GENERAL CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATION
TYSTYSGRIF ADDYSG GYFFREDINOL
EXAMINERS' REPORTS
ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE
(NEW)
AS/Advanced
JANUARY 2009
Statistical Information
This booklet contains summary details for each unit: number entered; maximum mark
available; mean mark achieved; grade ranges. N.B. These refer to 'raw marks' used in the
initial assessment, rather than to the uniform marks reported when results are issued.
Annual Statistical Report
The annual Statistical Report (issued in the second half of the Autumn Term) gives overall
outcomes of all examinations administered by WJEC.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE
General Certificate of Education
January 2009
Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced
Principal Examiner:
Sally Llewellyn
Unit Statistics
The following statistics include all candidates entered for the unit, whether or not they
'cashed in' for an award. The attention of centres is drawn to the fact that the statistics listed
should be viewed strictly within the context of this unit and that differences will undoubtedly
occur between one year and the next and also between subjects in the same year.
Unit
LLI
Entry
71
Max Mark
80
Grade Ranges
A
B
C
D
E
60
50
40
30
20
N.B. The marks given above are raw marks and not uniform marks.
1
Mean Mark
39.2
LL1: Critical Reading of Literary and Non-Literary Texts
This was the first ‘live’ experience of the new LL1 Examination. The total number of
candidates entered for this unit was understandably very low. As a result, it was not
possible to achieve a true range of performance and text coverage. However, the
examination was extremely beneficial in providing a clearer understanding of the skills
required by candidates to achieve success in this unit.
The new LL1 paper draws together the previously discrete units of ELL1 and ELL3 with a
shift in focus in terms of assessment objectives. The new AOs and their weightings are
currently the same for each section of the paper and are summarised in the table below:
Section A: Poetry
Pre-1900 (closed
text) and unseen
text
Section B : Prose
(open text)
AO3
Use integrated
approaches to
explore
relationships
between texts,
analysing and
evaluating the
significance of
contextual factors
in their production
and reception.
AO1
Select and apply
relevant concepts
and approaches
from integrated
linguistic and literary
study, using
appropriate
terminology and
accurate, coherent
written expression
AO2
Demonstrate
detailed critical
understanding in
analysing the ways
in which structure,
form and language
shape meaning in a
range of written and
spoken texts.
16 marks
8 marks
16 marks
16 marks
8 marks
16 marks
AO1 – As in the legacy specification, AO1 concerns itself with the candidate’s ability to write
in an organised, confident and fluent style, using a wide range of technical terminology, not
just ‘selecting’ features but being able to ‘apply’ relevant concepts in order to develop
analysis. With two short texts to handle in Section A and two longer texts in Section B, the
selection of textual evidence and the organisation of responses has become increasingly
important. It is vital that candidates have a detailed knowledge of their chosen set texts so
that they can select material quickly to support their arguments.
AO2 – Whilst this AO carries less weight than the others in the unit, it is in many ways the
foundation of the response. AO2 concentrates on ‘meaning’. Examiners will need to see that
the candidate understands the texts they are writing about, as well as showing a detailed
appreciation of the techniques a writer or speaker has used to create that ‘meaning’ or
establish the attitudes and values of the text.
2
AO3 – This objective is the greatest departure from the legacy specification and the area
where the candidates may face some challenges. There are essentially two strands to this
AO: comparison and context. In terms of comparison the examiner will be asking the
following questions:
1. How well has the candidate been able to compare and contrast the texts?
2. How detailed and productive are the connections which the candidate has found?
3. Has the candidate been able to support, with evidence, their discussion of
similarities and differences between the texts?
4. How well has the candidate integrated their contextual awareness of the text?
5. Have they explored the internal context of their set texts looking at developments
in characters, themes, setting, structure or style within the texts?
6. Have they explored external contexts such as biographical detail, socio-historical
awareness, literary or artistic contexts?
7. What impact do these contextual factors have on the ‘meaning’ of the text and
our understanding and appreciation of it?
3
SECTION A: Poetry Pre-1900 and Unseen Text
This section provides candidates with the opportunity to explore in close detail one of the
poems from the anthology. Although this section of the paper is closed text the poem will be
printed in the exam and students will have the opportunity to and should annotate the printed
poem and the unseen material. The unseen material will always be clearly linked to the
poem’s ideas.
The best responses this winter used a range of terminology and approaches in exploring the
poem and the linked material. They used a structured, comparative approach and made
some productive connections between the texts. On the whole there was a lack of detailed
linguistic approaches and many candidates tended to translate or describe the content of the
poem and unseen text rather than analysing the features used by the writers to present their
ideas.
Q.1
Text A: the poem, ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of
Goldfishes’.
Text B: a web page from the internet site www.moggies.co.uk about Dr. Samuel
Johnson’s cat, Hodge.
This was the more popular of the two questions; candidates seemed to enjoy the
humour of the mock epic and were able to make some useful comparison regarding
the relative treatment of the cats in both texts. Opportunities were missed to explore
the contextual details of the poem, Gray having written the poem for his friend
Thomas Walpole who was the owner of the cat in question.
Responses that looked in detail at both texts focusing on similarities and differences
in use of linguistic approaches such as sentence mood, mode of address, use of
superlatives and other complimentary adjectives as well as aspects of imagery and
phonology, achieved very good marks on this question.
Q.2
Text A: the poem ‘Ode on Melancholy’.
Text B: an article on childhood depression from The Times.
Those candidates who attempted this question generally dealt well with Keats’s use
of imagery and explored some of the complex emotions he describes in this poem.
They were able to make some connections to the unseen material, focusing on the
effects of depression in this case through the case study of a child. The article was
very accessible and the responses dealt convincingly with some of the key language
features in this text such as the rhetorical interrogative to end the article, the use of
statistics, emotive verbs and violent lexical choices.
4
SECTION B: Prose
Centres who entered their students for this examination had been studying only two of the
six prose pairings available in this section: Capote/Carey and Niffenegger/Wells. This
section of the exam functions on a much larger scale than Section A. The extract should
allow candidates some close, focused study using combined approaches before moving on
to consider the core and partner texts more generally. In practice, this was often not the case
and many candidates wrote only in overview about their texts with limited textual support or
close study of language and techniques.
It is useful to use the extract for close study as a ‘springboard’ into the wider essay. Although
the extract is not printed on the paper, candidates do have access to ‘clean’ copies of the
text in the examination and should make full use of them to identify quotations or passages
relevant to the demands of the question. It was only a small minority of candidates who
failed to engage at all with the partner text.
The best responses provided close textual analysis of the extract and then selected at least
one other episode from the core text and at least one episode from the partner text as
supporting evidence when discussing the thrust of the rest of the question e.g.
disappointment in Q.12. When providing quotations from the texts, some candidates were
able to explore the quotation using combined approaches and this helped them to meet the
requirements of the assessment objectives. Obviously the candidates had to range more
widely in this section of the exam, selecting their evidence wisely and constructing an
argument from the material they had selected. Due to the size of the texts involved this
necessarily takes time and practice to perfect. Candidates need to be particularly wellprepared for this part of LL1.
5
Capote: In Cold Blood (Core text)
Carey: True History of the Kelly Gang (Partner text)
Q.7
This was the more popular of the two questions on this pairing. Candidates generally
wrote well about the presentation of Perry’s early life experiences, although there
was a certain amount of armchair psychology taking place with a tendency to forget
how Capote was presenting these events. Childhood experiences proved to be a
meaty theme for discussion with plenty of fruitful connections made between Perry
and Ned’s childhood experiences, such as the role of other family members and the
impact of authoritarian institutions.
Q.8
This question was slightly less popular than Q.7. There was some interesting
discussion in these responses of the metaphorical significance of the stray cats in the
passage and their hunting activities. Discussion of the major themes of justice and
the law in the second half of this question produced some good responses which
compared and contrasted the behaviour of the police and criminal justice systems in
both core and partner texts. Better responses selected evidence from the texts and
explored the techniques used by the writers to present those ideas.
Niffenegger: The Time Traveler’s Wife (Core text)
Wells: The Time Machine (Partner text)
Q.11
This question was the preferred choice by candidates who were able to explore in
detail the presentation of Henry lying bruised and broken on the kitchen floor. There
was a real sense of sympathy for Henry and Clare in these responses, proving the
popularity of this core text with the candidates. The theme of survival was also dealt
with reasonably successfully. Many candidates noted the contrast in the emotional
and physical survival of the characters in both novels with responses drawing on
evidence of the time traveller’s battles with the Morlocks as a threat to survival in the
partner text. More philosophical answers considered Darwin’s theories of survival
and the evolution of the Eloi in The Time Machine.
Q.12
Although less popular, candidates who chose this question produced some sound
analysis of Clare’s experiences and feelings in the extract which describes her first
miscarriage. Again there was much sympathy for the characters and the emotional
upheaval and disappointment they encounter during the course of the novel.
Evidence of disappointment ranged from Henry’s loss of his feet, to Clare’s loss of
Henry. In the partner text disappointment centred on the time traveller’s crushed
hopes that the future was not everything he had hoped it would be.
There are several key points to note for future examinations:
• There must be wide ranging terminology and clear evidence of combined
study evident in all of the responses on this paper.
• Candidates should learn their set texts very well to ensure they maximise
their thinking and writing time in the examination.
• Candidates must aim to make detailed and productive connections between
the texts.
• There must be an appreciation of contextual factors (be they internal or
external to the text itself).
• All analysis of technique must be grounded in meaning, with clear focus on
the ideas, attitudes and values presented.
• Written work should be clear, accurate, coherent and well-organised.
GCE English Language & Literature Examiners Report (New) - January 2009 JF
31 03 09
6
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