Cambridge AS & A Level English Language 9093/32 is the May/June 2026 Paper 3 (Language Analysis), variant 2, an A Level component. It lasts 2 hours 15 minutes, is worth 50 marks and you answer both questions: a 25-mark language change question built on three texts and a 25-mark child language acquisition question on a transcript. The two questions are worth the same but are weighted very differently: Question 1 is mostly about handling data, Question 2 mostly about theory. This guide covers both and explains how the official mark scheme’s assessment objective (AO) grids give marks. The paper and its mark scheme are free on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

For an overview of all four 9093 papers from this series, see A Level English Language 9093 May/June 2026 past papers: what came up and how it was marked.

9093/32 at a glance

Rubric: answer all questions. Dictionaries are not allowed.

Question	Section	Data	AOs	Marks
1	A: Language change	Text A: 1834 book extracts on football and golf. Text B: top nouns after obtain, 1470s–1690s and 2000–2010. Text C: n-gram graph of in vogue and trending, 1800–2020	AO2 5, AO4 5, AO5 15	25
2	B: Child language acquisition	Transcript of Bartek (age 5) and his grandfather at home, talking about a school play	AO1 5, AO4 15, AO5 5	25
		Total		50

Question-by-question walkthrough

How both questions are marked

Each question has its own grid with three AO columns and five levels (plus 0). The examiner places your answer in a level for each AO and adds the marks.

• AO1 (understanding) rewards understanding of the text’s meaning, context and audience and reference to its features.
• AO2 (writing) rewards your own expression and the relevance and development of your ideas.
• AO4 (concepts) rewards understanding of linguistic issues, concepts, methods and approaches, both in the data and from your wider study.
• AO5 (data) rewards selecting, analysing and synthesising language data, each counted equally.
• Patterns beat single features. The scheme says higher marks go to answers that identify patterns and give thoughtful, plausible explanations, while weaker answers spot features or describe single cases of change without broader context.
• The notes are illustrative. Other valid points are credited, and you can organise your answer any way you like.

Question 1: language change (25 marks)

You analyse how Text A shows the ways English has changed over time, referring to all three texts and your wider study of language change.

The data. Text A is two extracts from an 1834 book on the history of sports and pastimes. One describes “foot-ball”: its decline among ordinary people, how a match was set up between two equal sides and goals made of sticks, and a ball made from a bladder cased in leather. The other describes “goff” (golf): its ancient origins, its popularity in the north, the club and feather-stuffed ball, and how the player who holes the ball in the fewest strokes wins. Text B lists the five top nouns that followed obtain in a 1470s–1690s corpus (pardon, favour, mercy, victory, salvation) and in a 2000–2010 corpus (information, document, consent, licence, warrant). Text C is an n-gram graph: in vogue rises to a peak around 1900 and then falls, while trending climbs and overtakes it.

What the scheme’s notes cover:

• Lexis: parties and antagonists where we would now say teams and opponents; competitors and performers for players, with performers now suggesting entertainers; he who achieves it where today’s writer would use “whoever”; instrument having undergone a pragmatic shift; a game at foot-ball rather than “a game of football”; answers to meaning “corresponds to”; and obtains the victory for “wins”. Text B supports the last point: obtain has moved from abstract nouns, some with religious associations, to concrete ones in legal or professional contexts.
• Text C: in vogue declines while trending rises, with a crossover around the 1930s–40s. The scheme suggests the rise of trending around 2010 may be linked to social media.
• Grammar: long complex sentences with relative clauses; frequent semicolons separating clauses, giving a dense feel; passive constructions making the text formal; but little practised, where but means “only”; and the sentence saying the two players have each of them his bat and ball, which would be built differently today.
• Orthography: spelling is mostly standardised, as the text comes after Johnson’s 1755 dictionary; pastime also appears with an apostrophe in one place, suggesting uncertainty; and hyphenated foot-ball fits the pattern of compounds moving from spaced to hyphenated to solid, while goff-ball has become the spaced “golf ball” instead.
• Graphology: Roman numerals and block capitals with closed punctuation in the section titles, and extra spaces before colons and semicolons.

The grid: AO2 and AO4 are 5 marks each (one mark per level). AO5 carries 15: Level 5 is 13 to 15, Level 4 is 10 to 12, Level 3 is 7 to 9, Level 2 is 4 to 6 and Level 1 is 1 to 3.

Moving up: Levels 5 and 4 for AO5 require data selected and synthesised from all three sources; Level 3 needs at least two. Level 2 describes limited selection with possibly uneven coverage. So a close reading of Text A alone, however good, caps your biggest mark. Bring Texts B and C in where they explain a pattern in Text A, such as obtains the victory or the 1834 writer’s comment that football had been much in vogue.

Question 2: child language acquisition (25 marks)

You analyse how Bartek and his grandfather use language, referring to the transcript and your wider study of child language acquisition.

The data. Bartek, aged 5, talks with his grandfather at home about a school play. He says it was boring because he had sung his solo so many times in rehearsal, says he hates singing and prefers running games, boasts about being picked for a race, says his little sister did not see it because she was too little, and imitates a baby who cried during the performance. His grandfather keeps the conversation going with questions, steers it back to the play and stops Bartek’s demonstrations politely.

What the scheme’s notes cover:

• Child-directed speech: closed and open questions to complete adjacency pairs and move the talk on; varied intonation, stress and raised volume (such as his loud EXCITING); interrupting to check Bartek’s behaviour, but softening it with an explanation and staying polite; and managing topic shifts to return to the play.
• Bartek’s language: full phonological competence, including consonant clusters; plurals, negation and contraction; fluent pronoun use; mostly secure tenses with some slips (i sung it) and talk about the future; non-standard forms (all the times) alongside long co-ordinated utterances; repetition and volume to mimic crying and running; playful made-up large numbers to impress; and an overall post-telegraphic stage despite some slips.
• Theory the scheme links to the data: Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device and the over-regularised past tense understanded; Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, with the grandfather offering rehearsals and dialogue, which Bartek ignores; Piaget’s preoperational stage, shown in Bartek’s egotistical replies such as insisting he was always right; Bruner’s Language Acquisition Support System in the grandfather’s scaffolding questions; Halliday’s personal, representational, interactional and regulatory functions; and Skinner, since the grandfather does not correct non-standard forms with negative reinforcement.

The grid: AO1 and AO5 are 5 marks each (one mark per level). AO4 carries 15: Level 5 is 13 to 15, Level 4 is 10 to 12, Level 3 is 7 to 9, Level 2 is 4 to 6 and Level 1 is 1 to 3.

Moving up: AO4 has three strands at every level: understanding of concepts, reference to wider study, and reference to the methods and approaches of theorists. Level 5 asks for insightful reference to “fully appropriate” theorists, and the scheme says theory should be integrated into the response. A paragraph per theorist with no lines from the transcript does not meet that. Pair each theory with a specific utterance, as the scheme’s notes do.

Where the marks are on 9093/32

Assessment objective	Q1 Language change	Q2 Child language	Total
AO1 Understanding	–	5	5
AO2 Writing	5	–	5
AO4 Concepts and theory	5	15	20
AO5 Data	15	5	20
Total	25	25	50

• The weighting flips between the questions. Data carries 15 marks in Question 1 and theory 15 in Question 2. Plan each answer around its heavy AO.
• Your wider study counts in both. Both questions ask for ideas and examples beyond the printed data.

How to self-mark 9093/32 with the mark scheme

1. Tick the sources in Question 1. Mark every reference to Text A, B and C. If one is missing, AO5 cannot go above Level 3.
2. Look for patterns, not lists. For each point, ask whether you linked a feature to a wider trend in language change and explained it.
3. Check theory sits next to data in Question 2. Every theorist you name should be tied to a quoted line from Bartek or his grandfather.
4. Cover both speakers. The question asks about Bartek and the grandfather, and the scheme’s notes give the grandfather’s child-directed speech its own set of points. Check you analysed both.
5. Mark each AO column separately, then add. Weigh each bullet equally to choose the level, then the mark.
6. Use the scheme’s notes as a guide, not a checklist. Credit valid points it does not list.

Sit 9093/32 as a timed mock

The paper allows 135 minutes for 50 marks.

Block	Marks	Time
Read Texts A, B and C and plan Question 1	–	15 minutes
Write Question 1	25	50 minutes
Read the transcript and plan Question 2	–	15 minutes
Write Question 2	25	50 minutes
Check sources used and theory linked to data	–	5 minutes

Other May/June 2026 9093 papers

• 9093 Paper 12 (Reading)
• 9093 Paper 22 (Writing)
• 9093 Paper 42 (Language Topics)

Practise and download

• Download 9093/32 and its mark scheme on the Learning Portal →
• All 9093 May/June 2026 papers: overview and marking patterns
• Try a free A Level English Language quiz

Need help with a 9093 topic? Book a free trial lesson with an A Level English Language tutor →

Frequently asked questions

How is 9093 Paper 32 May/June 2026 structured? +

It is an A Level paper of 2 hours 15 minutes and 50 marks. You answer both questions: Section A on language change and Section B on child language acquisition, each worth 25 marks.

What were the texts in 9093/32 Question 1? +

Text A was extracts on football and golf from an 1834 book about sports and pastimes. Text B was a table of nouns that collocate with obtain in the 1470s to 1690s and in 2000 to 2010. Text C was an n-gram graph of in vogue and trending from 1800 to 2020.

Do I need to use all three texts in 9093/32 Question 1? +

To reach the top two AO5 levels, yes. Levels 5 and 4 describe selecting and synthesising data from all three sources, and Level 3 from at least two. AO5 carries 15 of the question's 25 marks.

What was the child language transcript on 9093/32? +

A conversation at home between Bartek, aged 5, and his grandfather about a school play Bartek had been in. Bartek says he found it boring, then talks about running, games and a baby crying at the performance.

Which theorists does the 9093/32 mark scheme mention for the child language question? +

Its notes link Chomsky, Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner, Halliday and Skinner to specific lines in the transcript. AO4, which covers theory and concepts, carries 15 of the 25 marks, and the scheme says theory should be integrated with the data.

Where can I download 9093/32 May/June 2026 and its mark scheme? +

Both are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge AS & A Level English Language 9093 past papers page.

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