English language - often treated like the slightly neglected sibling of the English GCSE duo - can sometimes be left behind in the rush to read and analyse texts in the classroom for literature assessments. After successfully building and releasing our GCSE English literature course for the start of this academic year, we received a number of requests asking for help with English language and decided to expand on our KS3 offering.

While there won’t be any formal exams at the end of the 2020/21 school year, English language is still one of the most important subjects for students to get to grips with; with a good grasp of language, pupils can do anything.

Giving students a tool to help with learning and revising the building blocks of spelling, vocabulary and grammar will prove invaluable across all of their subjects. This course, however, also targets key skills for English language assessments, providing students with a framework from which to approach fiction and non-fiction texts.

Build a framework

This new content tests students on and reinforces their knowledge of a range of literary techniques, giving them a framework for analysis. The course covers: 

• Vocabulary

• Spelling

• Grammar

• Language

• Fictional text extracts

• Non-fiction text extracts

• Exam technique

Within these categories we explore everything from the definitions of key terms and common spelling mistakes to the comparison of different genres and their intended audiences. The course aims to refresh students’ spelling, grammar and vocabulary, while also equipping them with the necessary skills to analyse unseen extracts in assessments and exams.

When a student is equipped with the correct terminology and the skills to identify a variety of techniques, then they are much more able and confident when they have to put these skills into practice. 

Exam board specific

Each of the courses has been tailored to suit the main exam boards and, where relevant, we have included topics on exam scoring to ensure that students know how many marks are available for each question, as this was something frequently requested by teachers. Courses are available for: Edexcel, AQA, OCR, WJEC, Eduqas and CCEA.

There is also a topic on exam wording, which quizzes students on, for example, what is required of them by a question asking them to ‘explore’ or ‘describe’. Alongside this topic is another unpacking the core assessment objectives and how to ensure all of them are covered. For the exam boards that cover 19th century texts, there is an additional topic on identifying and analysing 19th century language.

Always improving

We hope that English teachers and their students find this new course helpful this term. The Tassomai team is always open to feedback as we are constantly working to improve our product, so please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or comments about the course. 

We are constantly striving to expand and improve all of our courses which is why we have just introduced brand new video content for English literature. To find out more about it click here.

View some sample questions from the new GCSE English language course…

Further reading:

• Information for teachers about Tassomai’s English language content

• Information for private subscribers, parents and GCSE students about Tassomai’s English language content

• Information for teachers about Tassomai’s English literature content

• Information for private subscribers, parents and GCSE students about Tassomai’s English literature content