English or English Language?

[Ghost!]

Eng Lang:
-Will turn you into a grammar-conscious freak

Truer words have never been spoken! Spelling and grammar errors drive the majority of EngLang students insane, myself included. Especially spelling, I feel like crying when I see 'alot' and 'definately' nowadays, a spelling error I was once very prone to committing.

[Keine]

But the general idea we're taught in English language is that 'English is constantly changing due to many factors' and there is no country or dialect or variety of English that is spoken and is the 'Standard'

[ieatcrayons]

You should also take into consideration the circumstances unique to your school. My school runs 3/4 and 1/2 english language combined, and it's also the first year of school (and teacher) offering the course, and thus it has been an absolute nightmare!

[appianway]

I did both (language in year 11, english in year 12), and obtained similar raws in each.

Which one's easier? English is far more subjective, but I think that if you put the work in, it's easier to score well in English. Although English is subjective, much of VCE English is formulaic. English Language is more interesting than English in Unit 3, but I found Unit 4 incredibly dry.

[Tonychet2]

english is easier because i cringe at the thought of having to learn shakespearean language

[schnappy]

english is easier because i cringe at the thought of having to learn shakespearean language

Shakespeare isn't part of language... Shakespeare isn't really different to how we speak today, it just has a flare of elegance to it because it uses a slightly archaic lexicon and some non-standard constructions such as double negatives.

Aw shit, can't escape EL D:

[greenbeans]

Hey there! I did both in the same year and did reasonably well in both.
They are very different to one another but also complement each other well, so if you're even a wee bit interested in language, I would strongly suggest doing both!

If not, here goes my breakdown:

English:

If you are creative, you will find endless possiblities in the context (section B) part of the exam and SACs. A lot more time spent on perfecting structure and essay writing skills as opposed to English Language.

Be prepared to delve deeply into your texts, know them back to front. Personally I found going to book talks, watching videos to get background from the playwrights and authors was a great way of extension. English is great in that it allows you to explore issues and ideas of your texts deeply. There is no limit to the work you can put in, some students love that and rise to the challenge of it, whereas others are just looking for bare minimum standards to scrape by. Buttttt if you put your own spin on things and start LIKING English.. wholeheartedly throwing yourself into your workload..... start dreaming about the characters in your novels..... you will really be rewarded in the long run in terms of marks and how much you enjoy studying for English. So more enjoyment = wanting to write more essays = more practise = better student.

Learn to communicate well with your teacher, you will spend lots of time with them going over a million essays of yours. Without a doubt, mine was the most valuable resource in English. They know the requirements backwards and will give you honest feedback 100% of the time. Start liking them. You may not like the workload heaps, (who doesn't love language analysis!) but find avenues that interest you to make you want to study for it.  That works for every subject.

English Language:

Agree with the maths/science approach. It can be very, very dry but the way to like/succeed in the subject is by -again- finding ways of making the material INTERESTING. So watch videos, analyse different texts that you find more interesting than the ones in the study design, etc. You can basically learn the entire course from the study design, so it's not as trippy as the English course where they can basically throw anything at you.. but some may like that. Short answer questions are very different to English, and missing out on snippets of information can rob you of marks easily, whereas English they look to GIVE marks not TAKE AWAY marks. Also, 3 essays versus 1 is a way of looking at it, but you still need to write fluently in both English & Language. Having a keen interest in language already, whether it's LOTE, reading, creative writing, whatever... it can certainly be a huge advantage.

All in all, either are great to study. I put in heaps -HEAPS- more work in English and I got a 46, but I didn't enjoy Language nearly as much and got a 47. A much bigger cohort in English. In terms of scaling, English went up about 0.8 and I think Eng Lang went up 1 or 1.8.. tbh I can't really remember, but scaling shouldn't be the deciding factor. Hope this helps!