When analysing texts and data, students should explore: how language…

The idea

This statement asks you to explain variation and change, not merely spot it. For any text or data set, you should identify how personal identity, social group, geographical location and time period shape language choices. You then need to explain why those patterns exist, comparing different views and explanations, such as contact, prestige, identity marking or technological influence, and judging how convincing each is. You should also examine attitudes to variation and change, including prescriptive and descriptive positions, and show how audience, purpose, genre and mode constrain language. Finally, you should analyse how language enacts relationships, for example through terms of address, politeness strategies, turn-taking or pronoun choice. Strong analysis links a specific feature to a specific contextual cause or effect.

What earns the marks

• Explains variation by reference to personal, social, geographical and temporal context, using evidence from the text rather than assertion.
• Evaluates competing explanations for why language changes, such as language contact, social prestige, identity performance or technological innovation.
• Analyses attitudes to variation and change, distinguishing descriptive observation from prescriptive judgement.
• Shows how audience, purpose, genre and mode shape lexical, grammatical and discourse choices in a text.
• Examines how language enacts relationships through address terms, politeness, stance, turn-taking or pronoun use.
• Synthesises textual evidence with research findings to build a reasoned argument about diversity or change.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Describing a feature without explaining its cause or effect.

  Put it right by adding a 'because' or 'so that' clause linking feature to context.

• Treating all language change as decline.

  Put it right by evaluating prescriptive and descriptive views and considering evidence for both.

• Ignoring mode when comparing texts.

  Put it right by noting how speech, writing and electronic communication afford different choices.

Exam tips

• Anchor every analytical claim to a short quotation or data item, then explain the contextual reason for that choice.
• Use comparative connectives such as 'whereas', 'similarly' and 'in contrast' to structure arguments about variation.
• Reserve time to evaluate attitudes and explanations, since description alone will not reach the higher levels.