OxfordAQA A Level English Language (9670): Unit 3 – Language Variation – Study Guide

Unit 3 asks how language varies: across the first years of a child’s life, and across the world. The two sections look very different. One studies how children learn to speak and write; the other studies how English has spread, changed and taken on new forms in different places. The skills are the same: close attention to data, accurate use of linguistic terms, and the ability to link your observations to concepts and explain what they show. This guide gives you the concepts and a method for each section.

Where this fits in the specification

Unit 3 is the A Level stage of 9670, building on the AS units on language and context and language and society. It has two sections, A on Learning Language and B on International English. You should check with your teacher how the paper is organised and how many marks each part carries. The linguistic toolkit you used at AS level still applies: phonology, lexis, grammar, semantics, pragmatics, discourse and graphology.

Section A: Learning Language

This section concerns how children acquire language, in speech and in writing, and how adults and the social environment affect that development. You should expect to analyse data from children, such as a short transcript of a child talking with a parent, or a sample of a child’s early writing, and to explain it using concepts and theory.

Stages of speech development

Children usually pass through recognisable stages, although the age at which each appears varies a great deal between children.

• Pre-verbal: crying, cooing and then babbling, where repeated syllables such as “ba-ba” develop.
• Holophrastic (one-word): single words stand for whole ideas, for example “milk” meaning “I want milk”.
• Two-word: combinations such as “daddy gone” show the beginning of grammar.
• Telegraphic: strings of content words with function words missing, such as “want more juice”.
• Post-telegraphic: function words and inflections appear, with fuller sentences.

Typical features worth noticing in data are overgeneralisation (producing “runned” or “mouses” by applying a regular rule to an irregular word), simplification of difficult sounds (such as saying “wabbit” for “rabbit”), and overextension and underextension in meaning, for example calling every four-legged animal “dog”.

Theories of acquisition

Theories offer different explanations, and a strong answer uses them to test the evidence instead of reciting them.

• Behaviourist (Skinner): children learn by imitation and reinforcement. This explains how children pick up vocabulary and phrases from adults, but struggles to explain overgeneralisation, since children do not hear “runned” from adults.
• Nativist (Chomsky): humans are born with an innate capacity for language, often called a language acquisition device. It helps to explain the speed of learning and the way children produce sentences they have never heard.
• Cognitive (Piaget): language develops as general thinking develops, so a child needs the concept before the word.
• Social-interactionist (Bruner): language develops through interaction with caregivers who support the child, for example by adjusting their speech and by using familiar routines and games.

Child-directed speech, where adults use shorter sentences, higher pitch, repetition, expansion and recasting, is an important concept in the interactionist view. Expansion is when the adult extends the child’s utterance (“Doggy run.” / “Yes, the doggy is running fast”).

Writing development

Children’s writing also develops in recognisable steps, from drawing and marks resembling writing, to letters, to words spelled as they sound (phonetic spelling) and then to conventional spelling and punctuation, and finally to control of different genres and audiences. Kroll proposed a model of stages from preparatory to integrated writing; you should be able to use a stage model as a framework and not as a rule. In analysing a child’s writing, look at spelling patterns, letter formation, punctuation, sentence structure, vocabulary and awareness of audience and genre, and the influence of teaching, reading and spoken language.

Method for analysing data

1. Read the data and note the child’s approximate age and the context.
2. Pick out three or four features, such as an overgeneralisation, a type of question, or a spelling pattern.
3. Name each feature with the correct term and quote it briefly.
4. Explain the evidence of development: what the child can do and what they cannot yet do.
5. Link to a theory or concept and evaluate it: does this evidence support or challenge it?
6. Comment on the role of the adult and the context.

Section B: International English

This section concerns the varieties of English around the world and the issues raised by its global spread. You will be asked to discuss texts and data and also to write about wider debates.

Key concepts

• Spread of English: through trade, colonisation and migration, and later through media, technology, education and business.
• Kachru’s three circles: the inner circle (countries where English is the first language, such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia), the outer circle (countries where English has an official or institutional role, often after colonial history, such as India, Nigeria and Singapore) and the expanding circle (countries where English is used as a foreign language for international communication). The model is useful but criticised as too simple, as many speakers do not fit neatly into one circle.
• Varieties and standards: nations may have their own standard forms, with local vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Terms such as World Englishes express the idea that many varieties have equal linguistic validity.
• Pidgins and creoles: a pidgin is a simplified contact language with no native speakers; a creole develops when a pidgin becomes a first language with expanded vocabulary and grammar.
• Code-switching and code-mixing: moving between languages or varieties within a conversation or sentence, often to signal identity, solidarity or topic.
• Attitudes and identity: debates about prestige, correctness, linguistic imperialism, language and national identity, and the future of local languages.

Method for analysing a text

1. Identify the variety, speaker, context and purpose.
2. Select features: phonological spelling or representation, local lexis, grammar that differs from your own standard, code-switching and discourse style.
3. Explain why a feature may have arisen, for example language contact or local culture, not only that it exists.
4. Avoid describing non-standard forms as errors. Present them as systematic features of a variety.
5. Connect to a concept, such as identity, prestige or the three circles, and evaluate its usefulness.

Worked example: analysing a short child utterance

Imagine a transcript in which a child of about two years and six months says “Me no want bath” and the parent replies “You don’t want a bath? You’d like to play a bit longer?”

• “Me no want bath” shows a pronoun case that is not yet adult-like (“me” for “I”), a simple negation with “no” placed before the verb, and the absence of the article “a”. These are typical of a child moving from two-word to early multi-word grammar.
• The parent’s reply recasts the utterance in adult form (“You don’t want a bath?”), which models correct grammar without direct correction, and then expands with a further suggestion.
• A social-interactionist would say the parent’s recast supports development. A nativist might point out that the child’s negative form follows a systematic pattern, not copied from adult speech. A behaviourist would struggle to explain it, since adults do not say “Me no want”.

That is three features, each named, quoted and explained, linked to a theory and evaluated: a model for a high-scoring paragraph.

Common mistakes

• Reciting a theory without using the data.
• Treating the stages of development as fixed ages.
• Using terms such as “slang” or “mistakes” for varieties of English.
• Listing features without explaining what they show.
• Making sweeping claims about countries or speakers without evidence from the data.
• Using Kachru’s model as the only idea in Section B.

Exam technique

• Use the linguistic terms precisely, and quote short pieces of the data.
• Balance description, explanation and evaluation. A list of features alone is not analysis.
• Plan an essay response with a clear line of argument, concepts and linked examples.
• Plan your time across sections according to the marks available.

Frequently asked questions

How long is OxfordAQA 9670 Unit 3? 2 hours for 50 marks and 30% of the International A-level.

What are the sections? Section A Learning language and Section B International English, each with one question from a choice of two (25 marks).

Is Unit 3 part of the International AS? No. Units 3 and 4 are taken only for the full International A-level.

Check your understanding

1. What is overgeneralisation? Answer: applying a regular grammatical rule to an irregular word, for example “runned”.
2. Name the stage in which a child says “want more juice”. Answer: telegraphic stage.
3. Give one criticism of the behaviourist view of acquisition. Answer: it cannot explain overgeneralisations, which children have not heard from adults.
4. What is recasting? Answer: when an adult repeats a child’s utterance in a corrected or fuller form.
5. Name Kachru’s three circles. Answer: inner, outer and expanding.
6. What is the difference between a pidgin and a creole? Answer: a pidgin is a simplified contact language without native speakers; a creole is a pidgin that has become a first language with fuller structure.
7. Why should non-standard forms not be called errors in an analysis of International English? Answer: they are regular features of varieties with their own rules and often reflect identity and context.