Language change — AS & A Level English Language (9093) questions by topic
Language change questions give you three related texts and ask you to analyse how one exemplifies the various ways English has changed over time, drawing on specific details from all three sources. Analyse, deduce and explain frame a response that must integrate every text rather than treat any one in isolation, building to a full 25-mark analytical essay.
16 questions from 2023 to 2025 sit on this page. Because marks reward incorporating all three texts throughout the analysis rather than tacking two on at the end, drafting a response and submitting it for instant marking checks whether Texts B and C have been genuinely woven into the argument, not left as an afterthought behind the main discussion of Text A.
What examiners look for
- A recurring criticism is responses becoming briefer than in previous sessions, leaving ideas undeveloped, or opening with an extended history of English rather than engaging the stimulus material.
- Examiners repeatedly note that Texts B and C were sometimes treated as separate entities and analysed only briefly toward the end, rather than incorporated throughout.
- Reports flag a deficit approach, discussing features absent from the text, such as the medial s or archaic inflected endings, instead of analysing what is actually present.
- Strong answers, according to the reports, moved through a series of linguistic frameworks, such as graphology, orthography, lexis, grammar, syntax, pragmatics and semantics, as an organisational tool.
- Examiners praise responses citing relevant theorists, such as Crystal and McCulloch, and applying frameworks like Halliday's field, tenor and mode to structure the analysis.
May–June 2025, Paper 31
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2025, Paper 32
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2025, Paper 33
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 31
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 32
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 33
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 31
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 32
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 33
Section A: Language change. Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should…
Answer this question and get it marked →February–March 2023, Paper 32
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 31
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 32
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 33
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 31
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 32
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 33
Read Texts A, B and C. Analyse how Text A exemplifies the various ways in which the English language has changed over time. In your answer, you should refer to specific details…
Answer this question and get it marked →