Linguistics for GCSE English

This page is for a project launched in 2022 whose aim is to provide examples of how linguistics can help teachers to prepare students for the GCSE English exams, both in Language and in Literature. These exams all expect students to comment on unseen texts provided in the exam, but the model answers available from the exam boards are very short of linguistic content. The following papers contribute to our goal.

• A general survey (by Dick Hudson) of the language content of the National Curriculum for Key Stage 4, of the Ofqual specifications for GCSE, of the specifications of one exam body (AQA), and of one particular AQA exam, as well as a linguistic commentary on one of the unseen texts from that exam.