Welcome to AS English Language!

A very warm welcome to all our new AS English Language students!

We hope you've found Introduction Day useful and that you've had a chance to get a feel for what AS English Language is going to be like. Obviously with only 25 minutes to talk to you about English Language we've barely been able to scratch the surface of the course, but we'd like to think that we've given you a flavour of the range of fascinating areas of investigation and analysis in which you'll be engaging when you begin studying AS English Language in September.

If you'd like to find out more about some of the issues on which you'll be focusing in the course, then make sure you log on to this blog over the summer holidays, as we'll be updating it whenever we come across anything that we think our students will find interesting and useful for your studies.

As we mentioned at Introduction Day, you will also find it very useful to buy or borrow a copy of Language: the Basics by Larry Trask and dip into some of the recommended chapters before you start the course in September. This book is available at the click of a mouse from Amazon or play.com. You'll find chapters 1, 2, 3 6, 7 and 8 the most useful. You might also find English Language Revision Express helpful as an indication of the key areas of study on the AS English Language course (again available from Amazon or play.com). This revision guide makes it very clear which topics are relevant for which exam board (we do AQA Specification A at Strode's - click here if you want to have a look at the detailed specification).

The other thing you can be doing to prepare yourself for the course is to READ anything and everything. Whilst there are no set texts for this course (as there are with AS English Literature and AS English Language and Literature), we will be studying a wide range of short texts covering a multitude of genres with a view to identifying linguistic patterns within them, so you can give yourself a headstart now by immersing yourself in a variety of texts. As a student of English Language you will need to become familiar with a range of linguistic styles, so get reading everything from newspapers (both broadsheet and tabloid) to magazines to websites to horoscopes to adverts to the back of Cornflakes packets etc etc. All types of language are fair game on this course!

Finally, if you have any questions about the course, then please do contact either Jason Jones at jjones@strodes.ac.uk or Nicky Whillans at nwhillans@strodes.ac.uk.

Have a great summer, and we look forward to seeing you in September!