VCE Bridging English as an Additional Language
Bridging EAL is designed for a range of EAL students from diverse language and educational backgrounds and experiences. The study design draws on and strengthens the language skills and knowledge students have acquired, recognising their diverse educational backgrounds and English experiences.
The nature and flexibility of this course provides teachers with the opportunity to focus on the needs and interests of their students. By engaging reflectively and critically with a range of increasingly complex spoken, print, multimodal and digital texts, students work individually and collaboratively to create their own texts for different audiences, purposes and contexts. Through this process, students develop the confidence, fluency and ability to make accurate and appropriate choices in the English language when engaging with a variety of issues and perspectives, contributing to their effective participation in Australian life.
* VCE Bridging English as an Additional Language contains Units 1 and 2 only.
** All VCE students must undertake English and must satisfactorily complete a minimum of THREE units, including Unit 3 & Unit 4 in Year 12.
UNIT 1
In this unit, students will explore two areas of study:
Area of Study 1: English for everyday purposes
In this area of study students explore how English is used for everyday purposes, with the objective of preparing them to be better prepared for their interactions in the real world. Students identify and discuss variations in vocabulary, structures and conventions of spoken and written language, including culturally appropriate non-verbal language for a range of situations, purposes and audiences. These include social interactions, negotiating relationships, seeking and giving information and engaging in conversations and discussion.
Students read and consider the vocabulary, structures and features of texts. They learn strategies to engage with challenging texts and conversations that may be used in everyday situations, without understanding every word. They also develop an awareness of similarities and differences between the ways some features are used in everyday texts. For example, that colloquialisms and idioms are commonly used in conversations, text messages or online blogs, whereas conventions of spelling and punctuation, subject-verb agreement and visual material may be features across a wide range of texts. Students are encouraged to draw on their broader knowledge and experience of texts, including tabloids, tweets and vlogs to develop their understanding of the construction and meaning of these texts.
Everyday texts may include forms, timetables, brochures, advertisements, films, blogs or videologs, instructional manuals and digital texts, ensuring the area of study allows for a balanced mix of written, visual and aural texts.
Students engage in formal and informal listening and speaking activities, such as group work, class discussion, interviews, role-plays and presentations. They develop their awareness of the ways features such as pronunciation, word and sentence stress, pausing, rhythm and intonation, volume, voice projection, and language choices in spoken SAE influence the effectiveness of communication, and they use these features appropriately in their own spoken communication.
Students develop the ability to read and view a range of everyday texts with understanding so that they can engage in, and promote, social interaction and learning activities. They also develop the ability to produce a growing range of spoken and written texts. They demonstrate appropriate control of spoken and paralinguistic features such as gesture, and written features such as sentence structure.
Area of Study 2: English for Academic Purposes
In this area of study students develop their understanding of how English is used for academic purposes. They read and discuss a variety of texts commonly used in studies other than English.
Students identify variations in language and discuss the meaning and different functions of vocabulary, symbols and abbreviations. They learn that language in academic discourse may
be subject specific for defining or conveying subject content, giving instructions, or outlining processes, as well as non-subject specific, for example to provide background information.
The texts used as the focus of study should be drawn from a range of authentic written or digital academic texts students use for classroom learning, for learning extension through research, or for pursuing their own academic interests. These texts may include print and digital texts, study guides, design briefs, essays, reports, assignments, journal articles or extracts, assessment information and study designs, tests and examinations.
Students read the texts, consider their similarities and differences and develop awareness and understanding of the ways vocabulary, structures and features function across a range of subjects. For example, diagrams, charts, graphs, tables and numerals are commonly used for conveying content in textbooks and in testing materials, whereas instructional language such as ‘explain’, ‘evaluate’, ‘justify’ or ‘describe’ is commonly used to direct students towards completing tasks to demonstrate knowledge.
Students engage in formal and informal listening and speaking activities such as reading aloud, class discussion, paired and group work, asking and responding to questions, following instructions, and oral presentations. They develop the ability and confidence to understand and make appropriate choices in vocabulary, structures and features in the production of their spoken communication.
Using their understanding of English for academic purposes, students expand their range of written communication and responses. Their written communication may include: taking notes to summarise main points from texts; reading or listening to instructions and/or questions and making appropriate language choices to create short and/or extended written responses; presenting reports; completing and constructing graphs, charts and tables; creating simple diagrams or flow charts; and presenting information in multimodal format.
UNIT 2
In this unit, students will explore two areas of study:
Area of Study 1: English for Self-Expression
In this area of study students read and produce texts created for self-expression, including those that communicate ideas, desires, goals, opinions and experiences. They consider how authors use language to express themselves for different audiences and purposes. They discuss the decisions authors make to express their ideas in spoken, print and multimodal texts, and understand that authors use vocabulary, structures, features and conventions for different purposes and audiences.
Students explore the construction of texts to understand key ideas, contentions and meaning, and to identify the purpose and audience. They identify the language, structures and conventions used by authors and consider how these features are used to express the author’s ideas, opinions, goals and experiences.
Students also consider how authors develop ideas in their texts for their selected audience, purpose and context, through their use of vocabulary choice, tone, structure and evidence.
The texts used as a focus of study may include personal and reflective texts such as novels, plays, poetry, letters, journals, podcasts or essays.
Students practise their listening and speaking skills through discussion, role-plays, formal presentations, group work and other interactive oral activities, developing the competence and confidence to express themselves.
They practise writing for self-expression and the use of language, structures and conventions for their intended audience, purpose and context. They make appropriate choices of language, register, structure and conventions for expressing themselves in formal and informal spoken, written and multimodal texts. In developing their texts, students plan, draft, revise and edit for technical accuracy, with teacher assistance, and seek and give peer feedback on clarity of expression and coherence. Appropriate student texts could incclude journal entries, blogs, personal letters or letters to the editor, essays including reflective and imaginative, poetry, short story, scripts and social media texts.
Area of Study 2: English in the Media
In this area of study students engage with and understand spoken, print, visual, and multimodal media texts, and develop understanding of how these texts reflect cultural contexts and seek to position audiences. In considering the choices made by authors to position their intended audiences, students identify and discuss cues such as headings, subheadings, photographs, graphs, cartoons and types of language used in articles or websites. Students are also encouraged to engage in online media texts, and identify and discuss cues such as hyperlinks, sidebars, interactive images and diagrams, popups, audio clips and visual files, as well as comments and the use of ‘netiquette’. Colloquial language and common idiom may be used in some media texts, while more formal SAE may be used in others.
Students use these cues to develop awareness of how authors construct and convey point of view. They progress from understanding literal to inferred meaning in texts, and learn the appropriate metalanguage to explain how authors of media texts make choices to position audiences.
The texts used as the focus of study should be drawn from a range of print, television, radio and digital media. Suitable texts may include talk-back radio and television talk show excerpts and transcripts, video logs and online journals or blogs, podcasts and video channels and clips, tabloid magazines and websites, interviews, speeches, letters to the editor, opinion pieces, editorials, reviews, essays, advertisements and publicity campaigns, cartoons and other social media texts.
Students practise listening and speaking skills through engaging with and discussing in pairs, groups and class, a range of media texts. They also read aloud, ask and respond to questions, and articulate their own responses to issues and views presented in the media texts they study. Students may also engage in scripted role-play activities such as talk shows, presentation of speeches and debates.
Students practise writing through short, then increasingly extended, responses, explaining the nature and effects of strategies used in media texts to position audiences. Students also have the opportunity to apply suitable language, structures, features and conventions in the creation of their own written, spoken and multimodal texts which present a point of view and seek to influence a defined audience.
Area of Study 3: English for the workplace
s practise writing through short, then increasingly extended, responses, explaining the nature and effects of strategies used in media texts to position audiences. Students
For further information on the subjects on offer, refer to the VCE 2024 Subject Guide in link below
Detailed information relating to each unit can be found via the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) website: