Rationale/Aims

Rationale/Aims

Rationale

English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) focuses on language learning and the explicit teaching of the structure, linguistic features and sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects of Standard Australian English (SAE). Through close study of language and meaning, students of EAL/D explore how learning in and through English language and literature influences their own and others’ personal, social and cultural identities and thought processes. They develop skills that enable them to use different registers of spoken and written SAE so they can communicate effectively in a range of contexts and for a variety of purposes in order to become effective cross-cultural users of language and dialect.

EAL/D provides opportunities for students to engage reflectively and critically with a broad range of spoken, written and multimodal texts (including literary and non-literary texts, for example academic, everyday and workplace texts.) Students learn to create (individually and collaboratively) increasingly complex texts for different purposes and audiences in different forms, modes and mediums. Units 1 to 4 develop students’ academic English skills in order to prepare them for tertiary study. Bridging Units 1 to 4 provide the linguistic foundation for work, training or further study.

Within each unit, students regularly use the language modes of listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing to develop their communicative skills in SAE for a range of purposes, audiences and contexts.

Aims

All senior secondary English subjects aim to develop students’:

  • skills in listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing
  • capacity to create texts for a range of purposes, audiences and contexts
  • understanding and appreciation of different uses of language.

In addition, English as an Additional Language or Dialect aims to develop students’:

  • understanding of the relationships between language, texts and ways of thinking and knowing in SAE
  • ability to communicate ideas, feelings, attitudes and information appropriately in and through SAE across the curriculum areas
  • inferential comprehension, critical analysis and reflection skills.