Students are extending their grammatical knowledge, such as how language structures and features are used in texts. They are using more elaborate sentence structures, including conjoining clauses, and are increasingly making their texts cohesive by setting up and maintaining referents in signing space.
Students are exploring non-manual features (NMFs) and their relationship with clause types, and are beginning to use constructed action to represent multiple participants in a text. They are increasingly aware of connections between language and culture, comparing them to concepts in their own language and culture. They are learning to reflect on their own language and culture and on how identity impacts on intercultural experiences.
By the end of Level 8, students use Auslan to interact and to exchange information, experiences, interests and opinions with teachers, peers and others. They initiate and maintain conversations and use strategies such as fingerspelling to replace unknown signs to support continued interaction, such as PRO2 MEAN [FINGERSPELL]? They engage in different processes of collaborative learning, including planning, negotiating, and problem-solving, using familiar and some spontaneous language, for example PRO1 AGREE-NOT, PRO1 THINK DIFFERENT.
Students participate in class discussions, explaining and clarifying positions, asking follow-up questions, using non-manual features (NMFs) for topicalisation or negation. They use appropriate protocols to join or leave conversations, for example, waiting for eye gaze or for the signer to finish, not asking for a full recount when arriving mid-conversation, and providing context for a new participant joining a conversation.
Students locate, interpret and analyse information from a variety of texts, such as signed announcements, interviews or media reports, using context and familiar language to work out unfamiliar meaning. They demonstrate understanding...
By the end of Level 8, students use Auslan to interact and to exchange information, experiences, interests and opinions with teachers, peers and others. They initiate and maintain conversations and use strategies such as fingerspelling to replace unknown signs to support continued interaction, such as PRO2 MEAN [FINGERSPELL]? They engage in different processes of collaborative learning, including planning, negotiating, and problem-solving, using familiar and some spontaneous language, for example PRO1 AGREE-NOT, PRO1 THINK DIFFERENT.
Students participate in class discussions, explaining and clarifying positions, asking follow-up questions, using non-manual features (NMFs) for topicalisation or negation. They use appropriate protocols to join or leave conversations, for example, waiting for eye gaze or for the signer to finish, not asking for a full recount when arriving mid-conversation, and providing context for a new participant joining a conversation.
Students locate, interpret and analyse information from a variety of texts, such as signed announcements, interviews or media reports, using context and familiar language to work out unfamiliar meaning. They demonstrate understanding of different types of signed texts by paraphrasing, summarising and explaining main ideas, key themes or sequences of events. They interpret different types of creative and imaginative texts, such as Deaf performances or expressive art forms, describing and comparing their responses. They plan, draft and present informative and imaginative texts, linking and sequencing ideas using connectives, such as BUT, WHEN or WELL, and strategies such as repetition, stress and pausing for emphasis. They create bilingual texts to use in the wider school community, for example by captioning short stories, poems or interviews with members of the Deaf community. Students reflect on how their own ways of communicating may be interpreted when interacting with deaf people; and they modify elements of their behaviour such as eye contact, facial expression or body language as appropriate.
Students identify and describe the different types of NMFs, and understand their function and how they interact with clause type. They identify iconic signs and discuss how these match their referents, such as COMPUTER-MOUSE. They understand how handshape and movement represent different things in each type of depicting sign (DS). They identify and categorise instances of signers using spatial modifications to signs and know that signs can be iconic in a number of ways. They analyse clauses to see where signers create composite utterances with elements of constructed action (CA), DSs, points and fully-lexical signs in the same utterance. They recognise that Auslan is constantly evolving and changing, for example, by identifying changes to Auslan that reflect changes in social relationships, community attitudes and changing technology. They understand that the most unifying factor of the Deaf community is the use of Auslan. Students reflect on how all ways of language use are influenced by communities’ world views and identities, for example by comparing the cultural concept of Deaf identity with the medical model of deafness.
Students are able to produce all handshapes, movements and locations of single signs. They can independently produce simple positive and negative statements with some time marking, and use plain verbs, indicating verbs modified for present referents and simple and familiar depicting verbs. They describe familiar objects, animals or people using lexical adjectives and some SASS depicting signs...
Students are able to produce all handshapes, movements and locations of single signs. They can independently produce simple positive and negative statements with some time marking, and use plain verbs, indicating verbs modified for present referents and simple and familiar depicting verbs. They describe familiar objects, animals or people using lexical adjectives and some SASS depicting signs. They depict the movement of people, animals and means of transport, using an appropriate classifier handshape in a depicting sign. They explore the expression of emotions through NMFs, and begin to use NMFs for grammatical purposes in modelled language. They use simple constructed action and handling depicting signs to show the characteristics and actions of an animal or a person. They learn that verbs can be modified spatially to express relationships with participants, and that space is used meaningfully in Auslan.
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.
By the end of Level 8, students use Auslan to share information, experiences, interests, thoughts and feelings about their personal and immediate worlds. They use modelled constructions, ask for repetition or clarification, such as please slow sign, and use strategies such as fingerspelling to replace unknown signs to support continued interaction. They use lexical signs, gestures and affective non-manual features (NMFs) to indicate understanding, interest or lack of interest, for example, AGREE YES or PRO1 AGREE or PRO1 KNOW WHAT MEAN, BUT…. They ask and respond to familiar questions and directions and distinguish between statements and questions using grammatical NMFs.
Students use familiar language to collaboratively plan and conduct shared events or activities, such as presentations, demonstrations or transactions, for example, PRO2 TYPE PRO1 WRITE. They describe people, animals and objects using lexical adjectives and familiar SASS depicting signs and appropriate classifier handshapes, for example, POSS1 MATH TEACHER TALL DS:long-wavy-hair or SCHOOL UNIFORM HAVE DS:long-thin-tie. They compare routines, interests and leisure activities, using signs for timing and frequency...
By the end of Level 8, students use Auslan to share information, experiences, interests, thoughts and feelings about their personal and immediate worlds. They use modelled constructions, ask for repetition or clarification, such as please slow sign, and use strategies such as fingerspelling to replace unknown signs to support continued interaction. They use lexical signs, gestures and affective non-manual features (NMFs) to indicate understanding, interest or lack of interest, for example, AGREE YES or PRO1 AGREE or PRO1 KNOW WHAT MEAN, BUT…. They ask and respond to familiar questions and directions and distinguish between statements and questions using grammatical NMFs.
Students use familiar language to collaboratively plan and conduct shared events or activities, such as presentations, demonstrations or transactions, for example, PRO2 TYPE PRO1 WRITE. They describe people, animals and objects using lexical adjectives and familiar SASS depicting signs and appropriate classifier handshapes, for example, POSS1 MATH TEACHER TALL DS:long-wavy-hair or SCHOOL UNIFORM HAVE DS:long-thin-tie. They compare routines, interests and leisure activities, using signs for timing and frequency, simple depicting verbs for showing location, and appropriate sequencing. They use culturally appropriate protocols when communicating, such as maintaining eye contact, responding to and gaining attention by waving or tapping a shoulder or table, flashing lights, back-channelling and voice-off.
Students locate specific information in a range of signed texts, such as weather reports, public announcements and presentations by visitors, using visual and contextual clues to help make meaning. They summarise and retell key points of information in correct sequence using list buoys. They plan, rehearse and deliver short presentations, taking into account context, purpose and audience and using familiar signs and visual supports, such as photos and props, and cohesive and sequencing devices.
Students view and respond to short imaginative and expressive texts, such as short stories, poems and Deaf performances, for example by identifying and discussing ideas, characters and events. They create their own simple imaginative texts and retell wordless animations using familiar signs, gestures, modelled clause structures, high-frequency signs, modifying NMFs and lexical signs to indicate manner. They translate and interpret short texts using Signbank, and give examples of how languages do not always translate directly. They create bilingual texts and resources for the classroom, for example, glossaries and captions for their own and each other’s short stories. They explain the importance of facial expression, eye gaze and other NMFs in a visual-gestural language and culture, and reflect on their own cultural identity and ways of communicating in light of their experience of learning Auslan.
Students know that Auslan is a legitimate language, different from mime and gestures used in spoken languages, and that eye contact is necessary for effective communication. They know that meaning is communicated visually through the use of signs, NMFs and gestures and can be expressed through whole signs or fingerspelling. They identify and describe the handshapes, movements and locations of signs. They distinguish between entity, handling or SASS depicting signs by looking at what the handshape and movement represent in each type and know that spatial relationships are typically expressed with entity DSs. They know that signs can be displaced in space for a range of purposes, such as to show locations or show the participants in a verb. They know that signing involves telling, depicting or enacting. They identify iconic signs and discuss how these match their referent, such as HOUSE, TREE, DRINK. They know that the function of constructed action is to represent the words, thoughts or actions of themselves or others. They use metalanguage to talk about Auslan, for example using terms such as depicting signs, indicating verbs, non-manual features, handshapes, pointing signs and clauses. Students recognise variation in the use of Auslan, such as regional dialects and differences in signing space. They understand different ways that English words are borrowed into Auslan and how these become lexicalised. They explore the influence on Auslan of other signed languages, such as BSL, ISL and ASL, as well as English over different periods of time and in different domains of language use, and consider reasons for these influences. They identify different ways that Deaf community members communicate with each other and with members of the wider hearing community, describing how different forms of digital communication such as social media, SMS/texting and NRS have improved accessibility for the Deaf community and contribute to the vitality of the language. Students recognise that Auslan has been transmitted across generations and describe ways it has been documented and recorded. They reflect on ways that culture is differently interpreted by others, for example by identifying how stereotypes about deaf and hearing people influence perceptions; and they understand that the most unifying factor of the Deaf community is the use of Auslan.
