Rationale:

The study of English Language enables students to further develop and refine their skills in reading, writing, listening to and speaking English.

Students learn about personal and public communications in workplaces, fields of study, trades and social groups.

In this study students read widely to develop their analytical skills and understanding of linguistics. Students are expected to study a range of texts, including publications and public commentary about language in print and multimodal form.

Students also observe and discuss contemporary language in use, as well as consider a range of written and spoken texts. Knowledge of how language functions provides a useful basis for further study or employment in numerous fields such as arts, sciences, law, politics, trades and education.

The study supports language-related fields such as psychology, the study of other languages, speech and reading therapy, journalism and philosophy. It also supports study and employment in other communication-related fields, including designing information and communications technology solutions or programs.

Aims of English Language:

By completing this subject students will be able to...

• Describe and analyse the structures, features and functions of spoken and written English language using an appropriate metalanguage.

• Investigate language acquisition, use, variation, and change over time.

• Reflect critically on attitudes to language in both its historical and contemporary contexts, with particular focus on identity, social cohesion and the distinctiveness of Australian language.

• Explore and analyse the interplay between convention and creativity in language use.

• Develop an awareness of their own critical, selective and innovative use of language and apply it to their own writing and speaking

• Demonstrate, in the creation of their own texts, effective and competent use of Standard Australian English to meet the demands of further study, the workplace, and their own needs and interests.

Area of Study 1: The nature and functions of language

In this area of study, students will explore the nature of language and the various functions language performs in a range of different contexts. They will consider the properties that distinguish human communication as unique, the differences between modes of spoken and written language, and the relationship between meaning and the rules that govern language use. Students will be introduced to the theory that language is a system of signs and conventions and that while the relationship between words and meanings may be inconsistent, our use of language is rule-governed and informed by accepted systems, such as word order and affixation.

Students will learn that our language choices are always influenced by the situational and cultural contexts in which they occur and are based on the conventional understandings and traditions that shape and reflect our view of the world. They will come to understand that language is never a neutral and transparent means of representing reality, and that it can encode social and cultural understandings. Students will also learn that the situational elements of a language exchange, such as the function, field, mode, setting and relationships between participants, influence language choice. Cultural factors, such as the values, attitudes and beliefs held by participants and the wider community, also affect people’s linguistic choices.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to identify and describe primary aspects of the nature and functions of human language.

Area of Study 2: Language acquisition

This area of study focuses on the developmental stages of child language acquisition. Students will explore how in addition to words and their meanings, children learn to use the phonological and grammatical conventions of the language, as well as the appropriate use of these conventions in different social situations. As children acquire language, they can be seen to change their language system gradually in response to the language use of others.

At different stages, children’s language develops across a range of subsystems allowing for increasingly complex communication and a greater range of functions. Students will be introduced to different theories that attempt to explain how children acquire language and research the so-called ‘critical period’, the window of opportunity during which language must be acquired.

Students will examine several case studies that show what can happen when a child is deprived of the opportunity to learn a language. Students will also examine the similarities and differences between first- and additional-language acquisition. They consider differences in the language acquisition process in children who are brought up bilingual with those who learn additional languages as they grow up.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to describe what children learn when they acquire language and discuss a range of perspectives on how language is acquired.

Area of Study 1: English across time

This area of study examines the changes that have occurred with the English language over time. Students will investigate the factors that bring about language change, including those that come from within the language itself; from social transformation, and from contact with other languages.

Students will examine the origins of English as a member of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, tracing its development from Old through to Early Modern English and to the establishment of a standard language in the eighteenth century. Students will look into the development of Australian English as a distinct national variety, the impact of technological advancement on English and the possibilities for the future of English.

Students will study the general concept of standardisation and the notion of ‘correct English’. While some language changes are denounced by the wider community, with linguistic change often viewed as indicative of declining standards, others occur without widespread acknowledgment.

Students will look at how languages might continue to change to meet the needs and reflect the values of their users. They will apply their knowledge of Australia’s linguistic heritage to consideration of possibilities for the future of English.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to describe language change as represented in a range of texts and analyse a range of attitudes to language change.

Area of Study 2: Englishes in contact

In this area of study, students will consider the effects of the global spread of English by learning about both the development and decline of languages as a result of English contact, the elevation of English as a global 'lingua franca' (a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different) and the cultural consequences of language contact.

Students will start to explore the ways English is used as an expression of culture in a range of literary, transactional and popular-culture texts. Students also explore factors that contributed to the spread of English in the past, such as trade and colonisation, and factors that continue to contribute to the spread of English today.

Students consider the consequences of the growth of English as an additional or a foreign language, and its effect on Indigenous languages around the world. Students will become familiar with the distinctive features of a number of national, ethnic and regional varieties of English and explore the ways that these varieties show the effects of intensive contact with other languages.

They will start to examine the ways that multilingual speakers use code-switching to mark identity and as a means of inclusion or exclusion. Students will study how changes too and loss of language affects its users’ cultural identities and world views, as evidenced by the Indigenous and migrant language reclamation and maintenance movements in contemporary Australian society. Students will continue to build on their knowledge that language encodes social and cultural understandings by exploring the concepts of linguistic relativism and determinism.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to describe and explain the effects of the global spread of English in terms of both conformity and diversity, through a range of spoken and written texts.

Area of Study 1: Informal Language

In this area of study, students will consider the way speakers and writers choose from a repertoire of language to vary the style of their language to suit a particular social purpose. They will consider the features and functions of informal language in written, spoken and electronic interactions, understanding that the situational and cultural context of an exchange determines the language used. Students will study the features that distinguish informal language from more formal language. They will be able to understand that informal language often lacks the carefully planned structure of formal texts and may play an important role in building rapport.

Students will study texts in which speakers use informal language including conversations, narratives, monologues, interviews and unscripted commentaries. They will also examine informal texts produced by writers, including narratives, advertisements, journals, notes, and electronic or other written interactions involving one or more participants.

Students will investigate how informal language can be used to meet and challenge others’ face needs, both positive (the need to be liked, respected and treated as a member of a group) and negative (the need to be autonomous and act without imposition from others); how informal language choices can build rapport by encouraging inclusiveness, intimacy, solidarity and equality; and how informal language features such as slang, are important in encouraging linguistic innovation and in-group membership.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to identify and analyse distinctive features of informal language in written and spoken texts.

Area of Study 2: Formal Language

In this area of study, students consider the way speakers and writers choose from a repertoire of language to achieve a particular purpose. As with informal language, the situational and cultural context determines whether people use formal language and in which mode they choose to communicate.

Students will examine the features and functions of formal language, particularly in literature and the public domain. They will understand that formal language, in all modes, tends to be less ambiguous, more cohesive, and is more likely to make explicit aspects of the presumed context. They examine formal texts, exploring how writers and speakers are more likely to consider how their audience might interpret their message, packaging it appropriately with attention to the art of rhetoric, including the use of figurative language.

Students will learn that formal written texts are more likely to have been edited while formal spoken texts may have been rehearsed. They will also examine such formal written texts as legal documents, bureaucratic policy and procedures, official documents, informational prose, and literature. They also study formal language in spoken texts such as speeches, lectures, oaths, liturgies, performances, and monologues.

Students will investigate the range of ways formal language can be used to perform various social purposes. They'll be investigating how formal language can be used to meet and challenge others’ face needs, both positive and negative. Formal language choices, particularly politeness strategies, can also reinforce social distance and relationship hierarchies, or build rapport.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to identify and analyse distinctive features of formal language in written and spoken texts.

Area of Study 1: Language variation in Australian Society

This area of study enables students to examine the range of language varieties that exist in contemporary Australian society and the contributions these varieties make to a construction of shared national identity. Australian English has much in common with Englishes from other continents, but the language has also developed features across all subsystems of language that distinguish it from other Englishes.

Students will explore how the Broad, General and Cultivated Australian accents reflect the society from which they emerged and the forms that achieved social prestige over time. However, Australia is not linguistically uniform, and contemporary texts in both written and spoken modes both challenge and construct notions of what it means to be Australian and what might be meant by ‘national identity’. Increasing global contact, the influence of modern technologies and other social changes are shaping contemporary Australian English, and attitudes towards Australian language continue to evolve.

Students will study how Standard Australian English has played a pivotal role in establishing the legitimacy of Australian English in comparison to other national varieties of English. They will explore how the non-Standard English varieties operating in Australia provide further dimensions to Australian English. They consider variation between regions, a range of migrant ethnolects (language variety that mark speakers as members of ethnic groups), and Aboriginal Englishes, in addition to exploring how the language features associated with stereotypes may be adopted subconsciously or deliberately employed to establish or challenge identities.

On completion of this unit the student should be able to investigate and analyse varieties of Australian English and attitudes towards them.

Area of Study 2: Individual & group identities

In this area of study, students focus on the role of language in reflecting and constructing individual and group identities. They will examine how language users are able to play different roles within speech communities and to construct their identities through subconscious and conscious language variation, according to age, gender, occupation, interests, aspiration and education. While individual identity can be derived from the character traits that make us unique, our social identities are drawn from membership of particular groups.

Students begin to investigate how, as individuals, we make language choices that draw on our understanding of social expectations and community attitudes. Students examine overt and covert norms in speech communities. They also consider how covert norms – those that are given prestige by local groups and are typically associated with nonStandard English – can be powerful in constructing identities, establishing those who use them as members of the ‘in’ group, while those who are unable to conform are cast as outsiders. The language features associated with jargon and slang also provide a powerful basis for inclusion and exclusion.

Students will learn how societal attitudes, personal associations and individual prejudices can lead to social disadvantage and discrimination against use of non-Standard English dialects and accents.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to analyse how people’s choice of language reflects and constructs their identities.

Due to the wide range of assessment opportunities this VCE subject offers, students who complete Unit 1-4 will develop the following employability skills...

Communication (sharing ​information; writing to the needs of the audience, reading independently)

Self-management (evaluating and monitoring own performance)

Learning (managing own learning; having enthusiasm for ongoing learning)

Planning and organising (collecting, analysing and organising information)

Initiative and enterprise (generating a range of options; initiating innovative solutions; being creative)

Technology (using IT to organise data)