English as an Additional Language or Dialect (Version 8.4)

Rationale/Aims

English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) focuses on language learning and the explicit teaching of the structure, linguistic features and sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects of Standard Australian English (SAE).

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Structure of English as an Additional Language or Dialect

Unit 1 focuses on investigating how language and culture are interrelated and expressed in a range of contexts. A variety of oral, written and multimodal texts are used to develop understanding of text structures and language features.

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Texts

Teachers will use an array of material in class. Texts include literary texts, fiction and non-fiction, media texts, everyday texts, and workplace texts, from increasingly complex and unfamiliar settings, ranging from the everyday language of personal experience to more abstract, specialised and technical language drawn from a range of contexts.

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Language table

The key language skills described below provide a focus for language instruction in any unit at students’ point of need and should be taught in context and if relevant. Students should be given the opportunity to develop and demonstrate these skills in a variety of contexts.

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Representation of General capabilities

General capabilities covered in EAL/D include: Literacy, Numeracy, Information and communication technology (ICT) capability, Critical and creative thinking, Personal and social capability, Ethical understanding and Intercultural understanding.

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Achievement standards

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Unit 1

Unit 1 Description

Unit 1 focuses on investigating how language and culture are interrelated and expressed in a range of contexts. A variety of oral, written and multimodal texts are used to develop understanding of text structures and language features. Students explore the relationship between these structures and features and the context, purpose and audience of texts. The unit will enhance students’ confidence in creating texts for different purposes and across all language modes in both real and imagined contexts. It will broaden their understanding of the sociocultural and sociolinguistic elements of SAE and develop skills for research and further academic study.


Unit 1 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit, students:

  • communicate ideas and opinions in a range of contexts
  • demonstrate literal and inferential comprehension of information, ideas and language used in texts
  • understand and apply social and cultural references from different contexts
  • plan and create oral, written and multimodal texts appropriate to purpose and audience.

Unit 1 Content Descriptions

Communication skills and strategies including:

seeking assistance and asking for clarification in social and academic contexts, negotiating meaning and re-establishing communication, using home language or dialect to clarify understanding (ACEEA001)

using intelligible pronunciation, intonation, stress and rhythm at word and phrase level in texts, for example, interviews and role plays (ACEEA002) (ACEEA002)

understanding non-verbal cues as related to SAE contexts; for example, conventions of eye contact, gesture, physical space/distance (ACEEA003)

understanding and using some common cultural references, idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms, and culturally accepted politeness conventions and protocols in different contexts (ACEEA004)

using active listening strategies and working collaboratively with others. (ACEEA005)

Comprehension skills and strategies including:

predicting the form and content of texts from structural and visual elements and contextual information (ACEEA006)

describing linguistic and structural features of a range of more complex text types including literary and transactional texts (ACEEA007)

distinguishing between fact and opinion, main ideas and supporting details presented in texts (ACEEA008)

defining common cultural references and implied meanings in texts (ACEEA009)

locating suitable information sources, skimming for general meanings and scanning for specific information, note-taking, summarising, paraphrasing and using graphic organisers to collect and collate information (ACEEA010)

using a range of reference texts such as bilingual dictionaries to assist language learning and comprehension (ACEEA011)

using strategies to reflect on and consolidate own learning. (ACEEA012)

Language and text analysis skills and strategies including:

describing how different purposes and contexts influence language choices and meaning (ACEEA013)

explaining how language is used to influence or persuade an audience or to express appreciation of an object, a process or a performance (ACEEA014)

describing the effect of register, style and tone on meaning (ACEEA015)

explaining the effects of descriptive language and imagery in texts (ACEEA016)

analysing how language reflects cultural constructions of groupings or ideas such as age, gender, race and identity (ACEEA017)

describing the forms and conventions of texts created in different modes and mediums including visual texts (ACEEA018)

describing similarities in and differences between texts (ACEEA019)

using metalanguage to discuss texts and their composition. (ACEEA020)

Create a range of texts:

using appropriate structure and content to communicate ideas and opinions for different purposes and audiences (ACEEA021)

using digital, multimodal and print-based technologies (ACEEA022)

using common language features, for example, subject specific vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, adjectives and adverbs used to create modality, some nominalisation, common collocations and idioms (ACEEA023)

using description, characterisation, and direct and indirect speech (ACEEA024)

using cohesive devices at sentence, paragraph and whole text level (ACEEA025)

using research skills and strategies, for example, note-taking and note-making, summaries, paraphrasing and graphic organisers to collect and collate information, quoting and referencing appropriately (ACEEA026)

using strategies for planning, rehearsing, editing and refining, including monitoring and correcting spelling, grammar and punctuation, and the use of dictionaries. (ACEEA027)