This section tests your:

• Knowledge of debates in the areas of language variation and change.
• Ability to analyse a text, specifically a text presenting a language issue to a wide audience.

You are expected to analyse a text for its effectiveness, similarly to other areas of your language study, but you are also expected to consider how good its arguments are.  In other words, you are asked to assess the points it makes about language, and this is where your existing knowledge comes in.  The biggest pitfall here is to get caught up in arguing with the text and forgetting to deconstruct it linguistically - it is crucial that you remember to do both.

Possible areas for the topic to come from are:

• International, regional and social accents and dialects
• Language change
• Gender and interaction
• Political correctness

You can best prepare yourself by:

• Revising the topics we have studied (explore the A2 Lang section of the website)
• Reading at least one quality newspaper with an eye out for language stories
• Checking blogs (like this one) to supplement the above
• Practising your analytical skills by doing the work we set you