Search results

Result list

• VCELA322

  Understand how the grammatical category of possessives is signalled through apostrophes and how to use apostrophes with common and proper nouns

  Elaborations

  • learning that in Standard Australian English regular plural nouns ending in ‘s’ form the possessive by adding just the apostrophe (for example ‘my parents' car’)
  • learning that in Standard Australian English for proper nouns a variant form without the second ‘s’ is sometimes found (for example ‘James’s house’ or ‘James’ house’)

  VCELA322 | Curriculum content | English | Level 5 | Writing | Language

• VCELA325

  Understand the use of vocabulary to express greater precision of meaning, and know that words can have different meanings in different contexts

  Elaborations

  • moving from general, ‘all-purpose’ words, for example ‘cut’ to more specific words, for example ‘slice’, ‘dice’, ‘fillet’, ‘segment’

  VCELA325 | Curriculum content | English | Level 5 | Writing | Language

• VCELA362

  Understand that different social and geographical dialects or accents are used in Australia in addition to Standard Australian English

  Elaborations

  • recognising that there are more than 150 Aboriginal languages and two Torres Strait Islander languages and that they relate to geographic areas in Australia
  • recognising that all languages and dialects are of equal value, although we use different ones in different contexts, for example the use of Standard Australian English, Aboriginal English and forms of Creole used by some Torres Strait Islander groups and some of Australia’s near neighbours

  VCELA362 | Curriculum content | English | Level 6 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA335

  Understand how to move beyond making bare assertions and take account of differing perspectives and points of view

  Elaborations

  • recognising that a bare assertion (for example 'It's the best film this year') often needs to be tempered by: using the 'impersonal it' to distance oneself (for example 'It could be that it is the best film this year'); recruiting anonymous support (for example 'It is generally agreed that it is the best film this year.'); indicating a general source of the opinion (for example 'Most critics agree that it is the best film this year.'); specifying the source of the opinion (for example 'David and Margaret both agree that it is the best film this year') and reflecting on the effect of these different choices

  VCELA335 | Curriculum content | English | Level 5 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA334

  Understand that patterns of language interaction vary across social contexts and types of texts and that they help to signal social roles and relationships

  Elaborations

  • identifying ways in which cultures differ in making and responding to common requests, for example periods of silence, degrees of formality

  VCELA334 | Curriculum content | English | Level 5 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA351

  Understand how ideas can be expanded and sharpened through careful choice of verbs, elaborated tenses and a range of adverb groups/phrases

  Elaborations

  • knowing that verbs often represent actions and that the choice of more expressive verbs makes an action more vivid (for example 'She ate her lunch' compared to 'She gobbled up her lunch')
  • knowing that adverb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases can provide important details about a happening(for example, ‘At nine o'clock the buzzer rang loudly throughout the school’) or state (for example, ‘The tiger is a member of the cat family’)
  • knowing the difference between the simple present tense (for example 'Pandas eat bamboo.') and the simple past tense (for example 'She replied.')
  • knowing that the simple present tense is typically used to talk about either present states (for example, ‘He lives in Darwin’) or actions that happen regularly in the present (for example, ‘He watches television every night’) or that represent ‘timeless’ happenings, as in information reports (for example, ‘Bears hibernate in winter’)
  • knowing that there are various ways in English to refer to future time (for example 'She will call you tomorrow'; 'I am going to the movies tomorrow'; 'Tomorrow I leave for Hobart')

  VCELA351 | Curriculum content | English | Level 6 | Writing | Language

• VCELA363

  Understand that strategies for interaction become more complex and demanding as levels of formality and social distance increase

  Elaborations

  • identify and appreciate differences in language used in diverse family settings

  VCELA363 | Curriculum content | English | Level 6 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA383

  Understand how modality is achieved through discriminating choices in modal verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns

  Elaborations

  • observing and discussing how a sense of certainty, probability and obligation is created in texts

  VCELA383 | Curriculum content | English | Level 7 | Writing | Language

• VCELA381

  Understand the use of punctuation to support meaning in complex sentences with prepositional phrases and embedded clauses

  Elaborations

  • discussing how qualifying statements add meaning to opinions and views in spoken texts

  VCELA381 | Curriculum content | English | Level 7 | Writing | Language

• VCELA391

  Understand the way language evolves to reflect a changing world, particularly in response to the use of new technology for presenting texts and communicating

  Elaborations

  • exploring languages and dialects through building webcam relationships with schools across Australia and Asia
  • investigating changes in word use and meaning over time and some of the reasons for these changes, for example the influence on spelling and vocabulary of new forms of communication like texting, emoticons and email

  VCELA391 | Curriculum content | English | Level 7 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA423

  Understand the influence and impact that the English language has had on other languages or dialects and how English has been influenced in return

  Elaborations

  • exploring examples of Singlish (Singapore English) from a Singlish dictionary
  • investigating borrowings from a range of languages into English, for example from French and Italian

  VCELA423 | Curriculum content | English | Level 8 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA384

  Understand how to use spelling rules and word origins to learn new words and how to spell them

  Elaborations

  • using Greek and Latin roots, base words, suffixes, prefixes, spelling patterns and generalisations

  VCELA384 | Curriculum content | English | Level 7 | Writing | Language

• VCELA368

  Understand how language is used to evaluate texts and how evaluations about a text can be substantiated by reference to the text and other sources

  Elaborations

  • defending points of view in reading circle discussions
  • responding to points of view by developing and elaborating on others’ responses
  • building a knowledge base about words of evaluation, including words to express emotional responses to texts, judgment of characters and their actions, and appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of text

  VCELA368 | Curriculum content | English | Level 7 | Reading and Viewing | Language

• VCELA392

  Understand how accents, styles of speech and idioms express and create personal and social identities

  Elaborations

  • building a database of local idioms and their meanings, accents and styles of speech for different contexts, exploring the possibilities of these choices in drama and role play, and discussing their connection with personal and social identities
  • developing dialogues authentic to characters in comics, cartoons and animations

  VCELA392 | Curriculum content | English | Level 7 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA424

  Understand how conventions of speech adopted by communities influence the identities of people in those communities

  Elaborations

  • understanding that our use of language helps to create different identities, for example teenage groups and sportspeople have adopted particular words or ways of speaking

  VCELA424 | Curriculum content | English | Level 8 | Speaking and Listening | Language

• VCELA414

  Understand how coherence is created in complex texts through devices like lexical cohesion, ellipsis, grammatical theme and text connectives

  Elaborations

  • interpreting complex sentence structures through reading aloud literary texts such as sonnets or plays
  • using cohesive devices when writing complex texts

  VCELA414 | Curriculum content | English | Level 8 | Writing | Language

• VCELA399

  Understand how cohesion in texts is improved by strengthening the internal structure of paragraphs through the use of examples, quotations and substantiation of claims

  Elaborations

  • writing paragraphs of extended length that explain and substantiate a particular personal viewpoint

  VCELA399 | Curriculum content | English | Level 8 | Reading and Viewing | Language

• VCELA417

  Understand how to apply learned knowledge consistently in order to spell accurately and to learn new words including nominalisations

  Elaborations

  • understanding the different ways complex words are constructed and, when spelling these words, drawing on morphemic knowledge and knowledge of unusual letter combinations

  VCELA417 | Curriculum content | English | Level 8 | Writing | Language

• VCELA415

  Understand the use of punctuation conventions, including colons, semicolons, dashes and brackets in formal and informal texts

  Elaborations

  • creating dialogue in drama showing interruptions, asides and pauses for effect

  VCELA415 | Curriculum content | English | Level 8 | Writing | Language

• VCELA397

  Understand how rhetorical devices are used to persuade and how different layers of meaning are developed through the use of metaphor, irony and parody

  Elaborations

  • identifying and evaluating examples of how rhetorical devices reveal the dark or serious aspects of a topic in ways that cause laughter or amusement, for example by making a statement but implying/meaning the opposite (irony); exaggerating or overstating something (hyperbole); imitating or sending up something (parody), and making something appear less serious than it really is (understatement)

  VCELA397 | Curriculum content | English | Level 8 | Reading and Viewing | Language