What are the different skills required to succeed in GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature?

These are two different GCSEs that some students, including myself when I was starting KS4, find difficult to understand the varying skills that each require. For optimum success in GCSE English Language, the student is required to show knowledge of language devices used in a variety of texts, ranging from a transcript of a radio advert to a piece of traditional literature. After understanding these different devices, the student must then be able to explain and analyse their purposes in these texts and why they are used. For example, with a piece of advertisement the student would be expected to explain why there are a number of superlatives and hyperboles used, or for a poem about a gloomy winter’s day, why there is a semantic field of darkness and sadness used by the author.For GCSE English Literature, the student will read a number of texts and start to piece together the meaning and emotions that the author has tried to create. The next step needed to be taken for the student to achieve the desired grade is to show that they understand the context in which the text was created and how this develops the meaning. The student is expected to connect the inner meaning of the text and what has occurred to possible influences that the writers has had for them to mention such an aspect. It is to understand that the text is now more than writing on paper, but something that was created to create a specific message or notion.