time (A2)
Module overview βUnit 4: Spoken Language and Creative Re-casting (A2)
Module overview β- How do you analyse a spoken-language transcript in Unit 4 Section A, and what features and theories matter?Analysing spoken language (Section A): the features of speech (prosodics, fillers, pauses, overlaps, turn-taking, adjacency pairs, repair) and the theories of conversation, applied to a transcript.15 min answer β
- What is creative re-casting, and how do you transform a source text into a new genre, audience and mode in Unit 4 Section B?Creative re-casting (Section B): transforming a given source text into a new genre, audience, purpose or mode, making deliberate language choices appropriate to the new form.13 min answer β