Is it a bad idea to do Eng Lit and Lang A levels?

[balzamico]

Dd is doing her gcse assessments- we were told many years ago that she is gifted in English and is getting typically 90% in assessments for both without trying very hard (or at all on the case of Lang).
She was always going to do English lit a level with history, psychology or sociology and maybe maths to AS level which she really doesn't love.

It's beginning to feel daft for her not to specialise in what she's good at and enjoys but I wonder how universities view it? She has no set plan onwards, maybe a history degree at a Russell Group uni.

Her other gcse results should all be good, she's weaker in sciences but will definitely pass and probably get 6-7s

Taking 2 A levels one in English Lit and one in English Language is fine is that is the area that is where your dd would like to specialise. One of the main purposes of A level is the chance to specialise in your best subjects.
But please take into account that English Language A level is different to the GCSE and check what the course actually involves beforehand.
I am also a bit wary about choosing a subject because you think it will involve less work. A levels are different to GCSEs and in some subjects pupils who have done well at GCSE without much effort do suddenly find they lose out to pupils who work harder.
There is also a joint English Lit & Lang available as one subject, but this tends not to be as highly regarded.

I don't know what English Language A levels are like these days but when I did both English A levels in the early 90s, it was amazing! All about linguistics, deep diving into grammar, different types of English and much more. It was a LOT of work. A LOT!

Lit wasn't on the same level of intellectual study, but a load of essay writing, v similar to GCSEs but more depth, if that makes sense.

They're very different from each other, for sure.

Just to be clear, she's happy to work hard and would enjoy doing so in subjects she's interested in, it's just that so far English Lang has come naturally. She's reading up but I didn't feel that she'd get an unbiased view from the English dept at school who'd want her to do them.

We were always advised to take either literature or language, not both. But it may not matter depending on the university and course your daughter ends up wanting to apply for. The best way to check is to pick a couple of universities and ask them for admissions advice.
And as pp said, check your daughter likes the sound of the syllabus for English language A-level because it’s quite different to GCSE. Choosing between say English language and History a-level would be two very different options.

If she wants to do History at a Russell Group university she should choose 3 strongly academic A levels like History, English Lit and a language or politics (which will balance and inform History). No psychology or sociology unless she wants to pursue those as her subject.

Thank you @JesusWeptLady I think we need to do a lot more research before September!

I teach both and we've had plenty of students do both with History and get into RG universities.
Whatever people like to say, English language is a strongly academic subject at A level.

I did combined lit and lang a few years ago and loved it. I went on to study English (with modules in both areas available throughout the course) at a Russel Group Uni and it was a great grounding for that. Fond memories. :)

I've just had a quick look at sheffield, Durham and Oxford university's entrance requirements ~ none of them talk about which subjects other than history if you want to study history - so how would we know which other subjects to choose?
So confused!

I wanted to do both back in the 90s, and was dissuaded. College offered literature, language and literature, and language. The desirability of each was in that order too, and students were basically funnelled into the ‘right’ course.

I’m rather envious of the pp who did both, as English language sounds like it would have been right up my street. I remember being told it was just looking at how menus were written and similar exercises!

@balzamico

I've just had a quick look at sheffield, Durham and Oxford university's entrance requirements ~ none of them talk about which subjects other than history if you want to study history - so how would we know which other subjects to choose? So confused!

I would find an email or phone number for the subject admissions and ask the university directly.

My son is in his last year at a Russell Group uni and studied English L/L, History and Sociology for A levels

Lit and Lang are very different and complement each other well. Literature is like a harder continuation of the GCSE though, whereas Language goes into more specialised linguistic topics and surprises people a bit more. In my experience (I teach both) it’s harder to get the high grades in Lang. It’s a fascinating subject though. I don’t think doing both would harm a uni application.

@jesusweptlady Psychology & sociology A levels are fine for Russel group History.

@Byllis

I wanted to do both back in the 90s, and was dissuaded. College offered literature, language and literature, and language. The desirability of each was in that order too, and students were basically funnelled into the ‘right’ course.

I’m rather envious of the pp who did both, as English language sounds like it would have been right up my street. I remember being told it was just looking at how menus were written and similar exercises!

That’s weird, as my feeling is that language (essentially the precursor to linguistics) is a far more rigorous and academically demanding subject than literature. Maybe literature is more romanticised as a subject, with ‘language’ seen as a more prosaic and less rarefied?

Literature was definitely the easier of the two in any case, and ime the linguistics element of my degree attracts more interest and is taken more seriously.

@Byllis It genuinely was the most fun course I’ve ever taken! It went into dialects, phonetics, different language used for legalese, for broadsheet vs tabloid media, phonetic transcription was a pain, but learning Creole and Pidgin was a blast. See, even all these years later I can still remember it 😆

The Russell Group have some advice on subjects to take. They have a new website (informed choices) but I didn't actually find it as clear on what less good choices are. The older brochure is here <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.rsb.org.uk/images/Russell%2520Group%2520-%2520Informed%2520Choices.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjb44jCk8DwAhUOlxQKHYUfDyEQFjAAegQIAxAC&usg=AOvVaw2IqnvPoldCvGRuyYPs1a1h" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.rsb.org.uk/images/Russell%2520Group%2520-%2520Informed%2520Choices.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjb44jCk8DwAhUOlxQKHYUfDyEQFjAAegQIAxAC&usg=AOvVaw2IqnvPoldCvGRuyYPs1a1h .

Hopefully the link has worked, it talks more generally about what sort of A levels to take at the start and then gives specific advice by subject.

That link didn't work for me
This does www.informedchoices.ac.uk

@btchymcbtchfce that's really helpful thank you