AQA A LEVEL ENGLISH

LANGUAGE
NON-EXAM ASSESSMENT What You Need to
Know and What
(NEA Coursework) You Need to Do

Students Handbook
The NEA
For completion of your A Level English Language qualification, you will submit a
piece of coursework. This is known as the NEA (Non-Exam Assessment) and it
accounts for 20% of your overall mark.

We will work on this on timetable, but much of this work will fall to you. This
resource tells you exactly what is expected. It is important that you read
and understand it so that you can access the higher mark bands.

What does the NEA consist of?

It will contain two different components:

 A language investigation (2000 words, excluding data)

 A piece of original writing and a commentary (750 words each)

How many marks are awarded for the NEA?

The language investigation is marked out of 50 and the original
writing/commentary are also out of 50 (25 marks for each).

The Investigation
The investigation is marked using the following Assessment Objectives:

AO1: 15 marks

AO2: 15 marks

AO3: 20 marks

What do the different AOs look for?

AO1 is looking at what students do: their application of appropriate language
methods, analysis and written expression.

AO2 is what students understand about language, including others’ ideas and
research, along with an understanding of how to conduct a linguistic
investigation.

AO3 is what students interpret and understand about the language being
studied: in other words, the significance of the language in the data, its
meanings and contexts.

As you can see from above, AO3 is weighted slightly more heavily than the other
AOs, so it would be a good idea to really pinpoint the different contextual factors
of language production and reception. AO3 is also linked to the creation of
meaning, so it’s a good idea to consider possible language effects as well as
clearly identifying those features.
Remember: you also need to provide references and a bibliography.
Doing so will give you more chance of accessing the higher mark bands.

How do I choose a good topic for my language

investigation?
You could serve yourselves well to choose an area we have already studied in
class: something relating to gender, occupation, accent/dialect or age. However,
if there is a different area which interests you, you may be able to focus on this.
Just remember that any topic, whatever style of investigation you decide upon,
will need to be agreed by your teacher. Don’t suppose you will be able to change
your mind later on in the process, as you may risk your chances of submitting a
good piece of work if you do so!

You have 2000 words in which to do this task: that sounds like a lot, but once
you factor in an introduction, methodology, analysis section and
evaluation/conclusion then you will see that it is actually rather challenging to
get everything done in the word count allowed.

You can help yourself by not choosing something too vague or too large to
analyse in detail. You need to think carefully about the amount of data you
collect and how to select the most relevant material for the investigation
question to be answered. This may also mean making sure your research
question is focused enough to prevent overly long or broad analysis.

Please note: you will need to submit clean copies of your data with your
investigation: whatever you have used for analysis, be it transcripts, articles,
questionnaires or anything else, then make sure you have a note-free version.
This is different to previous years when annotated data was welcomed.

All data can be placed in a section at the back known as an ‘Appendix’. If you
have different pieces of data to submit, then you simply add another Appendix
section. Nothing here counts towards the 2000 words. Quotes from your
data don’t use up your word count either.

The Original Writing

Students will produce one piece of original writing based on one of the following
three areas:

 The power of persuasion

 The power of storytelling
 The power of information

So, for instance:

The power of persuasion could be: a piece of investigative journalism, a

speech delivered on a controversial topic or a letter to an MP.
The power of storytelling could be: a short story, an extract from a biography
or a dramatic monologue.

The power of information could be a piece of travel journalism, a blog

focusing on social issues or a piece of local history.

These are just ideas: any kind of writing that fits into one of the three areas
could be submitted. Ask your teacher for guidance.

One thing to point out: writing any of these in just 750 words will be a
challenge. This will not be the ‘easy’ bit of the portfolio by a long stretch! Make
sure you pick a genre of text which plays to your strengths and prepare to do a
lot of drafts on your own time to get this right.

Style models
What is a style model?

A style model is a sample text in the genre you will be writing. It is not just
important for you in terms of giving you an example of tone, register and
language techniques to emulate in your own work – it is also a vital part of your
portfolio. You have to submit a style model which has been analysed in detail.
(You may include up to two more, but your focus will be on one.)

You will be given sample style models in class, but I strongly feel that you should
find your own. This will take time: I also advise you not to choose a style model
which is very similar in subject matter to your own proposed piece of work – all
you are looking for is an existing text which uses an effective array of techniques
and style. If your style model is somewhat longer than your own piece of writing,
that is fine (but I would advise that it’s unlikely you’ll find a style model shorter
than 750 words which will give you enough support.)

Submitting a style model is a requirement of the coursework portfolio.

It is specifically referred to in the mark scheme.

A student who does not submit an annotated style model, or who does
not refer to a style model on their commentary, will only be able to
achieve a maximum of 3/25 marks for their commentary!

The commentary
What is a commentary?

A commentary is a short reflection on the process of completing your original

writing. In due course, you will be given a template to help you do this. In your
commentary, you will consider things such as:

 How you tailored your writing for its genre

 How you tailored your writing for a desired audience
 How and why you structured your piece of writing
 How and why you used specific language techniques
 …and how this relates to your
style model

The commentary is equally-weighted in terms of marks with the original writing

itself, and should be the same length (750 words). In common with the original
writing, it will be challenging to get everything done in so few words (but quotes
from your writing or your style model will not be counted).

If you are unsure what to include, then look at the mark scheme provided.

How will my NEA be assessed?

The language investigation is marked out of 50 and the original

writing and

commentary out of 50 (25 for each).

Overall, the NEA forms 20% of the overall marks of the A-level.

As the specification outlines, "Students can choose to pursue a

study of spoken, written or multimodal data, or a mixture of

text types,

demonstrating knowledge in areas of individual interest".

How is the language investigation assessed?

The investigation is marked using the following AOs:

 AO1 15 marks
 AO2 15 marks
 AO3 20 marks

(total marks 50)

These AOs are more clearly defined in the specification, but one
way of viewing them for this task might be to see them as
follows:

 AO1 What students do: their application of appropriate

language methods, their analysis and their written
expression.
  AO2 What students understand about language, including
others’ ideas and research, along with an understanding of
how to conduct a linguistic investigation.
 AO3 What students interpret and understand from the
language being used. In other words, the significance of
the language in the data, its meanings and contexts.

 There is also a requirement to include a

bibliography. Students who submit references and
a bibliography will be more likely access level 5 of
the AO2 mark scheme.

Where to find the research?

• Ask your teachers if you can borrow any of the textbooks

which cover these topics. There may be some in the
library.

• Look back at your own notes if you have already

completed the topic you have chosen

• Look at past exam papers and articles on the AQA website

or do a search for texts and data. You might find data
sets in your own notes from class.

• Use the internet. There are many websites that cover

English Language. Look up issues on Slideshare, or Prezi
where previous students have done some work – just
check their work first.

• Use established websites as well as blogs. Use key

theorists as key word searches or, if you don’t know the
theorist, look up the concept.

• Look up tutorials on YouTube, quizzes on Quizlet or similar

Try these websites

[Link]
[Link]

[Link]
full_a2_english_language_revision

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]

Oxford University podcasts/itunes

[Link]
[Link]
Cambridge University virtual classroom – there is a free sign in for this.
[Link]
English department paid subscription
[Link]
Username: opgs
Password: English