English Studies

2 units for each of Year 11 and Year 12 Board Developed Course

Course Description:

The English Studies course is designed to provide students with opportunities to become competent, confident and engaged communicators and to study and enjoy a breadth and variety of texts in English. English Studies focuses on supporting students to refine their skills and knowledge in English and consolidate their English literacy skills to enhance their personal, educational, social and vocational lives.

The course is distinctive in its focus on the development of students’ language, literacy and literary skills. It centres on empowering students to comprehend, interpret and evaluate the ideas, values, language forms, features and structures of texts from a range of everyday, social, cultural, academic, community and workplace contexts. It offers comprehensive and contemporary language experiences in the modes of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and representing. Students refine these expressive language skills, responding to and composing a wide variety of oral, written and multimodal texts, including literary, digital and media texts.

Students strengthen their ability to access and comprehend information, to assess its reliability, and to synthesise knowledge gained from a variety of sources. Through its structured and focused approach to responding to and composing texts, the English Studies course also provides students with opportunities to develop in and to appreciate the imaginative and affective spheres and to recognise how texts convey, interpret and reflect ways of thinking about oneself and the world.

The English Studies course also provides diverse approaches to texts so that students may become flexible and critical thinkers, capable of engaging with, understanding and appreciating the variety of cultural heritages and differences that make up Australian and global societies. It also encourages the continued development of skills in literacy, individual and collaborative processes and reflective learning. Such skills form the basis of investigation and analysis required for the world of work, as well as post-school training and education.

Main Topics Covered:

Year 11 course

The Year 11 Course modules include:

  • Mandatory module – Achieving through English: English in education, work and community

  • An additional 2 – 4 modules to be studied

Year 12 course

The Year 12 course builds upon the knowledge from the Year 11 Course.

The Year 12 Course modules include:

  • Mandatory common module – Texts and Human Experiences

  • An additional 2 – 4 modules to be studied

Note:

Students studying English Studies may elect to undertake an optional HSC examination. The examination mark may be used by the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) to contribute to the student’s Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).

Particular Course Requirements:

In Year 11 students are required to:

  • Complete 120 indicative hours

  • read, view, listen to and compose a wide range of texts including print & multimodal texts

  • study at least one substantial print text (for example a novel, biography or drama)

  • study at least one substantial multimodal text (for example film or a television series).

Across Stage 6 the selection of texts must give students experiences of the following as appropriate:

  • reading, viewing, listening to and composing a wide range of texts, including literary texts written about intercultural experiences and peoples and cultures of Asia

  • Australian texts including texts by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander authors and those that give insights into diverse experiences of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples

  • texts with a wide range of cultural, social and gender perspectives, popular and youth cultures a range of types of text drawn from prose fiction, drama, poetry, nonfiction, film, media and digital texts.

School Fees: Nil