Nick McIndoe completed VCE English Language in 2012. He then went on to complete a First Class Honours degree in Linguistics at Monash University. If you have any English Language questions, get them answered in this thread!
English Language is an amazing subject – but it can also be difficult to master. As the younger sibling of “mainstream” English, there are fewer EngLang resources floating around than should be the case. But don’t worry – I’ve got you covered.
As you may be aware, the end-of-year exam is comprised of three independent sections: Section A (short-answer questions), Section B (analytical commentary) and Section C (essay).
Each of these can be pretty tricky. Each of these becomes considerably less so with practice.
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SECTION A: SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
In the exam, Section A is worth 15 of a total 75 marks (that’s 20%, for those playing at home). Whilst objectively worth less than the other two sections, it’s crucial not to let these marks go to waste.
According to VCAA’s exam specifications, Section A will be based on “one or more formal or informal spoken or written texts”. Pretty vague, but specific enough to inform us that at the end of the day, you’ll be analysing a particular text(s).
What does that mean, exactly? Well, primarily, it means that you need to know your metalanguage. This is a fundamental part of EngLang; if you’re going to analyse a text, you might as well do it properly. As they say, “in for a penny, in for a pound”.
All of the metalanguage you need to know is specified in VCAA’s study design – so that’s pretty nifty. Now it’s just a case of systematically going through those dot points and ensuring your knowledge is sound.
A very clear understanding of metalanguage will allow you to get through Section A quicker than you can say, “gosh, I’m sure glad I knew that metalanguage!” And that, ultimately, will give you more time to work on Section B and Section C.
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SECTION B: ANALYTICAL COMMENTARY
This is the section about which I get most questions – and understandably, too. The analytical commentary is a different beast to a “normal” essay, and certainly requires a different sort of thinking. (If you enjoy the analytical commentary, by the way, you should consider studying Linguistics at uni! #sneakyplug)
I’m going to keep this pretty blunt.
What do I include in the introduction?
IMO (get a load of that initialism) the introduction is the perfect place to provide context of the piece. You might like to consider the following factors (but definitely don’t need to include all of them):
CONTEXTUAL FACTORS (“What are they?!”, I hear you ask)
Location and time period
Outline of the speakers (if provided, information like age, gender and occupation might be important)
Relationship if any between speakers
Semantic field(s)
Audience(s)
Mode (if you’re analysing a spoken text, you might like to note that you’re actually analysing a written transcript of that spoken text)
SOCIAL PURPOSE AND REGISTER (“Again, what are they?!”)
Why the text eventuated
Function(s)
Level of formality
Social role of each speaker
Variety, style or tone of language used
Okay, sure, but the analytical commentary needs more than just an introduction!
Very true. Astute observation. The rest of the paragraphs, in my view, should be centred on a particular subsystem. So like, 1 paragraph = 1 subsystem. This, again, is why it’s important to have a clear understanding of the metalanguage – and also be able to identify linguistic examples in any given text.
The general structure of the analytical commentary, then, might be something like:
Paragraph 1: Contextual factors, and social purpose and register
Paragraph 2: Discussion of [whatever subsystem] in the text
Paragraph 3: Discussion of [whatever subsystem] in the text
Paragraph 4: Discussion of [whatever subsystem] in the text
Whenever you use an example from the text, there are important things to remember. Make sure you include the line number of whatever you’re quoting. If at all possible, don’t just identify the feature (with the correct metalanguage); also link it to function or register. For example, it’s great to identify an example of metaphor, but how does that add to the informality of the text? How does it aid the function? Be as specific as possible.
If you write an analytical commentary, you can submit it for feedback in this thread.
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SECTION C: ESSAY
If you consider the last however many English Language exams, you’ll notice some trends. You can basically divide all of the essay topics into ~10 general themes. So like, “language change” or “features of Australian English”. I don’t recommend memorising entire essays, but I do recommend having general essay plans for each of those themes.
I think it’s good practice to go through the old VCAA exams, divide the essay topics by subject, and go from there. During the year, aim to write a couple of practice essays on each of the broad subjects. It’s very likely that at least one of the three essay prompts VCAA gives you will be relevant to one of those general subjects – and you’d be staggered how much you remember from writing those practice essays during the year.
You need to incorporate the stimuli provided, so even if you were that way inclined, memorising full essays would be pretty silly. And further to those stimuli, you also need to work in your own examples and quotes. On that note, check out this thread – it’s an absolute goldmine: English Language 2017+: a collation of quotes and language examples.
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GENERAL ADVICE
Don’t leave revision until the last minute; there are only so many examples and quotes you can cram overnight.
Endeavour to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. One of my biggest frustrations when marking essays is students telling me how people should be using language, and not just describing that language use. Assessors aren’t really interested in your own opinions – they don’t care if you personally don’t fancy ending sentences with but, or if you don’t much like the slang of today. They’re only really interested in your analysis of language.
Become curious about language. The interesting thing with language is that by its very nature, different words could always be used to express a similar concept. Whether we think about it or not, whatever language we use is a choice (conscious or otherwise). Try to think about why speakers have made those choices. So long as you have access to some sort of language, you can do this whenever you please. Have a chip packet? Awesome – analyse the language used. Reading a newspaper article? Sick – analyse the language used. Overheard a conversation on the train? Sort of creepy, but grouse – analyse the language used.
And most of all, make sure you check out these entirely free English Language resources!
