OxfordAQA International A-Level English Language: Language Exploration (Unit 4) — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Unit 4 Language Exploration revision notes · Unit 4 study guide

Unit 4 of OxfordAQA International A-level English Language (9670) is either a 2 hour 30 minute exam (4a), in which you devise a research question for data provided and write a report, or a non-exam language investigation (4b). Part 1 below is a full 4a-style task with three invented data sets on a common theme. Part 2 practises the decisions a 4b investigation needs. Both routes are marked out of 50.

Part 1: Unit 4a-style data investigation (50 marks)

The theme of the data is terms of address. Using at least two of the data sets, devise a research question, then plan and carry out an analysis. Write up your results as a report with the headings Aim(s), Method, Analysis and Conclusion. [50]

Data set A: emails to a teacher (opening and closing lines, five students, invented)

Student	Opening	Closing
1	Dear Mr Haddad,	Kind regards, Sara
2	Hi sir	thanks
3	Good morning Mr Haddad,	Best wishes, Omar
4	Hey	thx!!
5	Hello Mr H,	Many thanks, Lina

Data set B: an online customer-service chat (extract, invented)

Agent: Hi Daniel, thanks for getting in touch! How can I help today? Customer: hi, my order hasn’t arrived Agent: Sorry to hear that, Daniel. Let me check that for you right away. Customer: thanks mate Agent: No problem at all! I can see it’s out for delivery today.

Data set C: survey of 40 students, “How would you address a teacher by email?” (invented)

Form	Number of students
Title + surname (Mr/Ms X)	22
“Sir”/“Miss”	9
First name	2
No address term	7

Part 2: Unit 4b planning questions

1. Turn this topic into a focused research question and classify it as genre-, function-, attitudes- or user-based: “Language on signs in my city.” [3]

2. Describe a method for collecting data for your question in Question 1, including one ethical or practical issue. [4]

3. List the six sections a 4b report must contain. [3]

4. A student concludes: “My data proves that young people no longer use formal language.” Explain why this conclusion is weak and rewrite it. [3]

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Indicative content: Part 1

Possible research questions (AO1: aims with precision)

• “How do students vary terms of address and politeness in emails to a teacher, and how far does survey data on students’ stated preferences match their actual usage?” (A + C)
• “How do address terms construct the relationship between writer and reader in a school email and in a commercial chat?” (A + B)

Method

• State which data sets are used and why; categorise address terms (title + surname, honorifics such as “sir”, first name, zero address, informal greetings); compare openings and closings; compare stated preference (C) with use (A); note the small, invented samples.

Analysis (AO2)

Level	Points from the data
Lexis	Honorifics (“sir”, “Mr H”) versus title + surname; vocative “mate” in B; clipped “thx”
Pragmatics	Politeness: formal openings show negative politeness and respect for status; “Hey” and “Hi sir” mix informality with deference; in B the agent’s repeated first-name address builds rapport (synthetic personalisation) while the customer’s “mate” claims equality
Graphology	Punctuation: “thx!!” and missing capitals in informal emails; the agent’s exclamation marks to signal friendliness
Discourse	Openings and closings as conventional frames of email genre; the chat’s adjacency pairs
Data handling	In C, 22 of 40 (55%) choose title + surname, and 7 of 40 (17.5%) no address term; in A, two of five emails (2 and 4) use no title + surname, and the closings range from formal (“Kind regards”) to informal (“thx!!”)

Conclusion

• For example: formal address dominates students’ stated preferences, but actual emails show more variation, especially in closings; commercial chats use first names strategically. Conclusions must be tentative: five emails and 40 survey responses cannot be generalised.

Levels (illustrative)

• Top: precise aim, justified selection, analysis across several language levels with data handling, concepts such as politeness theory and synthetic personalisation applied, cautious conclusion, report written with control (AO3).
• Middle: clear aim and method; accurate features, some concepts; conclusion linked to the aim.
• Lower: aim vague or missing; description of the data without analysis.

Answers: Part 2

1. For example: “How do official and commercial signs in one shopping street use imperatives and politeness markers?” [2]; function/use-based [1]. (An attitudes-based alternative: “How do residents feel about English-only signs in a multilingual area?”)

2. [4] For example: photograph a defined sample (all signs in one street, or 30 signs of each type), record location and type, transcribe the wording into a table; issue: photographing private property or people requires care, and sample size must be manageable within the word limit (section 3.4.2 says about 2,500 words excluding data; the assessment overview says 2,500 to 3,000 words).

3. Aim(s); Method; Analysis; Conclusion; References; Appendix (data) [3 for six, 2 for four or five, 1 for two or three].

4. “Proves” overclaims from a limited sample, and “no longer” implies change over time that the data has not measured [2]. Rewrite [1]: “In my sample of 20 messages from five 17-year-olds, informal forms were more frequent than formal ones, which suggests, though it cannot prove, that these speakers choose informal language in this context.”

Frequently asked questions

Must I use all three data sets in Unit 4a? No. You use some or all of the data, but at least two of the texts or data sets. No task involves more than three.

Is a research question better than an aim? The suggested report structure starts with “Aim(s)”. A clear research question can be stated as your aim.

How much numerical analysis is expected? Data-handling skills are part of what the unit tests, so simple counts, percentages and comparisons are useful where the data allows, always interpreted linguistically.

Official specification

OxfordAQA International AS and A-level English Language (9670), Version 5.2, 3.4 Language exploration — oxfordaqa.com.