OxfordAQA International A-Level English Language: Language and Society — Revision Notes

Condensed for the final weeks. For the full explanation, use the Unit 2 Language and Society study guide.

Section A and Section B are one connected task, not two

The single most valuable exam-technique skill for this unit is reading Section A’s source material with Section B already in mind — noting, while analysing, which observations could support an academic argument later. A Section B essay that restates the Section A analysis rather than building on it as evidence is the most common cause of lost marks.

Four social functions — name them precisely

Function	What to look for
Group rapport / shared perspectives	Language building solidarity around shared interests or affiliations
Power and status	Closed questions, topic control, formal register, politeness/hedging strategies
Identity and relationship	Word choices constructing a persona; first-person narrative building credibility
Play and performance	Wordplay, in-group banter, creative or performative language use

Naming the specific function a feature demonstrates — not just describing what a text says — is what Section A is assessed against.

Practise across all three modes

Section A source material can be spoken, written or multimodal. Revision that only uses written prose leaves a gap: practise an interview transcript (spoken), a piece of persuasive writing (written), an example of informal banter or wordplay (spoken/informal), and a genuinely multimodal text that combines more than one semiotic channel – for example a meme or an advertisement where image and caption work together – so an unfamiliar text type in the exam is not a surprise. Multimodal means combining channels such as text and image, not a synonym for informal register.

A worked structure for a spoken transcript

POWER AND STATUS:      closed questions and topic control by one
                        speaker; formal register maintained by both;
                        politeness/hedging by the less powerful speaker
IDENTITY/RELATIONSHIP: word choices constructing a professional
                        persona; first-person narrative building
                        credibility
LINK TO SECTION B:      these observations about power and
                        self-presentation in institutional talk could
                        support an essay on how language reflects or
                        reinforces power relationships in interaction

A weak answer would describe the transcript’s topic (what job, what questions) without naming the specific language features doing this social work.

Weighting tells you where to invest revision time

AO1 (understanding of methods, terminology, concepts and issues) is weighted more heavily in Unit 2 than in Unit 1, where AO3 (using English in different ways) dominates. This signals that precise linguistic terminology matters at least as much as fluent writing style for this unit — vague description costs marks that precise, named terminology would earn.

Distinguishing Unit 2’s Section B from Unit 1’s

Unit 2’s Section B is an academic essay using Section A’s analysis as evidence — it is not a transformed or creative writing task, which is what Unit 1’s Directed Writing asks for. Treating Unit 2’s Section B as a creative exercise, rather than an evidence-based argument, misreads the task entirely.

How Unit 2 fits the wider International AS/A-level

Units 1 and 2 together make up the International AS, each contributing 20% to the full International A-level (50% each of the AS). Because both units are weighted identically at the AS stage, revision time across them should be balanced evenly rather than skewed toward whichever unit was taught most recently — a candidate strong on Unit 1 but under-prepared on Unit 2’s social-function vocabulary has not actually balanced their AS preparation, even where overall confidence feels high.

Exam traps

• Writing Section B as a restatement of Section A rather than an academic argument built on it.
• Describing content without naming the specific language feature and its social function.
• Treating “power and status” and “identity” as interchangeable categories.
• Revising only written prose, neglecting spoken and multimodal data.
• Confusing Unit 2’s academic-essay Section B with Unit 1’s transformed/creative Directed Writing task.

Building a genuinely mixed-mode revision folder

Because Section A source material is drawn from spoken, written and multimodal texts about power, identity and play, keep a revision folder that genuinely mixes these formats rather than one dominated by written articles simply because they are easiest to find and annotate. An interview transcript sourced from a real broadcast (spoken), a piece of online persuasive writing (written), an example of informal banter or wordplay (spoken/informal), and a meme or captioned image that combines text and picture (genuinely multimodal) together give more realistic preparation than three examples of the same written-prose format with different topics.

Self-test

1. What is the single most valuable exam-technique skill for this unit, connecting its two sections?
2. Name the four social functions of language this unit assesses.
3. Why should revision include spoken and genuinely multimodal texts, not just written prose, and what does “multimodal” actually mean?
4. Which assessment objective is weighted more heavily in Unit 2 than Unit 1, and what does that signal for revision priorities?
5. How does Unit 2’s Section B differ in task type from Unit 1’s Section B?

Answers: 1. Reading Section A’s source material with an eye to what argument it could support in Section B, rather than treating the two sections as unrelated tasks. 2. Group rapport/shared perspectives, power and status, identity and relationship, and play/performance. 3. Because Section A’s source material is explicitly drawn from spoken, written and multimodal texts, so revision confined to written prose leaves genuine gaps; multimodal means a text that combines more than one semiotic channel, such as image and text together, not simply an informal register. 4. AO1 (understanding of methods, terminology, concepts and issues); this signals that precise linguistic terminology matters at least as much as fluent writing style. 5. Unit 2’s Section B is an academic essay building an argument from Section A’s analysis; Unit 1’s Section B is a transformed or creative Directed Writing task, not an academic essay.

Related resources

• Unit 2 Language and Society study guide
• Unit 2 Language and Society practice questions