Learning Area Leader: Ms Doran
The study of English Language enables students to understand the structures, features and discourses of written and spoken texts through the systematic and objective deconstruction of language in use.
VCE English Language builds on students’ previous learning about the conventions and codes used by speakers and writers of English. Informed by the discipline of linguistics, it provides students with metalinguistic tools to understand and analyse language use, variation and change. Students studying English Language understand that uses and interpretations of language are nuanced and complex, rather than a series of fixed conventions.
Students explore how people use spoken and written English to communicate, to think and innovate, to construct identities, to build and interrogate attitudes and assumptions, and to create and disrupt social cohesion. 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, spoken and multimodal form. Students also observe and discuss contemporary language in use, from workplaces, fields of study, trades or social groups; they will consider a range of historical and contemporary written and spoken texts as part of their studies
Career Paths / Future Directions
Advertising, Editing, Film and Radio, Journalism, Law, Librarian, Policy Development, Politics, Public Relations, Publishing, Script Editing and Writing, Teaching
*Note: Students must have completed Units 1 and 2 English Language in order to undertake Units 3 and 4 English Language in Year 12
Unit 1 – Language and Communication (Code: ENLA11)
Description
Language is an essential part of the human experience and is the means by which individuals relate to the world, to each other and to the communities of which they are members. In this unit, students consider the way language is organised so users can communicate effectively and make sense of the world around them. Students explore the nature and functions of language, as well as the relationship between speech and writing as the dominant modes of language. Also considered are the situational and cultural contexts of language choices. Lastly, students investigate language acquisition across a range of subsystems. This subject is informed by linguistics and suits most students, but in particular students with a more analytical approach to the study of English and who are inquisitive about languages. Assessment May include:
· Folios
· Investigation reports
· Tests
· Essays
· Case studies
· Short-answer questions
· Written or oral analyses of data
· Analyses of spoken and written texts
· Oral and/or multimodal presentations
Unit 2 – Language Change (Code: ENLA22)
Description
In this unit, students focus on language change, because language is dynamic and change is an inevitable and continuous process.
Students consider factors contributing to the English Language’s change over time and its spread across the globe. They do this by exploring both past and contemporary texts, considering how all subsystems of the language system are affected: phonetics and phonology, morphology and lexicology, syntax, discourse and semantics. Attitudes to language change are also considered, whilst contemplating the future of English. Lastly, students contemplate the cultural repercussions of the spread of English.
Assessment may include:
· Folios / Investigation reports
· Tests / Essays
· Case studies / Short-answer questions
· Written or oral analyses of data
· Analyses of spoken and written texts
· Oral and/or multimodal presentations
Unit 3 – Language Variation and Social Purpose (Code: ENLA33)
Description
In this unit, students investigate English language in the contemporary Australian social setting, along a continuum of formal and informal registers. Considering language as a means of societal interaction, students explore the ways written and spoken texts convey information, ideas, attitudes, prejudices and ideological stances.
Lastly, students consider how texts are influenced by the situational and cultural contexts in which they occur, particularly focusing on how situational factors and the relationship between participants all contribute to a person’s language choices, as do their values, attitudes and beliefs. They learn how language can be indicative of relationships, power structures and purpose.
Assessment may include:
· Written reports of an investigation
· Folios of annotated texts (journal)
· Short-answer questions
· Essays
· Analytical commentary of one or more texts
Unit 4 – Language Variation and Identity (Code: ENLA44)
Description
In this unit, students focus on the role of language in establishing and challenging different identities. Many varieties of English are used in contemporary Australian society, including national, regional, cultural and social variations. Whilst standard Australian English is the variety granted prestige in society and has a role in establishing national identity, it is the non-Standard varieties that play a role in constructing users’ social and cultural identities; students examine a range of texts to explore these notions. Ultimately, students explore how language constructs our identity; how our sense of identity evolves in response to situations and experiences and is influenced by how we see ourselves and how others see us. Lastly, students explore how language can distinguish between ‘us’ and ‘them’, thus reinforcing the degree of social distance and/or solidarity.
Assessment
· Written reports of an investigation
· Folios of annotated texts (journal)
· Short-answer questions
· Essays
· Analytical commentary of one or more texts
Unit 3 & 4 Assessment
Unit 3 Coursework = 25%
Unit 4 Coursework = 25%
Written Examination = 50%