WORKBOOK ANSWERS
AQA AS English Language (B)
Unit 1Categorising Texts
The following consists of suggestions for some of the possible answers that might be given for the questions asked in the workbook. They are not exhaustive and other answers may be acceptable, but they are intended as a guide to give teachers and students feedback. The student responses for the longer essay-style questions are intended to give some idea about how the exam questions might be answered and are based on actual student responses in previous exams. The examiner comments (underlined text) have been added to give you some sense of what is rewarded in the exam and which areas can be developed. Again, these are not the only ways to answer such questions but can be treated as one way of approaching questions of these types.
Section A Text varieties
Stimulus texts
Stimulus text A
1The main purpose would appear to be to inform people about the problems caused by chaining bicycles to the fence, but information is not really the primary purpose here. The key purpose seems to be to warn cyclists that their bikes will be removed (and possibly damaged during the removal).
2There is little obvious consideration for design here, but it is black and white, so the no-frills design might be used to match the simple, direct nature of the information.
3The register is formal and quite distant in tone. The relationship between text producer and audience is not a friendly one. The register might have been used to convey a sense of authority. There is no attempt to use pronouns to address the audience.
4The use of three declarative sentences on the sign presents simple ideas in a straightforward and matter-of-fact way. The lack of modality in the first sentence presents the proposition as a simple fact. The use of a modal auxiliary (will be removed) suggests a degree of certainty.
Stimulus text B
5The leaflet seems designed to address people affected by the strike rather than the strikers themselves. The use of pronouns (‘we’ and ‘us’) suggests an attempt to bridge the gap between strikers and the rest of the public. The use of the polite imperative ‘please support…’ helps with this too.
6The graphology is clear and uncluttered, being used to structure a simple, clear message. The union’s logo confers a degree of official status on the leaflet. The web address suggests that more information can be found on the union’s website.
7The semantics of conflict and struggle are used in the leaflet, e.g. ‘defend’, ‘under attack’, ‘campaign’.
8The sentences are mainly declarative (statements) which lay out a clear message in a straightforward way. The repeated imperative ‘Stop the great pensions robbery’ sounds urgent and serious. The breadth of the groups affected is represented through the list of noun phrases in the first bullet point (e.g. three million teachers and school leaders).
Grouping stimulus texts A and B
9Both texts have clear purposes. A degree of pressure is exerted by the UCU leaflet, which attempts both to encourage support for the strike and to explain the reasons for it. The pressure is exerted via imperative sentences and, more subtly, by showing the range of people affected.
The text for the warning sign could not be much clearer in its message. It uses declaratives to explain the problem and a modal verb (will) to express certainty that bicycles will definitely be removed, and it suggests that there is a risk to the bicycle when the bicycle is taken away.
10The simplicity of each text is designed to make the messages clear. The graphology is uncluttered and text based. Little attempt has been made to distract from the key message.
Stimulus text C
11These are interrogatives. They are rhetorical and designed to make the audience consider the question Clegg has just asked.
12These are first person plural pronouns. Clegg is probably using them to refer to both himself and his party members as a collective group.
13By using antonyms (terms for opposites) which are often associated with the two main political parties (Labour and Conservative) Clegg positions his party between the two and characterises the others as criticising from each side. On a wider rhetorical note, it could be argued that by positioning his party as victims of inconsistent and perhaps unfair criticism, his audience (party members too) will see the difficulty of the decisions he has had to make on their behalf.
Stimulus text D
14The pronoun ‘you’ and the possessive determiner (or pronoun) ‘your’ are part of the same technique of direct address. The book is designed to put you in the shoes of the hero and involve you in the action (like a first person console/PC game), so the direct address helps to achieve this.
15The present tense is used for most of this. It is used to involve you in the action as it unfolds and make the experience more engaging. Elsewhere verbs used to express future time (e.g. ‘will’) help to establish choices for your character to make.
16These are interrogatives and are designed to offer you the choice of what to do. They are closed questions, which means that you can only give a yes or no answer and choose between the two options offered.
17The descriptive language fits with the text’s literary genre and the text producer’s intention to describe the imaginary world around you. Adjectives are used frequently as part of noun phrases (e.g. ‘huge’ in ‘several huge craters’) and there is also a sense of description of locations and where things are, using prepositional phrases such as ‘in an area towards the north pole of the planet’ and ‘habitation’ and ‘oceans’.
Stimulus text E
18The highlighted words are all concrete nouns. The text is focused primarily on physical objects such as rooms, furniture and fittings, so it is to be expected that nouns such as this will be frequent.
19The text is designed to inform potential buyers about the property and to offer a description of it in such a way as to make it look desirable. It is unlikely to be doing much overt persuasion, but there are occasional evaluative adjectives (e.g. ample).
Stimulus text F
20These words are all related to the context that the boys are playing within. They are all deictic terms: words referring to places and directions that only the players would be able to make sense of.
21These are all imperatives. The nature of the interaction is such that one boy is giving the other instructions and commands, so these imperatives convey clear instructions quickly.
Stimulus text G
22These are all imperative verbs designed to provide instructions to the viewer. The key purpose of this extract is to instruct viewers how to make their meal, so imperatives do that job effectively.
23These are discourse markers. We tend to find them in spoken language when speakers are drawing attention to something new they are about to say, or when they wish to signal that we should be listening. Perhaps here, they help to confer a degree of spontaneity on the language.
24These are all personal pronouns and might suggest that while the key purpose is to instruct, a personal dimension between speaker and viewer is also desirable. The chef wants to convey a degree of her personality and to address the listeners too.
Stimulus text H
25These are all forms of non-standard English, ranging from abbreviations (clippings like ‘def’ instead of ‘definitely’) to non-standard capitalisation — a common feature of computer-mediated communication (CMC).
26Not all the turns offer interaction here and it is an easy mistake to assume that just because people are all communicating in the same space (the online forum) they are actually engaging with each other. Most of the participants seem to make some reference to what has been typed before, but they do not engage directly at all times. Spoken conversation is in real time, so allows for simultaneous speech — interruptions and overlaps — but online chat like this is not quite synchronic (at the same time) so we get regular turn-taking here instead, and perhaps the interaction is not as fluid as a result.
Grouping the texts
27A range of answers is possible. The sample student answer to question 29 below contains one way to group the texts.
28(a)The second person pronoun you is used extensively throughout these texts, but if you are identifying its use, try to pick it out with some contextual detail. For example, look for an example where you can see how it is being used: ‘Some of you may have even wondered’ (from text C where Nick Clegg addresses his party followers).
28(b)Given the nature of these texts, there are frequent uses of instructions, but look for different forms of them. For example:
- In text F, imperatives and modals are used to instruct: ‘I told you (1) take cover (.) get prone (.) you must take cover’.
- In text G, the presenter uses imperatives but also a less direct way of instructing. She explains what she is doing and by implication what her audience should also be doing, using the first person singular (‘I’) and plural (‘we’): ‘now while that’s lightly frying we can cut up the red chilli (1) slice it nice and thin (2) I leave the seeds in as I like a bit of extra heat’.
28(c)There are frequent occurrences of interaction in both texts, but as with the question above about direct address it is important to look at a couple of these in context and see how the interaction works. For example, in text F there is turn-taking based around instructions and responses as adjacency pairs:
J: I’m out of ammo =
L: = B is reload (.) hit B (.) quick
Another example is in text H where one participant responds to another with a ‘thank you’, showing some appreciation that the topic s/he has introduced has now provoked a serious response:
User 5: It’s got some sublime moments on it. ‘Called Out in the Dark’ and ‘This Isn’t Everything You Are’ do it for me — beautiful songs
User 1: Thankyou, an intelligent response at last
Sample student answer to question 29
I would place texts A and G in a group as they are both designed to instruct the reader[a]. They both use different approaches to do this and it is also noticeable that they are in different modes[b]— one is spoken and one is written — so they will probably use different approaches because of this. Text A uses simple graphology[c] to support its clear purpose. It is basically just words on a clear background, making the message simple to understand. Text G has no graphology as it was originally spoken and is therefore a transcript. However, it does have a structure and this is shown in the way the speaker uses words[d] like so to move on from one part of what she is saying to the next. / [a]Identifies a group[b]Sees differences within a group
[c]Refers to a language method
[d]A little imprecise: would be better to give so a proper label (discourse marker, connective or conjunction)
The content of the instructions is different too. In text G it is all about how to prepare a meal, while in text A it is all about what not to do[e]. So, while the texts are similar in some ways they are different in others. They would also have different audiences[f] as people who read text A would probably be people about to park their bikes and the people listening to text G would be hoping to find out more about cooking. / [e]Sees differences in type of instruction
[f]Aware of different audiences
Texts F and H are examples of interactional language[g], and therefore they are my second group. But again, there are differences between them. Text F is a spoken interaction and text H is an online interaction, so this makes them different. Both texts use turn-taking[h], and this is a common feature of interaction, but it is different because of the modes they are in. As text H is online it is not really carried out face to face and this makes the turn-taking a bit more delayed. Text F is actually being spoken and the boys in the transcript are playing a game together, so the turn-taking reflects this. You can see for example in the first two lines, speakers L and J interact. L gives instructions (imperatives[i] like ‘go left’) and J responds. The fact that there is also instruction here means that you could group text F in with A and G above[j]. / [g]Another group
[h]A language feature of that group
[i]An accurately identified and exemplified language feature
[j]Yes, links back to previous group. However, it might have been better to have mentioned this before as it sounds a bit like it has only just been noticed
Texts C, D and G are also part of a group because they all use language to address[k] the audience. Text C is a political speech and in this Nick Clegg refers to his supporters using the pronoun[l]‘you’ and he also tries to unite his party by using inclusive pronouns like ‘we’ and ‘us’. Text D uses address in a different way as it is aimed at a reader and the book is like a game in which the reader has to make choices. The address in this book is therefore directly at the reader (again, ‘you’ is used). Text G addresses the listener by using pronouns too[m]. / [k]Another group
[l]Accurate identification of a language feature as part of group
[m]This is true but it is not supported by examples or analysis
I have also placed texts B and E in a group together because they both use language to inform[n]. They are designed to tell the reader more about a particular topic and therefore use language in an informative way using lots of imperatives[o]. Text B is aimed at informing the public about why people are on strike so it tries to be informative, and text E is giving details of a house that is for sale. You could say that both of these texts are trying to persuade the reader too[p]. / [n]Another group (another grouping by purpose)
[o]Again, this may be true but it sounds vague. Where are the examples? It is also rather unlikely that imperatives are being used to inform. Does the student mean declaratives?
[p]You could say that, but where is the evidence?
Another grouping that I would like to discuss is those texts using formal register[q]. Text A is a good example of this because it has a serious tone to it with words like ‘will’ suggesting certainty[r]. Nick Clegg’s speech in text C uses a serious register too, because he says ‘But above all I want to pay tribute to you. Your resilience. Your grace under fire. I have been genuinely moved by your spirit and your strength.’ / [q]Another group (this time around a language feature)
[r]This is partly true, but what is missing is a precise focus on what kinds of words are used, their grammatical label and their function. ‘Will’ is a modal verb and if you have studied language and power you should be familiar with them.
In this example, his language is sophisticated and serious, for example the adjectives ‘resilience’ and ‘grace’[s]. You can see that he is being serious because of the context he is in — speaking to his party supporters and possibly the rest of the viewing public, so he needs to sound serious and intelligent[t]. / [s]Inaccurate labels. These are abstract nouns. The point about the serious tone of the language is not wrong, but it is still rather vague.
[t]Some awareness of context here — but it is also worth taking this further and thinking about exactly how he addresses his audiences and how he has to be aware of both audiences at the same time in his messages.
Overall examiner comment
The student has made a good start at grouping these texts, but it is a rather undeveloped answer that could have been taken in different directions to get a higher mark.
AO1: there is some accurate identification of some language features, but there is room for more detail. If you call something a ‘word’ you should always try to think what word class it is and try to label it appropriately (for example, abstract noun, adjective etc.). This AO would probably have been placed in the middle of the sound–good band on the mark scheme.
AO2: there are some reasonable groupings made here, including ones around purposes and language features. Some attempts are made to differentiate within those groups, but they are not always successful. It would have been better to plan this answer a little more and look for more subtle connections between the texts. There is a mix of description and analysis here, and some use of example (although not always consistently) so this would probably have been somewhere in the middle of sound–good again.
AO3: this is not as developed as the other two areas because the candidate has not always discussed in detail how the language works to create meaning. There are references to different audiences and purposes, but these need more development. On a couple of occasions, the candidate mentions a language feature without really explaining how it works in its context. This would probably have been a bit lower in the sound–good band.
Overall, this student would probably be looking at a mark total of about 25–30 out of 48, so over half marks but not heading into the territory needed for top grades.