reading revision GCSEIt can be difficult to know how to revise for the GCSE English Language as it is largely skill based,rather than reliant on facts.

However, there are a few things you can do to prepare for the exam. To find out how we can help click here.

Reading skills

You will be asked to write a response to fiction and non-fiction texts. Practise responding to the different types of question.

  1. Identify key points. Read a short text (opening to a story, news article, report) cover it up and bullet-point the main subjects in the text. Check the text to see if you have included the key points. If you practise this, it will help you to quickly sum-up the general gist of a text. You can also develop these bullet points to write summaries of texts.
  1. Identify language features. In order to comment on language use, it is handy to know what you’re looking for. Language features include: sensory words, similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, sentence lengths. The list goes on. Although you don’t want to go down the road of ‘spot the language feature’ in a text, it is useful to be able to recognise some of these.
  1. Comment on language. A useful exercise when commenting on language is to do what I call ‘thought tracking’. You can do this after you have identified the overall tone or mood of a text and pinpointed the language that gives that message. Thought tracking involves analysing the language used before writing about it. You look at the language you have identified and list all the thoughts that it provokes in you.

For example, the phrase ‘the room was like a coffin’ can be analysed like this:

Key word: coffin

Thought tracking: coffin – death, claustrophobic, small, confined, suffocating

The thought tracking can then be used to help construct a comment:

The simile ‘coffin’ suggests that the room is small and claustrophobic. It seems so confining that it is suffocating.

You can also link chosen features to context.

This is a quote from ‘Great Expectations’

‘The marshes were just a long black horizontal line..’

If this were to be analysed out of context it could go as follows:

Key words: long black horizontal line

Thought tracking: long black horizontal line – flat, no trees, no buildings, sparse, bleak, dark. However, in context, we learn that the narrator is a seven-year-old boy who has just been attacked by a man whilst walking alone in the marshes, so we can add some more thoughts.

Thought tracking: long black horizontal line – flat, no trees, no buildings, sparse, bleak, dark, lonely, isolated

The comment about this can now refer to context:

The metaphor describing the marshes as ‘just a long black horizontal line’ emphasises how isolated and vulnerable the narrator is. It seems that there is nothing on the horizon to protect him. The stark bleakness off the landscape appears to reflect how dire his situation is.

Thought tracking helps you get into the habit of thinking in greater depth about the language features you have selected. This in turn can help you give analytical responses to gain higher grades.

  1. Comparing texts. Paper 2 requires you to compare two texts. It is useful to have a technique to help you structure your response. One tool you can use is a ‘double bubble’ diagram. A ‘single bubble’ diagram is a bit like a mind map and looks like this:

                                       GCSE english language analyse word cat

A ‘double bubble’ diagram involve combining two ‘single bubble’ diagrams. Shared mini bubbles denote shared characteristics.

double

You can create a diagram like this when comparing two texts. As well as helping you to sort out your ideas, it can also assist you in structuring your response. For example, using the diagram above you could start by saying: ‘Cats differ from dogs in that they purr when they are happy’. Once you have exhausted the topics on the left-hand side, you could address those in the central, shared section. Finally, you could discuss those on the right-hand side.

If you’d like to read more, here are some of our other blogs:

How to revise for English Language GCSE – Writing

Tell your Child to be Excited for Exams