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English
The Australian Curriculum: English provides the opportunity for students to study written, spoken and visual language. Students learn about appropriate and inappropriate communication and the power of language to build and strengthen respectful relationships. Students use English in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, and facilitate interaction with others, online and offline. They also learn about the potential for language to be destructive and harmful and to recognise how texts can be used to manipulate thinking and behaviour.
Students deconstruct print, aural and digital texts to recognise and understand their social purpose in local, national and global contexts. They understand that patterns of language interaction vary across social contexts and types of texts and the ways that language functions and features may signal social roles and relationships. Students analyse how points of view are generated in visual texts and use literature as a lens to both reflect on and challenge historical and current social and cultural norms and values. Students develop the skills to recognise texts that are attempting to influence their beliefs about identity, power and relationships.
Students learn about literal and implied meaning of texts and how texts present different perspectives on an issue or event. They are guided to make informed decisions and to use digital media responsibly and ethically.
Language variation and change
Content descriptions with elaborations:
Understand that languages have different written and visual communication systems, different oral traditions and different ways of constructing meaning (ACELA1475)
- learning that a word or sign can have different weight in different cultural contexts, for example that particular respect is due to some people and creatures and that stories can be passed on to teach us how to live appropriately
Language for interaction
Content descriptions with elaborations:
Understand that successful cooperation with others depends on shared use of social conventions, including turn-taking patterns, and forms of address that vary according to the degree of formality in social situations (ACELA1476)
- identifying roles and collaborative patterns in students' own groups and pair work (for example initiating a topic, changing a topic through negotiation, affirming other speakers and building on their comments, asking relevant questions, providing usual feedback, promoting and checking individual and group understanding)
Language for interaction
Content descriptions with elaborations:
Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others for example when exploring and clarifying the ideas of others, summarising their own views and reporting them to a larger group (ACELA1488)
- recognising that we can use language differently with our friends and families, but that standard Australian English is typically used in written school texts and more formal contexts
- recognising that language is adjusted in different contexts, for example in degree of formality when moving between group discussions and presenting a group report
- understanding how age, status, expertise and familiarity influence the ways in which we interact with people and how these codes and conventions vary across cultures
- recognising the importance of using inclusive language
Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording (ACELA1489)
- identifying ways thinking verbs are used to express opinion, for example 'I think', 'I believe', and ways summary verbs are used to report findings, for example 'we concluded'
Language for interaction
Content descriptions with elaborations:
Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording (ACELA1489)
- identifying ways thinking verbs are used to express opinion, for example 'I think', 'I believe', and ways summary verbs are used to report findings, for example 'we concluded'
Text structure and organisation
Content descriptions with elaborations:
Identify features of online texts that enhance readability including text, navigation, links, graphics and layout (ACELA1793)
- participating in online searches for information using navigation tools and discussing similarities and differences between print and digital information
Creating texts
Content descriptions with elaborations:
Use software including word processing programs with growing speed and efficiency to construct and edit texts featuring visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1685)
- use features of relevant technologies to plan, sequence, compose and edit multimodal texts
Creating texts
Content descriptions with elaborations:
Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1697)
- identifying and selecting appropriate software programs for constructing text