This course is recommended for students interested in analysing language use and communication across a range of genres. Various types of texts will be studied. These include everyday texts such as online news and magazine articles as well as novels, drama, poetry, short stories, and films.
In Unit 1, students explore how meaning is communicated through the relationships between language, text, purpose, context and audience. This includes how language and texts are shaped by their purpose, the audiences for whom they are intended and the contexts in which they are created and received. Through responding to and creating texts, students will consider how language, structure and conventions operate in a variety of imaginative, interpretive and persuasive texts. The study in this unit focuses on the similarities and differences between texts and how visual elements combine with spoken and written elements to create meaning.
In Unit 2, students analyse the representation of ideas, attitudes and voices in texts to consider how texts represent the world and human experience. Analysis of how language and structural choices shape perspectives in and for a range of contexts is central to this unit. By responding to and creating texts in different modes and mediums, students will consider the interplay of imaginative, interpretive and persuasive elements in a range of texts and present their own analyses.
In Unit 3, students explore representations of themes, ideas, and concepts by comparing texts. They will analyse and compare the relationships between language, genre and context, comparing texts within and/or across different genres and modes.
In Unit 4, students examine different interpretations and perspectives to develop and further their knowledge and analysis of purpose and style. They challenge perspectives, values and attitudes in literary and non-literary texts, developing and testing their own interpretations through debate and argument. Through close study of individual texts, students explore relationships between content and structure, voice and perspective, and the text and context.