GCSE English Language 2010
Studying Spoken Language

The newest and potentially most exciting area of the new GCSE specifications is the Studying Spoken
Language section of the Controlled Assessment for
GCSE English Language.
The focus of this unit is investigative, asking candidates to explore their own spoken language and/or that of others, including perhaps spoken language in media and technologies such as internet messaging services. Sample Controlled Assessment tasks are available online so that you can see the type of tasks that will be set. All of the tasks are fairly open-ended so that you can help individual students tailor their research to suit their interests and the type of data available to them. One of the teachers who has done a trial of the new unit said, ‘the tasks were greeted with enthusiasm and the ability to connect what we were exploring to the wider context. The tasks lead to independent study which meant there was a good deal of ownership for the students.’

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Teachers who have trialled the unit have given us some very useful feedback on which we can base further support. One important point is that giving enough time and thought to the initial data collection pays dividends in terms of the level of analysis which students can carry out.
The script and commentary on the following pages are examples of the further resources you can see online at http://web.aqa.org.uk/englishLangA These are provided to demonstrate ways of approaching this exciting new unit. We are very grateful to those schools who trialled ideas and provided us with this material. Comments made about the students’ work are in no way intended as a criticism. Teachers and students were trying out ideas and were working without the structured advice that is now being put in place. Resources and further exemplar material will continue to