Auslan: First Language Learner F–10 Sequence / Levels 5 and 6 / Understanding / Role of language and culture
Content description
Reflect on how communities’ ways of using language are shaped by and reflect cultural values and beliefs, and how these may be differently interpreted by users of other languages
Elaborations
explaining the role of Auslan and Deaf culture in maintaining, reflecting and strengthening the Deaf community and its networks and significant places
understanding that knowledge about past and present Deaf people and cultural experience and values is embodied in and transmitted through Auslan, for example ways of producing the sign for SIGN reflects cultural values placed on fluency
identifying the cultural importance of different elements of communication, such as the use of signing space and proxemics by Auslan users, particularly in relation to a person passing between two signers or the positioning of communication partners
identifying cultural differences between the use of personal names in Auslan and other languages, such as the fact that Auslan signers do not use a person’s name when addressing them directly as do users of many spoken languages
recognising that different types of expressive and imaginative performance in Auslan carry cultural as well as linguistic information, for example, a film or theatrical performance that represents typical miscommunication experiences
understanding that ‘sound’ is accessed differently in Deaf culture, that the meaning and importance of sound in deaf people’s lives is usually not the same as in hearing people’s experience
exploring ways in which deaf people’s art incorporates sign language motifs and images as forms of cultural expression
analysing stories about deaf people’s history for the ways in which they embody cultural values and information, for example accounts of Thomas Pattison, FJ Rose and William Thomson establishing the first schools for deaf children
