A-level English Language investigation guide
This comprehensive, step-by-step guide to the AQA A-level English Language investigation NEA carefully walks students through the whole investigation process.
From idea generation to question formulation to analysis skills, each stage of the non-examined assessment (NEA) is covered with helpful advice and checklists for students to complete. There are also sentence starters to help them to get writing, and suggested reading and secondary sources to help them to develop their linguistic analysis and understanding of their chosen topic.
Designed to share with students, it's a complete coursework handbook, covering the introduction, methodology and analysis, as well as guidance on how to reference other sources and data correctly and planning templates.
Just add some sample investigations from AQA, and you are ready to go! Recommended.
A sample from the investigation handbook:
Formulating the question or title
Tips:
- This should take the form of a question about the data, or a statement about the focus of the investigation.
- Keep the focus narrow, and the investigation will be manageable.
- Remember to not have preconceived ideas about what you will find.
- Choose three texts, 100 years apart.
Example questions/statements:
- Are there differences in the way men and women write across time?
- An investigation into the language of gravestones in a local churchyard.
- A comparison of the regional accents and dialects across time.
- How does the presentation of the news reflect the needs and interests of different audiences across time?
- How does the language of advertising change across time?
What type of investigation will you do?
|
An analysis of |
implies close attention to detail |
|
A comparison of |
looks at two or more sets of data which have similarity and difference |
|
A study of |
implies wider-ranging consideration |
|
An exploration |
implies something wide-ranging with discovery as an end result |
|
An enquiry into |
implies that you have an open question which you will attempt to answer |
|
Research into |
implies that the data collection is in itself important |
|
The language of |
implies that the investigation will attempt to define the trends in language use in one particular area |
