A Level English Language: Paper 4 Language Topics — Practice Questions

These are original stimulus materials and questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Paper 4 Language Topics study guide

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Section A: English in the World

Question 1

Read the following short extract, adapted from a discussion on an international business forum.

“Our company’s internal reports are written in English, even though fewer than half of our staff are first-language English speakers. Some colleagues say this makes meetings faster and fairer, since everyone uses the same working language. Others say it puts non-native speakers at a permanent disadvantage, and that something is lost when people cannot express ideas in their strongest language.”

Discuss what you feel are the most important issues raised in this extract relating to the spread of English as a global language of business. You should refer to specific details from the extract as well as to ideas and examples from your wider study of English in the world. [25]

Section B: Language and the self

Question 2

Read the following short extract, adapted from a magazine feature on workplace communication.

“New graduates entering the office often have to learn a whole new vocabulary — not just technical jargon, but a whole way of talking that signals you belong. Get it wrong, using words that are too casual or too formal for your team, and people notice, even if nobody says anything directly.”

Discuss what you feel are the most important issues raised in this extract relating to the ways in which language can shape and reflect social identity. You should refer to specific details from the extract as well as to ideas and examples from your wider study of Language and the self. [25]

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Model approach: Question 1

A strong response engages with the extract’s specific tension — efficiency and fairness of a shared working language, set against the disadvantage and loss it may create for non-native speakers — before widening out. A workable structure:

Para 1: identify the specific issue the extract raises (English as a
        shared/neutral business language: benefit vs cost)
Para 2: develop the "benefit" side with wider knowledge -- English's
        established role as a global lingua franca in business,
        science and diplomacy; efficiency and access it can provide
Para 3: develop the "cost" side -- disadvantage to non-native speakers,
        loss of nuance, questions of linguistic and cultural
        imperialism raised in wider study of English's global spread
Para 4: a considered judgement that weighs both, referring back to
        the extract's own framing of the debate

Every paragraph should refer back to the extract at least once, rather than drifting into a general essay about global English that could have been written without reading it.

Model approach: Question 2

A strong response identifies that the extract describes a sociolect (a shared, group-specific way of speaking associated with belonging to a workplace or profession), not an individual’s idiolect, even though it is framed around individual graduates’ experience. A workable structure:

Para 1: identify the specific issue -- linguistic conformity as a
        marker of belonging in a new social/occupational group
Para 2: link to wider knowledge of sociolect and identity -- how
        adopting a group's register signals membership, and how
        getting it wrong can mark someone as an outsider
Para 3: connect to a named influence from wider study -- occupation
        and workplace as a source of shared sociolect, comparable to
        the way region, age or social group produce their own
        sociolects
Para 4: a considered conclusion on what the extract reveals about the
        relationship between language choices and social identity

As with Question 1, anchor each paragraph in a specific detail from the extract (the phrase “signals you belong,” the idea that “people notice”) rather than writing a prepared answer about language and identity in general.

Practising the four-part structure on your own stimulus

Both model approaches above follow the same underlying shape: identify the specific issue the extract raises, develop one side or angle with named wider-study knowledge, develop a second side or angle the same way, then reach a considered judgement that refers back to the extract. This structure is transferable to any unseen stimulus, so a useful way to build speed before the exam is to find a short news headline or social-media comment thread on a language-related issue — global English’s spread, a workplace or generational slang trend, an accent being mocked or celebrated online — and practise sketching the same four-part plan against it, even without writing the full response. The skill being trained is not memorising content but reliably applying the same structure to material you have never seen before, which is exactly what the real exam demands.

Where marks are usually lost

• Writing a prepared, generic essay that does not engage with the specific stimulus text.
• Taking only one side of a genuinely two-sided issue when the extract itself presents both.
• Confusing idiolect (individual) with sociolect (shared, group-level) in Section B-style responses.
• Naming a relevant concept (lingua franca, cultural imperialism, sociolect) without linking it explicitly back to the extract’s own content.
• Uneven development between paragraphs, with a long first point and a rushed conclusion that never reaches a genuine judgement.