aqa engb4 wre jan13

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General Certificate of Education (A-level)January 2013

English Language B

(Specification 2705)

ENGB4

Unit 4: Investigating Language

Report on the Examination


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Report on the Examination General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Language B ENGB4 January 2013

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General

The entry numbers for this series of the ENGB4: Investigating Languagemodule were

consistent with previous January series. The majority of schools and colleges had clearly

worked very hard to prepare their students for both elements of this unit, and in general had

applied the mark schemes very accurately. Moderators saw some excellent work at all levels

of the mark ranges. In particular, schools and colleges should be congratulated on the range

of topics covered for the language investigations and on the imaginative links between the

investigation and the media text. Unfortunately some moderators found that there was

evidence of students from a minority of schools and colleges all doing the same topic for their

investigation (e.g. gender). This approach is not in the spirit of the specification; students

should be encouraged to approach this module with an open-mind and a free choice,

supported, rather than restricted by their school or college.

Approaches to the Invest igation:

In line with previous series, a number of students chose a topic which was clearly influenced

by personal interest. This allowed students to really engage with the task and their data

interesting topics this series included:

Language development of a hearing-impaired child

Language of a migrant community

Language of my school reports

Code switching between English and another language

Bias in football match reports

Language of WW1 recruitment posters

Language of Call of Duty

How comedy is created in The Big Bang Theory

Some students took an AO2 approach to their investigation, often using their AS study as a

starting point and applying it to a range of different topics. At times, students set out to prove

or disprove language ideas, theories or concepts and this was often very successful it often

gave students a very clear focus. Some good examples included:

Is there a gender difference in Amazon online reviews?

How does Gordon Ramsay exert power in his television show?

Is there really a difference between motherese and fatherese?

Can Tannens gender theory be applied to gender representation in Friends?

When structuring their findings, some students are seemingly still being encouraged to only

use the language methods. Whilst this can be appropriate, some students were restricted by

using the same methods regardless of their data or what they were trying to find. Schools

and colleges should encourage students to use their findings to structure their investigation,

not try and fit their findings into pre-planned sections. Questions or aspects of language

ideas/concepts can be very successful. In the most successful investigations (i.e. Candidate

A in the Centre Standardising Materials 2012-13), it is clear that subheadings have been part

of an on-going learning process, being discussed as the investigation progresses. It is clear

that in the best cases this discussion should form the basis of tutorials during the production

of the investigation.


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Successful Investigations

Some key factors of successful (and less successful) investigations include:

A concise and focused introduction.Some students are still writing very lengthy

introductions; on occasions the length of their introduction (+ methodology, hypothesis)was longer than the actual analysis. Concise introductions contained elements such as

reasons for their choice, their aims and a clear rationale.

A methodology which focused clearly on data selectionnot just collection. The

most successful methodologies made it very clear why certain sections of data had been

chosen. This often led to discussion of eradicating unhelpful variables, choosing

comparable data (e.g. scenes, parts of a speech, songs/artists) and keeping the data to a

manageable level. On occasions, students had far too much data which didnt allow for a

focused level of analysis. At times, students chose data for a comparative investigation

which was not wholly appropriate, i.e. there were too many variables to allow forsuccessful conclusions to be drawn and the reasons for their choice were unclear or

unconvincing.

Appropriate, i ll uminating and interest ing data. There was evidence of some excellent

data being collected by students covering both written and spoken examples. There was

some evidence of students picking their data to fit their investigation which is a rather

flawed approach as it does not prove/disprove anything.

Clear st ructure for reporting findings. Almost all students divided their investigation

into subheadings which allowed for a very clear focus. The better investigations movedaway from a lexis, grammar, discourse... structure and used their findings to inform the

structure often using questions this clearly led to an analytical approach. Subheadings

can also inform the assessment process when it is clear that they are shaped to suit the

data and focus. Therefore in schools and colleges where all the subheadings are the

same, students are disadvantaging because the subheadings cannot be given credit in

these cases.

Wider reading and successful embedding of ideas from language study. There was

some excellent evidence of relevant AO2 issues being used to support comments and

extend discussion. There was also good evidence of students challenging language

ideas through their data and findings. Worryingly, some schools and colleges are still

reliant on out-dated AO2 to support students. This is particularly apparent in gender

driven investigations. Schools and colleges are reminded that some theories are now

approaching 50 years old, and there are more recent, relevant and useful studies

available for students to read.

Identifying and discussing the most appropriate AO1 features to write about.

Students are not expected to write about every detail of their data. In the best

investigations, students chose to focus on the most applicable and interesting things they

had found. This often led to an in-depth analysis. Those students who tried to write

about everything often just skimmed the surface and drew more general conclusions

from their data.


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Clear and consistent links to context. This is also very important when assessing

students work. Schools and colleges are reminded that AO3 cannot be awarded above

the mid-band when there is little evidence that AO1 are linked to context consistently.

Meeting the word count. Moderators remarked that this always led to more focusedreports. This series there was very little evidence of any students going considerably

over the word count.

The Media Text

Moderators commented that this series saw a considerable improvement in the use of

precise, carefully considered audiences and genres for this component of the folder. This

suggests that students are now better prepared for this unit, and that schools and colleges

are using synoptic skills from ENGB2 to support the delivery of this piece of writing. This

approach can only benefit students, as when schools and colleges do not encourage

students to use a precise audience and genre, they are disadvantaged considerably.Moderators also remarked that there was a sense that students were beginning to think

carefully about the validity of their media text, and to a certain extent its relevance as a real

piece of writing. Some thoughtful examples which moderators came across included:

How to use your conversation to be a successful student nurse (Student Nursing Website

linked with an investigation on occupational dialects)

Women... How to get through to them! (Guardian newspaper article linked with an

investigation on gendered talk)

Toddlers, Tantrums & Timeouts (Online parenting website linked with an investigation

on Parentese) Male vs Female bosses (Cosmo article about different language styles in management

linked to an investigation on gender differences in the talk on a food programme)

Language and On The Road: take a language approach to this months read (A book

club webpage for ideas for groups to try linked to an investigation on Language and

Ideology in On The Road)

None of these choices are particularly challenging or unusual; however, what makes them

helpful as examples is their focus and consideration of the chosen audience and genre. As

readers, they feel potentially convincing as pieces of writing in a real context.

Some additional factors which influence the success of media texts include:

A wide link to the investigat ion allowing students to explore other areas of

language. This approach also encourages wider reading, as for students to produce a

convincing and appropriate text they need to be well-versed in a wide range of language

concepts. Moderators reported that when schools and colleges appeared to instruct their

students to stick very rigidly to the investigation topic, this did have a detrimental impact

on the success of a students writing. This also meant that students who struggled to find

the appropriate register for report style writing struggled further still switching to the

register required for their media piece.


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Effective embedding of language ideas into the media text using an appropriate

register given the non-specialist audience. Unfortunately at times, the language used

by some students was not appropriate and there was evidence of linguistic terminology

being used when it was clearly not appropriate for the chosen audience. It was, however,

pleasing to see that the vast majority of media texts did attempt to include languageknowledge, avoiding rubric infringements.

Assessment:

There was evidence of some excellent good practice seen across the majority of centres this

series. The best practice included:

Detailed annotation in the body of the work and summative comments covering each AO

Centre assessment sheets covering each AO more and more schools and colleges are

using their own assessment forms which are very helpful and allow for detailed

comments on each AO

Clear evidence of internal moderation especially where marks have moved during the

moderation process.

NB: Moderators have remarked that there are a number of schools and colleges where it

appears that internal moderation means making a positive adjustment to a mark, and that

there are only a handful of examples each series where marks are moved down. Schools

and colleges are reminded that if marks are adjusted in any direction, then reasons must begiven. A revised number without explanation is very challenging to justify.

Mark Ranges and Award of Grades

Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on theResults statistics

page of the AQA Website.
http://web.aqa.org.uk/over/stat.phphttp://web.aqa.org.uk/over/stat.phphttp://web.aqa.org.uk/over/stat.phphttp://web.aqa.org.uk/over/stat.php

aqa engb4 wre jan13

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