Critical language awareness in the Key Stage Three English classroom: a knowledge-rich approach.

Despite the lacklustre GCSE English Language, we can ensure language study thrives in the classroom at Key Stage Three.

As an experienced secondary school teacher, I’ve taught students about spoken language for many years although the focus has shifted latterly to encouraging a more critical understanding. This article describes some recent work with colleagues to help Key Stage Three students (aged 11 – 14) towards a critical understanding of spoken language and how views about it are expressed.

The article first appeared in the English Association Newsletter July 2026.

Overview

Through our Key Stage Three English curriculum, we take students on a journey to develop their critical language awareness via three separate teaching episodes, one per year, each lasting between 9 to 12 lessons. We introduce them to several core language concepts such as accent, dialect, code-switching, multilingualism and social group and use this knowledge to explore issues relating to identity, power and prejudice.

Here, I’d like to outline the approach we use with our year 9 students (aged 13-14). We study the views of sociolinguists (the academics who research language variation) and use them to debunk popular media discourses attacking young people’s use of language.

Analysing newspaper headlines

We jump straight in and show students several provocative newspaper headlines like the one below. These headlines tend to function as clickbait by recycling popular myths about young people’s use of spoken language. They are written by journalists and don’t usually reflect the research-informed views of linguists.

As you can imagine from reading this example, newspaper headlines offer rich pickings for close analysis. In fact, there are so many out there bemoaning young people’s literacy practices, it is difficult to choose a few to study! Students can apply their critical literacy skills to consider not just what is being argued and how, but why these viewpoints might exist.

Within minutes, most students undo such negative views by alluding to a whole host of factors: the sensationalist aim of headlines; negative stereotyping of young people; hypocrisy – the adults writing this stuff would have used slang when they were young; and so on. However, there is rarely a consensus in a talkative English classroom and some students will align themselves with the deficit views expressed in the headlines, arguing that slang is pretty pointless. Later on, we return to debate this from a more informed position.

Occasionally, there’s a headline like the one below which adopts a more nuanced view.

Unsurprisingly, reading this headline causes an amused reaction around the room. Why? Well, there is some enjoyable wordplay but the main reason is that students don’t expect to encounter informal language in a classroom context. They don’t associate this way of communicating with schooling. And yet it’s a good example of how serious points can be made in any linguistic repertoire. The subheading concedes that young people’s playfulness with language is more than just trivial; it’s a meaningful communicative practice for them.

A study of Gen Z slang: what words and phrases are young people using?

At this point it’s useful for our students to do a study of the slang terms they are encountering. This always goes down well because they become the language experts in the classroom, sharing their experience of particular words and phrases that may be classed as ‘slang’. We are tapping into the rich language practices that our young people bring to school; as teachers, we are learning from and with our students.

To introduce this section of the work we do a quiz then present some examples in a table where each word is glossed and put in a sentence to show usage. Students are asked to add their own words, meanings and sentences. Sounds straightforward? Not quite. Much heated debate over meanings and functions ensues – ‘that’s not how you use slay’ and ‘no-one uses it like that’ are some typical comments.

But this dissensus provides a wonderful opportunity for the language teacher to leverage discussion around who owns the meanings and why usages might differ. While we are building up a rich picture of young people’s linguistic dexterity, we’re also delving into linguistic concepts around language change, online and offline linguistic identities and social groups.

What do linguists who study young people’s use of language think about it?

Introducing the research-informed views of linguists allows students to label and discuss some important concepts. For example the sociolinguist Dr Christian Illbury talks about young people as ‘language innovators’ who have always ‘created words to distinguish themselves from adults’ in what he calls ‘linguistic identity work’. As well as this, we discuss his thought-provoking points about the relationship between Black British English and many popular slang terms.

We also read an informative article from The Guardian which traces the rise of the viral slang term ‘six-seven’ and presents the views of sociolinguists Dr Nicole Holliday and Dr Daria Bahtina who both explain how such terms have a genuine communicative purpose. This allows students to see these linguistic practices through the discerning eyes of language experts.

What do we think about young people’s use of language?

A lovely way for students to pull together everything they’ve been learning is to do some generative writing. We give students a set of statements based on the different viewpoints we’ve encountered and ask them to write down whether they agree or disagree and why. This helps them formulate their own views using the knowledge they have developed. It’s also a good warm-up for a class discussion where we share and debate our thoughts.

How do older people use Gen Z slang for stylistic purposes?

Next, we analyse some creative marketing ads that exploit Gen Z slang. Many of these went viral – presumably because of the comedic (and cringe) effect on young people! One of our favourite ads is a local one advertising Northumberland Zoo where two older zookeepers do a promotional tour of the animal park using slang in a dead pan way. It leads into a brilliant discussion of audience, purpose, identity and register.

A creative follow-up activity is to get students writing a promotional ad for the school using similar language. Pairs then share their script with the class and we discuss the impact of their language choices. If they can’t read their script or listen to a script without suppressing a giggle, why is this?

A final word about young people’s use of ‘like’

In the last section of our learning sequence we focus on the role of conversational fillers (like, err, um), using a TedEd talk as a starting point.

We also juxtapose the views of commentator Giles Brandreth with the research of linguist Dr Rebecca Wood. Through a blog post, Brandreth has a moan about ‘Love Island’s ‘like’ epidemic.’ However, Wood’s research into how young people use the word ‘like’ on the BBC show Glow Up provides a brilliant critique of such deficit views. In an article written for The Conversation – ‘‘Like’ isn’t a lazy linguistic filler – the English language snobs need to, like, pipe down’ – she analyses the different functions of ‘like’ and shows how it follows specific grammar rules. To understand how these rules work, our students do some playful work, generating their own ‘like’ sentences on mini-whiteboards.

The end of Wood’s article provides a powerful insight into language prejudice as she explains how ‘language gripes’ are a ‘a proxy for demeaning certain groups’, often ‘young, female and not in positions of power.’ We discuss these important points and deepen our understanding of why deficit attitudes exist and the impact this can have on less powerful social groups. Woods finishes with a plea to call out language prejudice and this ties in nicely with our final task.

What can we do to address language prejudice?

We set students off on a mini-research project and challenge them to use their findings and everything else they have learnt to educate and inform a wider audience. This year, due to an incredible stroke of luck, Dr Woods is coming to work with our students on this mini-project. We’re so excited to welcome a linguist to our classrooms!

Our effort to develop students’ critical language awareness has a role in our wider work around linguistic justice in school. For more insight into this, please read the English Association’s Position Paper on Linguistic In/justice, written by me and Dr Ian Cushing.

The future of English Language in secondary school

I’m convinced that language study is a vital part of an enriching English curriculum, something that every child is entitled to. This is just one example of how we might develop knowledge about language in a critical way, embracing the discursive practices of young people and the disciplinary practices of sociolinguistics.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review has recognised that a revitalised approach to GCSE English Language is urgent. We await a fresh, inspirational vision for developing language study in the English classroom.

Contact: if you’d like to ask any questions or see any of the resources we use, please feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn. I’ve shared our material with many schools; it’s clear there’s a massive appetite for critical language awareness among English teachers and it’s encouraging to hear how others adapt this work to their own context.

Please also remember to reference our work if you are inspired by the ideas and are sharing them with a wider audience.