Language and Regional Variation A Level Unit

A 10 lesson unit comprising a 61 slide PowerPoint, 9 different worksheets exploring the topic of Language and Region (UK) 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:

• MLE & MBE
• Howard Giles’ Matched Guise Study (1970)
• Queen Mary University & The University of York Accent Bias Study (2020)
• David Rosewarne – Estuary English (1984)
• Peter Trudgill – Norwich Study (1972)
• Overt and covert prestige
• Paul Kerswill - Dialect Levelling (1999)
• Watt and Gunn (HSBC) - The sound of 2066 (2016)
• Howard Giles – Capital punishment study (1973)
• Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks – Accents of Guilt (2002)
• Rob Drummond – MLE, MUBE and MBE (2016)
• Amanda Cole – SSBE and research into MLE, RP and SSBE in London (2023)
• Isogloss
• General Northern English and the research of Strycharczuk, López-Ibáñez, Brown and Leemann (2020)
• Urban West Yorkshire English (UWYE)

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 13, 37-38 and 51-58. Lesson 9 is based on an AQA A Level question.

This unit does not cover World Englishes and only touches briefly on Language and Ethnicity through references to MLE and MBE.

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 Power and Occupation
Language and Global and World Englishes
Language Change
Language and Technology
Language and Ethnicity
Language and Social Groups
Language Discourses
Analysing Spoken Language
Child Language Acquisition - Speech
Child Language Acquisition - Reading and Writing
Language Discourses Opinion Writing