The vocabulary barrier in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in English Literature

Every year in the United Kingdom hundreds of thousands of pupils in their last year of secondary education take a General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam in English Literature. Yet, every year, attainment is strikingly low: one quarter of those sitting the exam fail to achieve the grade 4 required for a standard pass. This paper sought to understand the reasons for this low attainment by comparing the vocabulary used in texts on the GCSE English Literature specifications with the vocabulary encountered in books that British teenagers read for pleasure. Our analysis shows that the GCSE texts have varied but dense vocabulary, and feature many words that are not encountered in popular books or in a typical spoken language environment. Many of these unfamiliar words are new roots whose meanings cannot be derived from their parts, suggesting that readers will need to rely on context or turn to a dictionary to interpret these. Together, our findings indicate that the GCSE texts will challenge even those pupils who read avidly in their free time, while their less able peers will be unable to access the texts. Our work suggests that a specification review is in order, and that it is critical that this review takes into account the wide variation in reading and language skills that pupils bring into the classroom.