AQA AS ENGLISH LANGUAGE 7701/2 Paper 2 Language varieties Mark scheme June 2024

AS ENGLISH LANGUAGE 7701/2 Paper 2 Language varieties Mark scheme June 2024 Mark schemes are prepared by the Lead Assessment Writer and considered, together with the relevant questions, by a panel of subject teachers. This mark scheme includes any amendments made at the standardisation events which all associates participate in and is the scheme which was used by them in this examination. The standardisation process ensures that the mark scheme covers the students’ responses to questions and that every associate understands and applies it in the same correct way. As preparation for standardisation each associate analyses a number of students’ scripts. Alternative answers not already covered by the mark scheme are discussed and legislated for. If, after the standardisation process, associates encounter unusual answers which have not been raised they are required to refer these to the Lead Examiner. It must be stressed that a mark scheme is a working document, in many cases further developed and expanded on the basis of students’ reactions to a particular paper. Assumptions about future mark schemes on the basis of one year’s document should be avoided; whilst the guiding principles of assessment remain constant, details will change, depending on the content of a particular examination paper. No student should be disadvantaged on the basis of their gender identity and/or how they refer to the gender identity of others in their exam responses. A consistent use of ‘they/them’ as a singular and pronouns beyond ‘she/her’ or ‘he/him’ will be credited in exam responses in line with existing mark scheme criteria. Further copies of this mark scheme are available from English Language Mark Scheme How to Mark Aims When you are marking your allocation of scripts your main aims should be to: • recognise and identify the achievements of students • place students in the appropriate mark band and in the appropriate part of that mark band (high, low, middle) for each Assessment Objective • record your judgements with brief notes, annotations and comments that are relevant to the mark scheme and make it clear to other examiners how you have arrived at the numerical mark awarded for each Assessment Objective • put into a rank order the achievements of students (not to grade them – that is done later using the rank order that your marking has produced) • ensure comparability of assessment for all students, regardless of question or examiner. Approach It is important to be open-minded and positive when marking scripts. The specification recognises the variety of experiences and knowledge that students will have. It encourages them to study language in a way that is relevant to them. The questions have been designed to give them opportunities to discuss what they have found out about language. It is important to assess the quality of what the student offers. Do not mark scripts as though they are mere shadows of some Platonic ideal (or the answer you would have written). The mark schemes have been composed to assess quality of response and not to identify expected items of knowledge. Assessment Objectives This component requires students to: AO1: Apply appropriate methods of language analysis, using associated terminology and coherent written expression AO2: Demonstrate critical understanding of concepts and issues relevant to language use AO5: Demonstrate expertise and creativity in the use of English to communicate in different ways. The marking grids The specification has generic marking grids with a hierarchy of performance characteristics for each Assessment Objective that are customised with indicative content for individual tasks. These have been designed to allow consistent assessment of the range of knowledge, understanding and skills that the specification demands across all tasks. Within each Assessment Objective there are five broad levels representing different levels of achievement. Do not think of levels equalling grade boundaries. You will be giving a mark to each separate Assessment Objective tested by a task. Depending on the question, the levels will have different mark ranges assigned to them. This will reflect the different weighting of Assessment Objectives in particular tasks and across the examination as a whole. You may be required to give different marks to bands for different Assessment Objectives. There is the same number of marks in each level for an individual Assessment Objective. The number of marks per level will vary from two to four across different Assessment Objectives depending upon the number of marks allocated to the Assessment Objective in a particular question. Step 1 Using the grids and annotating scripts These levels of response mark schemes are broken down into five levels, each of which has descriptors. On the left-hand side of the mark scheme, in bold, are the generic descriptors that identify the performance characteristics at five distinct levels. These are designed to identify clearly different levels and types of performance. On the right-hand side are statements of indicative content. These give examples of the kind of things students might do that would exemplify the level. They are neither exhaustive nor required – they are simply indicative of what would appear at this level. Having familiarised yourself with the descriptors and indicative content, read through the answer and annotate it (as instructed below) to identify the qualities that are being looked for and that it shows. As you mark a script, use annotations to identify exactly where the student shows the performance characteristics noted in the mark scheme. You should note where they give evidence of the indicative content you have been given. Remember they may do things not mentioned in the indicative content but of similar quality – reward these too. You can now check the levels and award a mark. Step 2 Writing a comment to determine a level Look back at the script. If you have made precise, full and accurate annotations it should be easy to work out what level to award the answer. When assigning a level, you should look at the overall quality of the answer and not look to pick holes in small and specific parts of the answer where the student has not performed quite as well as the rest. When you first look at some answers, it is useful to start with the lowest level of the mark scheme and use the mark scheme as a ladder to see how far the answer can go up the scale. The descriptors for a level indicate the different qualities that might be seen in the student’s answer for that level. Good answers will not necessarily be characterised by the descriptors in lower bands because they will be doing better things. You may find yourself thinking: no, it’s better than that. If so, look to the next level to see if that begins to describe what the answer does. As you go up through the levels with good answers you will find they do the things characterised by the descriptors. If an answer meets all the descriptors for a level then go to the next one and decide if it meets this level, and so on, until you have a match between the level descriptors and the answer. With practice and familiarity, you will find that for better answers you will be able to skip through the lower levels of the mark scheme quickly. You need to keep going up through the levels to see which descriptors capture what the script has done. Keep checking up through the levels in case it does some of a higher level beyond its typical ceiling. If the answer covers different aspects of different levels of the mark scheme you should use a best-fit approach for defining the level and then use the variability of the response to help decide the mark within the level: ie if the response fulfils most but not all of level 3 with a small amount of level 4 material, it would be placed in level 3 but be awarded a mark near the top of the level because of the level 4 content. Step 3 Determine a mark Once you have assigned a level you need to decide on the mark. It is often best to start in the middle of the level’s mark range and then check and adjust. If there is a lot of indicative content fully identifiable in the work, you need to give the highest mark in the level. If only some is identifiable or it is only partially fulfilled, then give the lower mark. The exemplar materials used during standardisation will also help. These scripts will have been awarded a mark by the Lead Examiner. You can compare the student’s answer with the exemplar to determine if it is of the same standard, better or worse. You can then use this to allocate a mark for the answer based on the Lead Examiner’s mark on the exemplar. You may well need to read back through the answer as you apply the mark scheme to clarify points and assure yourself that the level and the mark are appropriate. Annotating scripts It is vital that the way you arrive at a mark should be recorded on the script. This will help you with making accurate judgements and it will help any subsequent markers to identify how you are thinking, should adjustment need to be made. Where? • In the body of the script. • At the end of the answer. What annotations? 1 Ticks • Used for AO1 and AO5. • Placed in the body of the script. • At a point of credit. • Single for up to Level 3 credit – • Double for Level 4 credit – • Triple for Level 5 credit – 2 Stamps • L1 L2 L3 L4 L5. • Used for AO2 in the body of the script. • At a point of credit. 3 Question marks • Used in the body of the script. • Used to identify errors, uncertainties. 4 Written comments • A comment box at the end of the answer for each Assessment Objective. • Choose the right colour: – AO1 red – AO2 blue – AO5 purple. • Begin by writing AO1, AO2 etc to identify further. • Don’t just copy out grid statements – interpret them in the light of what the script does. Please do not write negative comments about students’ work or their alleged aptitudes. This is unprofessional and it impedes a positive marking approach. Distribution of Assessment Objectives and Weightings The table below is a reminder of which Assessment Objectives will be tested by the questions and tasks completed by students and the marks available for them. Assessment Objective AO1 AO2 AO5 Total Questions 1/2 10 20 30 Question 3 20 20 40 70 Section A: Language diversity Questions 1 and 2 • Award a mark out of 10 for AO1, place in the left-hand mark box. • Award a mark out of 20 for AO2, place in the left-hand mark box. Section B: Language discourses Question 3 • Award a mark out of 20 for AO2, place in the left-hand mark box. • Award a mark out of 20 for AO5, place in the left-hand mark box. E-marker2 will total the marks for you and submit them when you have saved your work. 0 1 Discuss the idea that there is a connection between a person’s social class and the language they use. [30 marks] AO1: Apply appropriate methods of language analysis, using associated terminology and coherent written expression