Language and Ethnicity A Level Unit

A 10 lesson unit comprising a 68 slide PowerPoint, 9 different worksheets (including texts for analysis) exploring the topic of Language and Ethnicity and a summary terminology and theory sheet.

Each lesson includes a starting discussion prompt which acts as a learning objective, detailed notes on the theories and concepts listed below, a worksheet (with the exception of lesson nine) and activities, and a homework task. The following theories and concepts are covered:

• Idiolect, dialect, sociolect and ethnolect
• Pidgins and creoles
• Multicultural London English – Cheshire andKerswill (2011)
• Multicultural British English – Drummond (2016)
• Black British English – Thompson (2022)
• Code switching – Haugen (1950s)
• Code mixing – Wardhaugh (1986)
• Types of Code Switching
• West Yorkshire Study - Ives (2014)
• White talk Black talk - Hewitt (1986)
• South London Study - Ives (2014)
• Code Switching - Holmes (2017)
• Language in a Black Community - Edwards (1986)
• The objectification of ‘Jafaican’ - Kerswill (2014)
• Ethnolects - Eckert (2008)
• Stylising the ‘roadman’ - Ilbury (2023)
• Style-shifting in Multicultural London English - Oxbury and De Leeuw (2020)
• Phonetic variation and change in the Cockney Diaspora - Cole and Evans (2020)
• Style Repertoire and Social Change in British Asian English – Sharma (2011)
• Style variation – Sharma and Rampton (2015)
• Aspects of identity in a second language – Drummond (2012)
• Language as a resistance identity – Pitts (2012)
• Black/white borders through linguistic stylization – Clark (2003)
• Style shifting and identity – Barrett (1994)
• Cultural appropriation in language – McWhorter (2021)
• Language and ethnicity and identity – Ogbu (1999)
• Linguistic Injustice – Baker-Bell (2020)

There are some references to AQA-style A Level specification questions, but you can adapt these if needs be. These can be found on slides 57-65. Lesson 9 is based on an AQA A Level question.

The final lesson is a consolidation activity complete with guided revision cards. Alternatively, you could use an app such as Quizlet so that the students could produce digital revision resources.

Check out my other English Language A Level resources!

Language and Gender
Language and Region
Language and Power and Occupation
Language and Global and World Englishes
Language Change
Language and Technology
Language and Social Groups
Language Discourses
Language Discourses Opinion Writing