Introduction; BEGINNING: 1. What does language study mean at A Level?; 2. Text producers and receivers; 3. Mode and genre; 4. Language use and language users; 5. Language level 1: Lexis and semantics; 6. Language level 2: Grammar; 7. Language level 3: Phonetics, phonology and prosodics; 8. Language level 4: Graphology; 9. Language level 5: Pragmatics; 10. Language level 6: Discourse; 11. Introduction to analysing texts; 12. Becoming a language investigator; DEVELOPING: 13. Textual variations and representations; 13.1 Textual variations; 13.2 Language analysis: methods and approaches; 13.3 Language analysis: genre and mode; 13.4 Language analysis: audience and purpose; 13.5 Introduction to representations; 13.6 Language and representations: people, social groups and gender; 13.7 Language and representations: events, places and issues; 13.8 Exploring similarities and differences between texts; 13.9 Bringing it all together; 14. Child language development; 14.1 Learning to talk; 14.1.1 The process of spoken acquisition; 14.1.2 A historical overview of acquisition theory; 14.1.3 Environmental factors; 14.1.4 Pragmatics; 14.1.5 Discourse; 14.1.6 Lexis and semantics; 14.1.7 Grammar; 14.2 Learning to write; 14.2.1 Early exposure to printed language; 14.2.2 Learning to read; 14.2.3 The process of writing development; 14.2.4 Attitudes and theories about learning to write; 14.2.5 Environmental factors; 14.2.6 Handwriting and orthography; 14.2.7 Lexical and grammatical development; 14.3 Bringing it all together; 15. Language diversity; 15.1 Varieties and diversity - an overview; 15.2 Geographical varieties of English; 15.3 Grammatical variations; 15.4 Phonological variations: our accent; 15.5 Personal and social varieties of English; 15.6 Bringing it all together; 16. Language change; 16.1 Studying language change; 16.2 The origins of English; 16.3 Lexical change; 16.4 Semantic change; 16.5 Orthography; 16.6 Grammatical change; 16.7 Standardisation; 16.8 Why does change happen?; 16.9 How does change spread?; 16.10 Bringing it all together; 17. Language in action: a language investigation; 17.1 What is a language investigation?; 17.2 Choosing an area to investigate; 17.3 What approach could you take?; 17.4 Data collection; 17.5 Data selection; 17.6 Writing your investigation; 17.7 Bringing it all together; 18. Original writing; 18.1 The writing process; 18.2 The style model; 18.3 The power of persuasion; 18.4 The power of storytelling; 18.5 The power of information; 18.6 The drafting process; 18.7 Writing a commentary; 18.8 Referencing your work; 18.9 Bringing it all together; ENRICHING: 19 Textual variations and representations; 20 Language development; 21 Language diversity; 22 Language change; 23 Language investigation; 24 Original writing; References; Index; Acknowledgements