Learning in English is both cumulative and recursive, building on and returning to concepts, skills and processes across the learning continuum. When learning is recursive, engaging with an appropriate range of different types of texts that increase in complexity and challenge as students move through the curriculum levels is critical.
Students develop knowledge, understanding and skills across the strands of Language, Literature and Literacy. Each strand contributes its own distinctive goals, body of knowledge, history of ideas and interests to the study of English. However, while each strand comprises a discrete set of knowledge and skills, there are significant and important connections. Identifying and developing these interconnections and enacting them through teaching and learning will offer rich opportunities for students to develop their understandings. Together, the 3 strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in the language modes of listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing.
Students are assessed using the achievement standards at each level. The achievement standards explicate the interconnections between the strands to create the key sets of skills in English. Achievement standards are organised via the language modes (Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing, and Writing). At each level, the achievement standards – organised by language mode – meaningfully connect sub-strands of content descriptions from each of the 3 strands, describing skill sets that are essential to learning in the English curriculum.
Click on the image below to see 5 diagrams that map the interconnections between parts of the achievement standards and the sub-strands. For example, in the ‘Speaking and Listening’ section of an achievement standard, the part of the achievement standard that begins ‘When interacting with others …’ connects to content descriptions in 5 sub-strands across the Language, Literature and Literacy strands.
For more detail on which specific content descriptions in the sub-strands link to each different part of the achievement standard, see the English Version 2.0 supporting resources on the VCAA website.
The Language strand is based on concepts drawn largely from historical and linguistic accounts of the English language. These approaches draw attention to the ways in which languages change, and to the distinction between language in use and language as a system. These approaches also acknowledge that students’ ability to use grammar will exceed their ability to explicitly reflect on grammar. Young children, for example, will use complex sentences before they can explain how these are structured.
These approaches, in describing language, also pay attention to both the structure (syntax) and meaning (semantics) at the word, sentence and extended text levels. The English curriculum uses standard grammatical terminology within a contextual framework, in which language choices are seen to vary according to the topics at hand, the nature and proximity of the relationships between the language users, and the modalities or channels of communication available.
Through the study of different social and geographical dialects, students can explore the many English language varieties spoken in Australia, including Aboriginal English, and learn that these languages may have different writing systems and oral traditions.
The Literature strand gives students the opportunity to study the processes by which certain literary works become recognised, and to understand why most cultures have works they cherish.
There are many approaches to the study of literature. In the English curriculum, those drawn on most substantially include:
Texts can be written, spoken or multimodal, and in print or digital forms. Multimodal texts combine language with other means of communication such as visual images, soundtrack or spoken word, as in film or digital media. Texts provide important opportunities for learning about aspects of human experience and about aesthetic value. Many of the tasks that students undertake in and out of school involve understanding and producing narrative, informative and persuasive texts, media texts, everyday texts and workplace texts.
Texts are drawn from world and Australian literature. They include the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, texts from Asia, texts from Australia’s immigrant cultures and texts of students’ choice.
Literature refers to past and present texts from a range of cultural contexts that are valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value. While the nature of what constitutes literary texts is dynamic and evolving, they are seen as having personal, social, cultural and aesthetic value and potential for enriching students’ scope of experience. Literature includes a broad range of forms such as novels, poetry, short stories and plays, fiction for young adults and children, multimodal texts such as film, and a variety of non-fiction. Literary texts also include excerpts from longer texts. This enables a range of literary texts to be included within any one level for close study or comparative purposes.
Through the selection of appropriate texts, students develop an awareness and appreciation of, and respect for, the literature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, including storytelling traditions (oral narrative) as well as contemporary literature. Students develop understandings of the historical, cultural and social contexts associated with different uses of language and textual features.
The Literacy strand includes a focus on:
