Students learn to produce all handshapes, movements and locations of single signs. They make use of handling and size and shape specifiers (SASS) depicting signs with increasing accuracy, and use...
Students learn to produce all handshapes, movements and locations of single signs. They make use of handling and size and shape specifiers (SASS) depicting signs with increasing accuracy, and use entity depicting signs to talk about simple movement and locations. Students produce a range of clause structures with the correct sign order and non-manual features (NMFs), such as questions, negatives and topic-comment structures, as well as using a range of non-manual adverbs. They learn to modify indicating verbs to show participants involved in events and can sometimes maintain those locations across multiple clauses. They are learning to integrate multiple viewpoints, such as that of narrator and of one or two characters, through constructed action and marking manner in longer signed texts.
As students learn to adjust their language to suit different purposes and situations, they begin to understand how culture shapes language use. They compare how they feel when they use different languages and how they view different languages and people who use them. This introduction to the meta dimension of intercultural learning develops the ability to ‘decentre’, to consider different perspectives and ways of being, and to become aware of themselves as communicators and cultural participants. Metalinguistically, students learn to describe features of signs, such as handshapes, to identify whether they are iconic; to recognise the importance of space in Auslan; and to categorise signs as nouns, verbs and adjectives.
By the end of Level 2, students interact with the teaching team, class visitors and each other to share information about themselves, their families, friends, routines, pastimes and experiences. They use fingerspelling or sign names as appropriate and lexical adjectives or size and shape specifiers (SASS) depicting signs (DS) to describe the appearance and characteristics of family members, friends or teachers, for example, POSS1 BROTHER OLD++ TALL SKINNY or POSS3 SISTER FRECKLES. Students recount shared and personal experiences and favourite activities, using plain or indicating verbs that are modified, such as PRO1 GO-TO-right, PLAY-continuous, RETURN-left, or LAST-WEEK PRO1-plural VISIT NANNA. They sequence events correctly using time markers such as YESTERDAY, LAST-YEAR, TWO-DAYS-AGO. ...
By the end of Level 2, students interact with the teaching team, class visitors and each other to share information about themselves, their families, friends, routines, pastimes and experiences. They use fingerspelling or sign names as appropriate and lexical adjectives or size and shape specifiers (SASS) depicting signs (DS) to describe the appearance and characteristics of family members, friends or teachers, for example, POSS1 BROTHER OLD++ TALL SKINNY or POSS3 SISTER FRECKLES. Students recount shared and personal experiences and favourite activities, using plain or indicating verbs that are modified, such as PRO1 GO-TO-right, PLAY-continuous, RETURN-left, or LAST-WEEK PRO1-plural VISIT NANNA. They sequence events correctly using time markers such as YESTERDAY, LAST-YEAR, TWO-DAYS-AGO. They use everyday social exchanges such as greeting, thanking and apologising, and express feelings through the use of NMFs and lexical signs. They compare likes, dislikes and preferences, for example, PRO1 LIKE APPLE DON’T-LIKE ORANGE. They use appropriate NMFs to ask and respond to a range of wh- questions and yes/no questions. They indicate agreement/disagreement or understanding/lack of understanding by using other NMFs. They follow directions for class routines, for example, PLEASE DS:line-up-facing-front, and give and follow instructions of two or more steps, using directional terms or DSs such as DS:turn-left T-JUNCTION DS:turn-right.
Students follow culturally appropriate protocols, such as responding to and using attention-gaining strategies such as flashing lights, waving or tapping a shoulder or table, using voice-off while signing, and observing appropriate distance between signers. They recall and retell specific points of information from texts such as class messages, directions, introductions and ‘visual vernacular’ descriptions, and they recognise familiar fingerspelled words. They follow procedural texts involving several steps and retell them using list buoys. They view short Auslan stories and respond by identifying and comparing favourite elements, characters and events. They use features of constructed action (CA) such as shifting eye gaze, or head or body–head orientation when creating imagined texts, and use NMFs to modify manner or intensify adjectives, such as REMEMBER PRO1 JUMP-really-far-and-high. They identify themselves as members of different groups and describe their relationships with deaf, hard of hearing and hearing children, family members, and the community. They identify similarities and differences between how people interact and share stories in Auslan and in spoken languages.
Students know that Auslan is a language in its own right, different from mime and gestures used in spoken languages. They know that eye contact is necessary for effective communication and that meaning is communicated visually through the use of signs, fingerspelling, NMFs and non-conventional gestures. They recognise and describe the main elements of Auslan signs: handshape, movement and location; and identify and categorise signs according to these. They recognise that some signs link to visual images, for example DRINK, ELEPHANT. Students know that some words, such as proper nouns, are borrowed from English by fingerspelling and mouthing, and that locations or orientations of signs can be modified meaningfully, for example to show who is involved in an event. They recognise that signers can tell with lexical signs or show with DSs and CA, and that clauses include a verb and sometimes nouns. They recognise the importance of facial expression, eye gaze and NMFs in a visual-gestural language and culture.
