English A-level 'should widen'

Language and literature should be taught at A-level, says report

Teachers say pupils should be able to study both literature and language in A-level English.

A report for the National Association of Teachers of English (Nate) challenges the tradition of A-level students only taking literature.

Report author John Hodgson says it was an "historical accident" that in Britain the study of language was usually dropped before A-level.

And he rejected suggestions this would mean the end of teaching classic texts.

"It's not about cutting out the literary heritage," he said. It was about widening the subject to reflect what modern teenagers needed to know about the uses of language.

'World of language'

For example, he said the general election campaign was full of examples of different ways of using language - and pupils should have the skills to understand different ways of communication.

"There seems to be a slightly elitist assumption that we don't discuss language as an aspect of English," he said.

Mr Hodgson suggests a more integrated approach to English A-level - in which pupils would study literary texts in detail but could also study elements of language, such as how language changes over time and different types of usage.

The study of English has changed at university level, he says. But at A-level it remains in an artificially divided system, where most pupils taking English only study literature.

"We live in a world of language, where the importance of language is paramount," he says. And whether it is in the form of literary texts or the mass media, language also needs to be studied.

In other countries in Europe and North America, he says both English literature and language are taught, but in Britain there has been a pattern of only treating literature as the subject to be taken by more academic pupils.