Language and power is one of four core topic areas studied in Component 2, Section B. It involves exploring how language affects all aspects of life, specifically focusing on how power dynamics are constructed, maintained, and challenged through language use in various contexts.
Language and power explores how language is used to create, maintain, and challenge power structures in society. This topic is central to WJEC A-Level English Language, as it examines the relationship between linguistic choices and social hierarchies. You will analyse how politicians, advertisers, media, and institutions use language to influence, persuade, and control audiences, as well as how individuals resist or subvert this power through their own language use.
Understanding language and power is crucial because it equips you with the critical tools to deconstruct everyday texts—from political speeches to social media posts—and recognise the subtle ways language shapes our beliefs and behaviours. This topic also connects to other areas of the course, such as language and gender, language and identity, and language change, as power dynamics often intersect with these themes.
In your exam, you will be expected to apply theoretical frameworks (e.g., Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis, Grice's Maxims, or Bourdieu's concept of linguistic capital) to a range of texts. You should be able to identify features like modality, imperative verbs, rhetorical devices, and lexical choices that signal power relations, and evaluate their effects on different audiences.
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