Teaching English Language and Literature

In this chapter, I offer an overview and critical analysis of ‘language and literature’ as a version of English within the secondary and post-16 curricula and as a qualification offered by A level awarding bodies. I provide a survey of integrated language and literature teaching across time, tracing the ways in which English as a secondary curriculum subject has been both conceptualised in policy and actualised in classrooms to give rise to what I argue is a false and unhelpful compartmentalisation of ‘language’ and ‘literature’. This is compared to the ways in which other educational jurisdictions construe linguistic and literary studies. Finally, and drawing on recent research in literary linguistics (i.e. ‘language and literature’), I examine the potential for a revised conceptualisation of ‘English’ as a more integrated and progressive subject gestalt.