Essential English (Version 8.4)

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Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4

Understand how Essential English works

Rationale/Aims

Essential English focuses on consolidating and refining the skills and knowledge needed by students to become competent, confident and engaged users of English in many contemporary contexts including everyday, community, social, further education, training and workplace contexts.

Structure of Essential English

Unit 1 focuses on students comprehending and responding to the ideas and information presented in texts drawn from a range of contexts. Students are taught a variety of strategies to assist comprehension.

Texts

Teachers will use an array of material in class. Texts include literary texts, fiction and non-fiction, media texts, everyday texts, and workplace texts, from increasingly complex and unfamiliar settings, ranging from the everyday language of personal experience to more abstract, specialised and technical language drawn from a range of contexts.

Representation of General capabilities

General capabilities covered in Essential English include: Literacy, Numeracy, Information and communication technology (ICT) capability, Critical and creative thinking, Personal and social capability, Ethical understanding and Intercultural understanding.

Achievement standards

Unit 2

Unit 2 Description

Unit 2 focuses on interpreting ideas and arguments in a range of texts and contexts. By analysing text structures and language features and identifying the ideas, arguments and values expressed, students make inferences about the purposes and the intended audiences of texts. Students examine the connections between purpose and structure and how a text’s meaning is influenced by the context in which it is created and received. Students integrate relevant information and ideas from texts to develop their own interpretations. They learn to interact appropriately and persuasively with others in a range of contexts. Analytical and creative skills are developed by focusing on how language selection, imagery, type of text and mode can achieve specific effects. Knowledge and understanding of language and literacy skills are consolidated and demonstrated through the analysis and creation of a range of texts for different purposes, selected from real or imagined contexts.

Unit 2 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit, students:

examine how the structure and language of texts varies in different modes, mediums and contexts
understand reasons for language choices and their effects on audiences in a variety of texts and contexts
create oral, written and multimodal texts for different purposes using appropriate communication strategies for interaction with others in real or imagined contexts.

Unit 2 Content Descriptions

Use strategies and skills for comprehending texts including:

interpreting structural and language features and aural and visual cues used in texts (ACEEE015)

making inferences from content, text structures and language features (ACEEE016)

summarising ideas and information presented in texts (ACEEE017)

identifying similarities and differences between own response to texts and responses of others. (ACEEE018)

Consider the ways in which context, purpose and audience influence meaning including:

the ways in which main ideas, values and supporting details are represented in social, community and workplace texts (ACEEE019)

the effects of mediums, types of texts and text structures on audiences, for example, pop-ups on websites, flashbacks in films and intonation in speeches (ACEEE020)

the use of language features such as tone, register and style to influence responses, for example, character monologues in film, fiction and video games. (ACEEE021)

Using information for specific purposes and contexts by:

locating and selecting information from a range of sources (ACEEE022)

identifying the relevance and usefulness of each source (ACEEE023)

using different strategies for finding information such as taking notes to summarise and/or paraphrase information. (ACEEE024)

Create a range of texts:

using persuasive, visual and literary techniques to engage audiences in a range of modes, mediums and contexts (ACEEE025)

selecting text structures, language features and visual techniques to communicate and represent ideas and information (ACEEE026)

developing appropriate vocabulary and using accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar (ACEEE027)

using strategies for planning, drafting and proofreading, and appropriate referencing. (ACEEE028)