GCSE English Language and Functional Skills English in 10 Weeks
Chapter 1

Qualification Overview & Your Background

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IN THIS LESSON

English Language Essentials

Getting a good grade in GCSE English Language or passing Functional Skills English may be easier than you think; the qualification focuses on skills you already use every day, such as reading and understanding, and writing and explaining things.


Your life path depends on your English language skills. Good grades in English will give you greater choice of jobs, apprenticeships, training programmes and further education (including university).

Further Details

The exam for GCSE English Language is split into two exam sessions; both are just under two hours long and include reading and writing sections.

The Functional Skills English qualification is split into three parts: reading, writing, and speaking, listening and communicating.

Warmup Activity:

If you’re working with a tutor or friend, create a mindmap of your interests. Use words and/or pictures.

  • You may find some things in common.

  • You may also find ways to relate your GCSE studies to your interests.

English Language Activity

Create a table with three columns: bad, neutral, and good, and put some of the items from below into your table depending on how you feel about them.

For example:

Bad :-( Neural :-/ Good :-)

adjectives read give opinions

English Language Activity

Which three of these skills do you find easiest?

Which three of these skills do you find the most difficult?

Bonus activity: rank all of these skills from easiest to hardest.

  1. Spelling

  2. Punctuation

  3. Grammar

  4. Finding key information

  5. Summarising

  6. Implied meaning 

  7. Language features (e.g., metaphors, similes)

  8. Word classes (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

  9. Planning an answer

  10. Structuring an answer (e.g., paragraphs)

  11. Writing creatively

  12. Writing clearly

  13. Comparing texts

  14. Varied vocabulary

  15. Different sentence types

Bonus Activity

Check out the content list of this course and think about your answers to the skills activity above.

  1. Which topics need more of your time?

  2. Which topics could you review briefly?

  3. Is there anything else you would add?

Bonus Activity:

Language Features

Which of these language features are you familiar with?

Which language features do you need to know more about?

(Language Features are covered in detail in a later lesson).

Knowledge Check/Review

  1. What are the parts of your GCSE or Functional Skills assessment?

  2. What topics or skills do you need to prioritise?