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The nature of the learners
Most hearing children, or deaf children from signing families, enter the early years of schooling with established communication in one or more languages. Cognitive and social development at this stage is exploratory and egocentric; thus learning typically focuses on students’ immediate world of family, home, school and friends. Children at this age are learning how to socialise with new people, share with others, and participate in structured routines and activities at school. Auslan is learnt in parallel with English literacy and, for some children, spoken English. Some learners arrive at school with little experience of English and will learn it as a second language, while others may use spoken English with their hearing family members. The learning of Auslan supports and enriches deaf children’s learning of English and vice versa.
Auslan learning and use
Rich language input characterises the first stages of learning. Most children are familiar with the forms of signs and their fluency and accuracy is further developed through activities such as play, games and viewing texts. The curriculum builds on children’s interests and sense of enjoyment and curiosity, with an emphasis on active, experiential learning and confidence building. Creative play provides opportunities for using the language for purposeful interaction in less familiar contexts.
Children build vocabulary for thinking and talking about school topics, routines and processes, and expand their knowledge and understanding by interacting with other deaf children and adults in new contexts and by participating in more structured routines and activities. They use Auslan for different language functions, such as asking and responding to questions, expressing wishes, responding to and giving directions, greeting, thanking, apologising, agreeing and disagreeing, and taking turns in games and simple shared learning activities.
Contexts of interaction
Across Foundation to Year 2, learning occurs largely through interaction with peers and the teaching team, with some access to members of the Deaf community for additional enrichment and authentication of students’ language learning. Information and communication technology (ICT) resources provide additional access to Auslan and to the cultural experience of deafness. A key expectation in the L1 pathway is that students will have opportunities to interact with a variety of native or near-native signing models.
Texts and resources
Children engage with a variety of signed texts, live and recorded. They watch the teacher signing, share ideas and join in activities and stories and various forms of play and conversational exchanges. Text types include descriptions of appearances, relationships between people, and stories and recounts, as well as texts that talk about self, such as comparing likes and dislikes with others. Students become familiar with ways of recording Auslan, either through film, photos of signs, line drawings of signs, or simple symbols. An important source of natural signed texts are members of the deaf community. The early stage of language learning is also supported by extensive use of concrete materials and resources. Play and imaginative activities, games, and familiar routines provide essential scaffolding and context for language development.
Features of Auslan use
Children in Foundation to Year 2 learn to produce all handshapes, movements and locations of single signs. They make use of handling and size and shape specifiers (SASS) depicting signs with increasing accuracy, and use entity depicting signs to talk about simple movement and locations. Children in this band level produce a range of clause structures with the correct sign order and non-manual features (NMFs), such as questions, negatives and topic-comment structures, as well as using a range of non-manual adverbs. They learn to modify indicating verbs to show participants involved in events and can sometimes maintain those locations across multiple clauses. They are learning to integrate multiple viewpoints, such as that of narrator and of one or two characters, through constructed action and marking manner in longer signed texts.
As children learn to adjust their language to suit different purposes and situations, they begin to understand how culture shapes language use. They compare how they feel when they use different languages and how they view different languages and people who use them. This introduction to the meta dimension of intercultural learning develops the ability to ‘decentre’, to consider different perspectives and ways of being, and to become aware of themselves as communicators and cultural participants. Metalinguistically, children learn to describe features of signs, such as handshapes, to identify whether they are iconic; to recognise the importance of space in Auslan; and to categorise signs as nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Level of support
Learning is supported through the provision of experiences that are challenging but achievable with appropriate scaffolding and support. This involves modelling, monitoring and moderating by the teacher; provision of multiple and varied sources of input; opportunities for revisiting, recycling and reviewing; and continuous cueing, feedback, response and encouragement. Use of recounting, experiencing and retelling assists in establishing early language skills based on real-life experiences.
The role of English
Auslan is the language of all classroom interactions, routines and activities. It is the principal medium of instruction in L1 pathway classrooms. English may play a complementary role, such as when comparing signs and words and looking at fingerspelling. English is necessarily discussed in the translating strand.
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Communicate with teacher, peers and familiar adults in guided and free interactions that develop social and communicative skills
[Key concepts: self, family, interaction, experience, preference; Key processes: interacting, greeting, asking/answering questions, recounting, describing, comparing]
Communicate with teacher, peers and familiar adults in guided and free interactions that develop social and communicative skills
[Key concepts: self, family, interaction, experience, preference; Key processes: interacting, greeting, asking/answering questions, recounting, describing, comparing]
Participate in group learning activities that involve taking turns, playing action games, making choices or swapping and classifying items
[Key concepts: play, action-learning, problem-solving; Key processes: participating, playing, collaborating]
Participate in group learning activities that involve taking turns, playing action games, making choices or swapping and classifying items
[Key concepts: play, action-learning, problem-solving; Key processes: participating, playing, collaborating]
Participate in classroom routines and activities such as following directions, attracting attention, responding to questions and turn-taking
[Key concepts: direction, response, support, protocol; Key processes: participating, responding, interacting, turn-taking]
Participate in classroom routines and activities such as following directions, attracting attention, responding to questions and turn-taking
[Key concepts: direction, response, support, protocol; Key processes: participating, responding, interacting, turn-taking]
Identify specific points of information in simple Auslan texts and use the information to complete guided tasks
[Key concepts: information, family, games, hobbies; Key processes: collecting information, identifying, retelling, categorising, recording]
Present information about self, family, people, places and things using signed descriptions and visual prompts
[Key concepts: self, family, routines, home, community; Key processes: providing information, describing, presenting, demonstrating, labelling, reporting]
Participate in a range of imaginative experiences and respond through drawing, telling with familiar signs and written words orwith constructed action
[Key concepts: imagination, story, character, emotion; Key processes: viewing, retelling, expressing, responding, interpreting]
Express imaginative experience through creative games, role-play and mime, using familiar signs, modelledand constructed action
[Key concepts: imagination, emotion, expression; Key processes: creating, enacting, expressing, experimenting, imagining]
Express imaginative experience through creative games, role-play and mime, using familiar signs, modelledand constructed action
[Key concepts: imagination, emotion, expression; Key processes: creating, enacting, expressing, experimenting, imagining]
Translate familiar words and phrases from Auslan into English and vice versa, using visual cues, signs and English words, noticing how signs and words differ
[Key concepts: similarity, difference, meaning; Key processes: noticing, recognising, identifying, translating, explaining]
simple print orsuch as labels, posters, wall charts or cards that use both Auslan images and English words
[Key concepts: code, translation; Key processes: labelling, creating, captioning]
Explore ideas of identity, social groupings, relationship, space and place, and how these relate to the Deaf community
[Key concepts: identity, self, relationship, community, place, space, connection; Key processes: identifying, exploring, describing, talking about]
Notice similarities and differences between Auslan and spoken languages in relation to ways of interacting, sharing stories and playing games
[Key concepts: language, culture, similarity, difference, respect; Key processes: noticing, comparing, responding]
Recognise the main formational elements of handshape, movement and location in Auslan signs, and understand that a sign is the same as a spoken or written word even though it can be iconic
[Key concepts: handshape, movement, location, iconicity; Key processes: noticing, recognising, understanding]
Recognise that signing happens in a finite space that can be used meaningfully within individual signs, learning in particular how depicting signs, some verbs, pronouns andmake use of spatial relationships
[Key concepts: signing space, numeral incorporation, verb modification to show who; Key processes: explaining, describing, noticing, identifying]
Recognise that signing happens in a finite space that can be used meaningfully within individual signs, learning in particular how depicting signs, some verbs, pronouns andmake use of spatial relationships
[Key concepts: signing space, numeral incorporation, verb modification to show who; Key processes: explaining, describing, noticing, identifying]
Recognise that groups of words combine to make clauses and include nouns and pronouns (people, places, things), adjectives (qualities) and verbs (happenings, states); and distinguish between statements and questions based on non-manual features
[Key concepts: sign class, clauses, telling versus showing; Key processes: recognising, observing, distinguishing]
Recognise that groups of words combine to make clauses and include nouns and pronouns (people, places, things), adjectives (qualities) and verbs (happenings, states); and distinguish between statements and questions based on non-manual features
[Key concepts: sign class, clauses, telling versus showing; Key processes: recognising, observing, distinguishing]
Understand that texts are made up of units of meaning, such as words, gestures or sentences/clauses and that different types of texts have particular features that help serve their purpose
[Key concepts: text, referent; Key processes: recognising, identifying, discussing]
Understand that all languages includingvary and borrow words and signs from each other
[Key concepts: dialect,borrowing, variation; Key processes: noticing, recognising]
Recognise that Auslan is a legitimate language, one of many languages used in Australia and around the world
[Key concept:diversity; Key processes: identifying, recognising, comparing]
Understand that people usein ways that reflect their culture, such as where and how they live, who they live with and what is important to them
[Key concepts: language, culture, community, observable phenomena; Key processes: noticing, recognising, questioning, making connections]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
By the end of Year 2, students interact with the teaching team, class visitors and each other to share information about themselves, their families, friends, routines, pastimes and experiences. They use fingerspelling or sign names as appropriate and lexical adjectives or size and shape specifiers (SASS) depicting signs (DS) to describe the appearance and characteristics of family members, friends or teachers, for example, POSS1 BROTHER OLD++ TALL SKINNY or POSS3 SISTER FRECKLES . Students recount shared and personal experiences and favourite activities, using plain or indicating verbs that are modified, such as PRO1 GO-TO- right , PLAY- continuous, RETURN- left, or LAST-WEEK PRO1- plural VISIT NANNA . They sequence events correctly using time markers such as YESTERDAY, LAST-YEAR, TWO-DAYS-AGO . They use everyday social exchanges such as greeting, thanking and apologising, and express feelings through the use of NMFs and lexical signs. They compare likes, dislikes and preferences, for example, PRO1 LIKE APPLE DON’T-LIKE ORANGE . They use appropriate NMFs to ask and respond to a range of wh - questions and yes/no questions. They indicate agreement/disagreement or understanding/lack of understanding by using other NMFs. They follow directions for class routines, for example, PLEASE DS:line-up-facing-front , and give and follow instructions of two or more steps, using directional terms or DSs such as DS:turn-left T-JUNCTION DS:turn-right . Students follow culturally appropriate protocols, such as responding to and using attention-gaining strategies such as flashing lights, waving or tapping a shoulder or table, using voice-off while signing, and observing appropriate distance between signers. They recall and retell specific points of information from texts such as class messages, directions, introductions and ‘visual vernacular’ descriptions, and they recognise familiar fingerspelled words. They follow procedural texts involving several steps and retell them using list buoys. They view short Auslan stories and respond by identifying and comparing favourite elements, characters and events. They use features of constructed action (CA) such as shifting eye gaze, or head or body–head orientation when creating imagined texts, and use NMFs to modify manner or intensify adjectives, such as REMEMBER PRO1 JUMP- really - far - and - high . They identify themselves as members of different groups and describe their relationships with deaf, hard of hearing and hearing children, family members, and the community. They identify similarities and differences between how people interact and share stories in Auslan and in spoken languages.
Students know that Auslan is a language in its own right, different from mime and gestures used in spoken languages. They know that eye contact is necessary for effective communication and that meaning is communicated visually through the use of signs, fingerspelling, NMFs and non-conventional gestures. They recognise and describe the main elements of Auslan signs: handshape, movement and location; and identify and categorise signs according to these. They recognise that some signs link to visual images, for example DRINK, ELEPHANT . Students know that some words, such as proper nouns, are borrowed from English by fingerspelling and mouthing, and that locations or orientations of signs can be modified meaningfully, for example to show who is involved in an event. They recognise that signers can tell with lexical signs or show with DSs and CA, and that clauses include a verb and sometimes nouns. They recognise the importance of facial expression, eye gaze and NMFs in a visual-gestural language and culture.
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The nature of the learners
Learners at this level are developing their cognitive and social capabilities and their communicative repertoire in the language, as well as becoming increasingly aware of their social worlds and their membership of various groups, including the Deaf community. They are more independent and less egocentric, enjoying both competitive and cooperative activities. Learners are able to conceptualise and reason, and have better memory and focus. They benefit from varied, activity-based learning that builds on their interests and capabilities and makes connections with other areas of learning.
Auslan learning and use
Learners in this band engage in a range of activities involving watching and responding to signed texts. They build proficiency through the provision of rich language input from a variety of sources where grammatical forms and language features are purposefully integrated. They develop more elaborate conversational and interactional skills, including initiating and sustaining conversations, reflecting on and responding to others’ contributions, making appropriate responses and adjustments, and engaging in debate and discussion.
Learners at this stage express ideas and feelings related to their personal worlds, give and follow directions, negotiate with and persuade others, paraphrase content of texts, form factual questions to request information, check and clarify understanding and participate in play and shared tasks, including planning and rehearsing presentations or performances.
They watch and create short texts on topics relevant to their interests and enjoyment, such as family, pets, favourite activities or food. They continue to build vocabulary that relates to a wider range of domains, such as areas of the curriculum that involve some specialised language use. The language used in routine activities is re-used and reinforced from lesson to lesson in different situations, making connections between what has been learnt and what is to be learnt.
Contexts of interaction
Learning occurs largely through interaction with peers and the teaching team in the language classroom and the school environment, with some sharing of their learning at home. Additional enrichment and authentication of learning experience is provided through interactions with elders and other signers in the Deaf community. Access to wider communities of Auslan signers and resources also occurs through virtual and digital technology.
Texts and resources
Learners interact with a growing range of live and digital signed texts. They engage primarily with a variety of teacher-generated materials, stories and games, and with materials produced for young signers, such as storytelling apps. They have access to materials produced for signing children from the BANZSL family of languages as a means of broadening their cultural knowledge and awareness of the diversity of language experience.
Features of Auslan use
Learners recognise and apply elements of Auslan grammar, such as marking manner or aspect on verbs. They use increasingly sophisticated means of showing constructed action, and of using space to track a character or location through a text for purposes of cohesion. They develop metalanguage for talking about language, understanding and using terms such as fully- or partly-lexical signs, entity, handling or SASS depicting signs, constructed action, and adverbs and clauses.
Learners talk about differences and similarities they notice between Auslan and English, and also between cultural behaviours and ways of communicating. A balance between language knowledge and language use is established by integrating focused attention to grammar, vocabulary building, and non-verbal and cultural dimensions of language use with communicative and purposeful learning activity.
Learning Auslan in school contributes to the process of making sense of the learners’ worlds, which characterises this stage of development. Students are increasingly aware that various signed languages are used in Deaf communities across the world. As they engage consciously with differences between languages and cultures, they make comparisons and consider differences and possibilities in ways of communicating in different languages. This leads them to explore concepts of identity and difference, to think about cultural and linguistic diversity, and about what it means to speak more than one language in the contemporary world.
Level of support
While learners work more independently at this level, ongoing support is incorporated into tasks, and the process of learning is supported by systematic feedback and review. Form-focused activities, particularly those increasing metalinguistic awareness, build grammatical knowledge and support the development of accuracy and control in Auslan. Opportunities to use this knowledge in meaningful activities build communicative skills, confidence and fluency. Tasks are carefully scaffolded: teachers provide models and examples; introduce language, concepts and resources needed to manage and complete learning activities; make time for experimentation and polishing rehearsed texts; and provide support for self-monitoring and reflection. The language students see is authentic with some modification. Discussion supports learning and develops learners’ conceptual frame for talking about systems of language and culture.
The role of English
Auslan is the principal medium of instruction in L1 pathway classrooms. English plays a complementary role; for example, it is used when translating, creating bilingual/multilingual texts or comparing and contrasting languages. Discussion in Auslan supports learning, develops conceptual frames and builds metalanguage. The process of moving between languages consolidates the already established sense of what it means to be bilingual or multilingual and provides opportunities for reflection on the experience of living interculturally in intersecting language communities. Auslan is learnt in parallel with English literacy and, for some children, spoken English. The learning of Auslan supports and enriches deaf children’s learning of English, and vice versa.
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Communicate with each other and with teachers about aspects of their personal worlds, daily routines, preferences and pastimes
[Key concepts: self, routines, preferences, pastimes; Key processes: expressing, describing, comparing, recounting, persuading]
Communicate with each other and with teachers about aspects of their personal worlds, daily routines, preferences and pastimes
[Key concepts: self, routines, preferences, pastimes; Key processes: expressing, describing, comparing, recounting, persuading]
Contribute to class activities and shared learning tasks that involve transacting, planning and problem-solving, using collaborative language
[Key concepts: collaboration, roles, responsibilities, memory; Key processes: negotiating, collaborating, planning, transacting]
Contribute to class activities and shared learning tasks that involve transacting, planning and problem-solving, using collaborative language
[Key concepts: collaboration, roles, responsibilities, memory; Key processes: negotiating, collaborating, planning, transacting]
Adjusting and responding toand behaviour for various purposes in the classroom and wider school community, for example by asking and responding to questions, and indicating understanding
[Key concepts: respect, behaviour, protocol, group work; Key processes: clarifying, responding, asking and answering questions, encouraging]
Adjusting and responding toand behaviour for various purposes in the classroom and wider school community, for example by asking and responding to questions, and indicating understanding
[Key concepts: respect, behaviour, protocol, group work; Key processes: clarifying, responding, asking and answering questions, encouraging]
Collect, classify and paraphrase information from a variety of Auslan texts and sources used in school and in the Deaf community
[Key concepts: information, facts, vocabulary, findings; Key processes: recalling, paraphrasing, interviewing, surveying, recording, presenting]
Conveying information about aspects of school, culture and community, using knowledge of the intendedto modify content
[Key concepts: school, cultural events, games; Key processes: conveying information, explaining, planning, rehearsing]
Engage with imaginative texts such as stories, games, poems or cartoons, to demonstrateand express enjoyment
[ Key concepts: story, emotion, expression, humour; Key processes: identifying, expressing emotion, re-enacting, experimenting, shadowing]
or adapt imaginative texts and expressive performances that feature favourite characters, amusing experiences or special effects
[Key concepts: emotion, humour, performance, character; Key processes: creating, performing, adapting, dancing]
Translate high-frequency signs/words and expressions in simple texts such as repeated lines in a story or captions, noticing similarities, differences and instances of equivalence
[Key concepts: literal, difference, meaning, equivalence; Key processes: comparing, matching, identifying, translating]
bilingual versions of different types of texts, such as captioned recordings of Auslan phrases or classroom resources such as posters and digital displays
[Key concepts: bilingualism, meaning; Key processes: creating, identifying, categorising]
Consider how individual and community relationships combine tofamily and social networks, influence social behaviours and contribute to a sense of belonging and identity
[Key concepts: identity, relationship, belonging, place, behaviour, ways of interacting; Key processes: exploring, sharing, describing explaining]
Describe some ways in which Auslan and associated communicative behaviours are similar to or different from wider community spoken languages and forms of cultural expression
[Key concepts: language, culture, values, similarity, difference, communication; Key processes: noticing, comparing, describing, explaining, questioning, reflecting]
Identify and demonstrate how the formational elements ofand its orientation, movement, location andcan be arranged in signs which may be iconic, and explore ways of recording Auslan
[Key concepts: orientation, hand dominance, iconicity, non-manual features, recording language; Key processes: identifying, recognising, comparing, distinguishing, comparing, describing, decoding]
Observe that signers can include different information, including gestural overlays, within a single sign, and identify examples of signers using space grammatically through points, depicting signs and constructed action
[Key concepts: space, function of points, indicating verbs, depicting signs, constructed action; Key processes: recognising, identifying, discussing, comparing]
Understand that clauses can be enriched through the use of adjectives and adverbs (when, where, how), often produced with non-manual features
[Key concepts: verb types, adverbs,structure, questions; Key processes: recognising, exploring]
Understand how signers make differentchoices in different types of texts depending on the purpose and intended audience, and explore how space is used in Auslan for purposes of textual cohesion
[Key concepts: textual features, similarity, difference, cohesion; Key processes: identifying, examining, comparing]
Recognise that there is variation in Auslan use, for example in different locations or physical environments
[Key concepts: variation, adaptation; Key processes: identifying, recognising, exploring, considering]
Develop awareness of the social and cultural nature and context of Auslan and other sign languages, of their different modes of expression and of the related issue ofvitality
[Key concepts: communication, culture,vitality; Key processes: identifying, describing, recognising, understanding]
Explore connections betweenand cultural values and beliefs and the expression of these connections in Auslan
[Key concepts: language, culture, symbol; Key processes: exploring, understanding, noticing, recognising, questioning, making connections]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
By the end of Year 4, students communicate with each other, the teaching team and others about aspects of their personal worlds, daily routines, preferences and pastimes at school and in the Deaf community. They show aspectual marking on verbs to indicate frequency when communicating about daily routines, for example pro3 tap-shoulder-repeatedly, and use modifications to show manner when describing actions and activities. They initiate and maintain interaction by using discourse markers such as fillers, checking and clarifying their understanding. They contribute to class activities and shared learning tasks that involve transacting, planning and problem-solving, for example, by giving and following directions, LIBRARY IN DS: turn-right AUSLAN DICTIONARY DS: fat-book SHELF++ THAT. PLEASE BRING-me, expressing preferences, asking for clarification and using persuasive language PLEASE POPCORN GIVE-me++ BEG? They use appropriate cultural protocols in different situations, for example, to gain the attention of a group, such as flashing lights, waving, multiple tapping or foot stomping in some contexts, waiting for eye contact or pauses in signing and walking between signers without interrupting them. They paraphrase information from a variety of Auslan texts and sources used in school and in the Deaf community. They recall specific points of information and recount main points in correct sequence EVERY MONDAY POSS1 CLASS LIST-BUOY-1 READING LIST-BUOY-2 MATHS LIST-BUOY-3 SWIMMING . They plan, rehearse and deliver short presentations about topics such as cultural activities or events in the Deaf community, with the support of materials such as photos, props, timelines or maps. They take into account the purpose and intended audience of a text. They view imaginative texts such as stories, poems and theatre performances, identifying how signers represent their own or others’ actions through constructed action (CA). They create simple imaginative texts of their own, using CA to represent their own or other people’s actions, thoughts, feelings or attitudes. They create signed class translations, for example, of repeated lines in familiar children’s stories, and simple bilingual texts for the classroom or school community, such as posters or bilingual picture dictionaries. Students identify places that are important to the Deaf community and describe how such places evoke a sense of belonging and pride. They recognise that the single most unifying factor of the community is the use of Auslan; and they describe ways in which Auslan and associated communicative and cultural behaviours are similar to or different from wider community spoken languages and forms of cultural expression.
Students demonstrate how the formational elements of handshapes and their orientation, movement, location and non-manual features can be arranged in signs, identifying, for example, whether a sign is body anchored or not, or is single, double or two-handed. They know the functions of different pointing signs, such as pronouns, determiners or locatives; and can identify examples of signers using a location to refer to a previous referent. They use metalanguage to talk about Auslan, using terms such as constructed action, depicting signs, indicating verbs, non-manual features, pointing signs and clauses . They recognise variation in how Auslan is used, for example by recognising regional dialects and differences in signing space. They identify different ways that Deaf community members communicate with each other and with members of the wider hearing community, for example, face to face, via technology, social media and interpreters. They know that culture is closely related to language and to identity and that it involves visible and invisible elements.
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The nature of the learners
This is a key transitional phase of learning. Learners communicate more confidently, are more self-directed, and self-reference in relation to wider contexts. Response to experience is more analytical and critical, allowing for a reflective dimension to language learning and to referencing cultural frameworks. The curriculum ensures that learning experiences and activities are flexible enough to cater for learner variables, while being appropriate for learners' general cognitive and social levels.
Auslan learning and use
At upper primary level, learners use Auslan for a widening range of purposes, such as paraphrasing or summarising key ideas; conversing with visitors in formal and informal contexts, contributing their own ideas, questions and opinions; discussing cause and effect; providing instructions for a group activity; planning and conducting an interview; and contributing to discussions by clarifying and critiquing ideas and developing supporting arguments.
At this level, there is focused attention on language structures and systems, and comparisons are made between Auslan and English. Learners’ communicative capabilities are stronger and more elaborate. They draw on a wider range of grammatical and lexical resources to compose and comprehend more complex language. With support, they build increasing cohesion and complexity into their signing in both content and expression. They watch a range of varied input from different sources and build more elaborate conversational and interactional skills. This includes initiating and sustaining conversations, using turn-taking protocols, ‘reading’ language for cultural and contextual meaning, reflecting on and responding to others’ contributions, making appropriate responses and adjustments, and engaging in debate and discussion.
Shared learning activities develop social, cognitive and language skills and provide a context for purposeful language experience and experimentation. Individual and group oral presentation and performance skills are developed through researching and organising information, structuring and resourcing presentation of content, and selecting appropriate language to engage a particular audience. Learners use ICT to support their learning in increasingly independent and intentional ways, exchanging resources and information with each other and with young people of the same age in other signing communities, accessing media resources, maintaining vlogs and other web pages, and participating in social networks.
Contexts of interaction
Learners interact in Auslan with each other and the teaching team and with members of their families who can sign, and the Deaf community. They have access to Deaf visitors and cultural resources in wider contexts and communities through the use of ICT and through the media. Language development and use are incorporated into collaborative and interactive learning experiences, games and activities.
Texts and resources
Learners engage with a growing range of signers and digital signed texts. They also engage with resources prepared by their teacher, including games, performances, presentations and language exercises. They may have additional access to BANZSL resources created for the Australian, New Zealand or British Deaf communities, such as children’s television programs, websites, music or video clips. They also make use of texts from other signed languages that make extensive use of the ‘visual vernacular’.
Features of Auslan use
Learners draw on grammatical and lexical resources to produce and understand more complex language. With support, they build increasing cohesion and complexity into their language production in both content and expression. Learners expand their understanding of Auslan grammatical forms and features, including mastering the range of grammatical NMFs and gaining full control of depicting signs. They increase their pragmatic skills, such as using eye gaze to gain, hold or finish a turn; making constructive comments to keep a conversation flowing; and sharing information and providing context to new participants to a conversation.
They build metalanguage to talk about aspects of language such as grammar, for example, identifying types of verbs in Auslan in terms of how they use space to indicate referents, as well as recognising the types of depiction available in Auslan. They begin learning how signers put these forms of depiction and enacting together into composite utterances. Discussion, reflection and explanation ensure the continued development of learners’ knowledge base and metalinguistic and intercultural capabilities.
Understanding of the relationship between language, culture and identity is developed through guided investigation of how language features and expressions carry specific cultural meaning; through critical analysis of cultural stereotypes, attitudes and perspectives; and through exploration of issues related to personal and community identities. Learners take account of the variability of language use and practice in relation to various factors. They reference themselves in relation to similar variables, reflecting on the relationship between language, culture, identity and intercultural experience through the lens of their own bicultural experiences.
Level of support
While learners are becoming more autonomous and independent at the upper primary years, ongoing support is still incorporated into task activity, including explicit instruction, structured modelling and scaffolding, and provision of appropriate stimulus materials. Additional systematic feedback and review support the interactive process of learning. Learning experiences incorporate implicit and explicit form-focused language learning activities and examples of texts and tasks. Learners are supported to use electronic and print reference resources, such as word banks, dictionaries and translating tools, and are encouraged to adopt a critical approach to resource selection.
The role of English
Auslan is the primary language for classroom routines, discussions, reflections, interactions and language learning tasks, and for explanation of content drawn from other learning areas. English is used for metalinguistic analyses and comparisons, and within the ‘Translation’ sub-strand. English may also be used for researching cultural issues where relevant sources or materials are not available in Auslan.
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Interact with people for different purposes, using descriptive and expressiveto give opinions, talk about themselves and show interest in others
[Key concepts: experience, opinion, values, ideas; Key processes: comparing, socialising, discussing, summarising, identifying]
Interact with people for different purposes, using descriptive and expressiveto give opinions, talk about themselves and show interest in others
[Key concepts: experience, opinion, values, ideas; Key processes: comparing, socialising, discussing, summarising, identifying]
Collaborate with peers to plan and conduct shared events or activities such as performances, presentations, demonstrations or transactions
[Key concepts: negotiation, perspective, design; Key processes: planning, suggesting, organising, presenting]
Collaborate with peers to plan and conduct shared events or activities such as performances, presentations, demonstrations or transactions
[Key concepts: negotiation, perspective, design; Key processes: planning, suggesting, organising, presenting]
Contribute to discussions and shared learning activities by asking and responding to questions to clarify or indicate comprehension, managing interactions and monitoring and evaluating their learning
[Key concepts: discussion, conversation, participation; Key processes: supporting, managing, clarifying, reflecting
Contribute to discussions and shared learning activities by asking and responding to questions to clarify or indicate comprehension, managing interactions and monitoring and evaluating their learning
[Key concepts: discussion, conversation, participation; Key processes: supporting, managing, clarifying, reflecting
Identify, summarise and compare information obtained from different types of Auslan texts or from their own data collection
[Key concepts: informative text, topic, data, analysis; Key processes: interviewing, surveying, collating, analysing, summarising, presenting]
Present information to describe, explain, persuade or report on different experiences or activities in ways likely to engage the intended audience
[Key concepts: report, audience, intention, technique; Key processes: instructing, informing, persuading, reporting]
Engage with different types of creative and imaginative texts by identifying important elements, discussing ideas, characters and themes and making connections with their own ideas and experience
[Key concepts: emotion, manner, visual expression, theatre conventions; Key processes: comparing, responding, expressing, creating]
live or filmed performances that engage specific audiences and present imagined experiences, people or places
[Key concepts: suspense, humour, dramatic structure, stimulus; Key processes: creating, performing, narrating, reinterpreting, improvising]
Translate a variety of familiar school and community texts from Auslan to English and vice versa, identifying which words or phrases may not readily correspond across the two languages
[Key concepts: equivalence, meaning, culture-specific concepts; Key processes: identifying, interpreting, translating, determining, predicting, creating, comparing, explaining]
their own bilingual texts and learning resources to use themselves or to share with others, such as Auslan–English dictionaries, posts to websites, digital newsletters or school performances
[Key concepts: equivalence, bilingualism; Key processes: composing, creating]
Consider the influence of theondevelopment, focusing on language, social systems and sense of space and place
[Key concepts: identity, relationship, community, place, space, story, social mores, history, Deafhood, Deaf gain; Key processes: identifying, describing, investigating, discussing, explaining]
Reflect on how differentand cultural backgrounds and experiences influence perceptions of Auslan and of theand also of the hearing community
[Key concepts: influence, perspective, self-reflection; Key processes: composing, comparing sharing, monitoring, identifying, analysing, explaining, reflecting]
Describe the elements of sign production, including non-manual features, and explore the processes of annotating Auslan with multimedia software and/oror transcribing signed texts on paper
[Key concepts: types of iconicity, annotation, transcription; Key processes: identifying, recognising, annotating, describing, understanding]
Identify different types of verbs based on their ability to integrate space into the sign, and recognise types of depiction available to a signer, namely, entity, handling anddepicting signs and constructed action
[Key concepts: establishing a spatial location, types of depicting signs, function of constructed action; Key processes: identifying, distinguishing]
Understand that the starting point of agives prominence to the message, that clauses can be linked equally or unequally with conjunctions and connectives, and that signers can show as well as tell about an event to provide more detail
[Key concepts: gestural overlays,conjunction, variable sign order; Key processes: recognising, distinguishing]
Understand that the starting point of agives prominence to the message, that clauses can be linked equally or unequally with conjunctions and connectives, and that signers can show as well as tell about an event to provide more detail
[Key concepts: gestural overlays,conjunction, variable sign order; Key processes: recognising, distinguishing]
Identify structures,features andused in different types of texts, recognising thatchoices reflect purpose, context and audience
[Key concepts: referent, cohesion, space; Key processes: identifying, noticing]
Explore variation in terms of the impact of other languages on Auslan across contexts and over time
[Key concepts: influence,borrowing, style shifts; Key processes: noticing, recognising, explaining]
Explore the current status and profile of Auslan and of thein contemporary Australian society, considering issues such astransmission, usage and documentation
[Key concepts: diversity, representation,transmission, documentation; Key processes: describing, discussing, investigating, representing]
Reflect on how communities’ ways of usingare shaped by and reflect cultural values and beliefs, and how these may be differently interpreted by users of other languages
[Key concepts: cultural expression, transmission, values, beliefs; Key processes: observing, making connections, discussing, investigating]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
By the end of Year 6, students use Auslan to interact with people for a range of different purposes. They use descriptive and expressive language to share and compare experiences, ideas and opinions, such as THEATRE GOOD, LONG - really , LONG- really . They participate in class discussions and show interest and respect for others, for example by using active watching behaviours, signing clearly, pausing for others to respond, asking pertinent questions, making constructive comments, rephrasing, repeating and linking their own contributions. Students use non-manual features (NMFs) such as eye gaze to gain, hold or finish a turn when communicating in pairs or groups. They provide context for a new participant joining a conversation, PRO1 TALK-OVER MATH TEACHER . They use action-oriented language to make shared arrangements, organise events and complete transactions, negotiating roles, responsibilities and priorities and taking into account the views of others. Students locate, summarise and compare information from a range of sources. They present information on selected issues to inform, alert or persuade people, for example, by creating announcements to inform about an emergency or about a clean-up the environment appeal, or instructions for a computer game. They use a range of connectives to create textual cohesion. They view and compare expressions of Deaf experience through different visual art forms, such as painting, photography or sculpture. They view and respond to different types of creative and imaginative texts, discussing ideas, characters and themes; and they identify how a signer has referred to the same referent in different ways, for example with a lexical noun then with a depicting sign (DS). They create and perform their own short imaginative texts based on a stimulus, concept or theme using space to track a character or location throughout a text. They translate a variety of familiar school and community texts from Auslan to English and vice versa, identifying which words/signs/phrases require interpretation or explanation. They create bilingual texts and resources for their own language learning and to support interactions with non-signing people. They describe their connections with the Deaf community and how these contribute to their sense of identity. They reflect on differences between how signed language and spoken language users may be perceived, for example in relation to different protocols when joining interactions, taking turns, using names, or passing between people who are communicating with each other.
Students describe a sign’s form in terms of all the elements and how they are put together, including types of NMFs. They recognise when a signer has established a location in space in a text and describe how this was done, for example through the use of points, non-body-anchored signs or fingerspelled words. They distinguish between the three types of DSs and what they represent and how they are used in clauses. They identify and describe how constructed action (CA) can be shown in different ways, for example, through a change in eye gaze, body, or head orientation, and by matching facial expressions and reference to another character. They identify how signers use space to track a referent through a text, for example by pointing back to an established location to refer to a noun or by modifying indicating verbs. They understand different ways that English words are borrowed into Auslan and identify connections between Auslan and other signed languages, for example, BSL, ISL and ASL. They recognise the diversity of Auslan users in the community, including people who are deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people such as CODAs or interpreters. Students recognise how Auslan has been transmitted across generations and describe different ways it has been documented and recorded. Students reflect on the ways culture is differently interpreted by others, for example by identifying how stereotypes about deaf and hearing people influence perceptions.
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The nature of the learners
The transition to secondary schooling involves social and academic demands that coincide with a period of maturational and physical change. Learners are adjusting to a new school culture with sharper divisions between curriculum areas. There is a need for continuity through change in relation to their language learning. Learners at this level may find themselves in classes that include learners with a range of previous experience with Auslan. A multilevel and differentiated approach to teaching and task design responds to this diversity of prior experience. For bilingual learners at this level, such as deaf students who also use spoken English, the duality of living between languages and cultural frames impacts on the process of identity construction.
Learners at this level bring a range of learning strategies to their language learning. They are increasingly aware of the world beyond their own and are engaging with broader issues related to youth and society, land and environment, education and identity, while establishing a balance between increasing personal independence and social responsibilities. They are considering their future pathways and choices, including how their own language could be part of these.
Auslan learning and use
Auslan is used for classroom interactions and transactions, for creating and maintaining classroom relationships, for explaining and practising language forms, and for developing cultural understanding. Learners use a range of grammatical structures and language features to convey more complex ideas and experiences. They use descriptive and expressive language to create particular effects and to engage interest, and expand their vocabulary to domains beyond their personal experience and interests. They use language to dramatise narratives, follow detailed directions, demonstrate and explain activities, evaluate events and ideas, debate and give presentations that take account of different perspectives.
They are increasingly aware of the nature of the relationship between languages and cultures, making connections between texts and cultural contexts, identifying how cultural values and perspectives are embedded in language and noticing how language choices influence how people, issues and circumstances are represented.
Additional opportunities for interaction in Auslan are provided by purposeful and integrated use of ICT. Learners work collaboratively and independently, exploring different modes and genres of communication with particular reference to their current social, cultural and communicative interests. They pool language knowledge and resources to plan, problem-solve, monitor and reflect. They create and present more complex and varied texts, for example, shared stories, poems, vlogs and reports; and plan, draft and present imaginative and informative texts, making cross-curricular connections. They use vocabulary and grammar with increasing accuracy and complexity, planning and polishing pre-prepared signed texts to improve structure and clarify meaning.
Contexts of interaction
While the primary context of interaction remains the Auslan classroom through interaction with peers and the teaching team, additional enrichment and authentication of the learning experience is provided through visiting members of the Deaf community, media and community events, and social media. Students may also have opportunities to participate in school excursions or camps.
Texts and resources
Learners work with a broad range of live and digital signed texts designed for learning Auslan in school and for authentic non-school purposes. Texts come from a range of domains and genres, such as oral histories, community announcements, vlogs and stories, and they serve a variety of purposes, such as informative, transactional, communicative, imaginative and expressive. Learners may also have access to community facilities and functions. The Deaf community is the most important resource for learning, as the origin of most of the texts and communicative situations engaged with by learners.
Features of Auslan use
Learners continue to expand their language use to additional domains beyond their personal experience and interests. They use a range of grammatical forms and language structures to convey more complex relationships between ideas and experiences, creating compound and complex sentences by using lexical conjunctions as well as NMFs. They become increasingly aware of the rich choices available to a signer in composite utterances, for example by shifting from depicting signs to constructed action to lexical items. They recognise that signers shift perspectives between character or observer space to show different viewpoints.
Learners develop awareness of how language structures shape textual features. They use descriptive and expressive language, including iconicity and metaphor, to create particular effects and engage interest. They adopt a wider range of processing strategies and broader language knowledge when encountering unfamiliar signed texts, drawing increasingly on their understanding of text conventions and patterns.
Learners make connections between texts and cultural contexts, identifying how cultural values and perspectives are embedded in language and how language choices determine how people, issues and circumstances are represented. They are increasingly aware of the nature of the relationship between languages and cultures, noticing, for example, how values such as family commitment and respect are expressed in cultural practices as well as embedded in Auslan grammatical and vocabulary systems. They reflect on the nature of bicultural and intercultural experience, on how languages change in response to social and cultural change, and on their individual identities as users of two or more languages in a multicultural social context.
Level of support
Particular support is required at this stage of learning to manage the transition to secondary schooling and to encourage continued engagement with language learning. Opportunities to review and consolidate prior learning are balanced against provision of engaging and relevant new experiences and tasks that are more challenging. While learners at this level are less reliant on teacher support during interactions, the teacher continues to provide implicit and explicit modelling and scaffolding in relation to meaningful language use in a range of contexts, and explicit instruction and explanation in relation to language structures, grammatical functions, vocabulary and abstract cultural concepts. Opportunities for learners to discuss, clarify, rehearse and apply their knowledge are critical in consolidating language capabilities and developing autonomy. Learners at this level are encouraged to self-monitor, for example, by keeping records of feedback and through peer support, and to self-review and adjust language in response to their experiences in different contexts. Students are encouraged to engage more critically with resources such as websites, dictionaries, translating tools and other language resources designed to enrich their receptive and productive language capabilities.
The role of English
Auslan is used for all classroom interaction, and English is used in the translating sub-strand or when required for research purposes where a source text is not available in Auslan. Students may have varying skills in English. Using Auslan to express ideas and feelings, exchange opinions and manage shared activities increasingly involves cultural as well as linguistic choices; personal and social elements as well as grammatical ones, such as making decisions about whether to use more or less English-like signing. At this stage, learners can move from the ‘what’ considerations to the ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions: from noticing that language and communication are culturally shaped to thinking about the values, experiences and perspectives which lie inside these cultural differences, and about how these impact on their own experience as they move between linguistic and cultural systems.
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Initiate and sustain interactions to share ideas and interests, report on experiences, offer opinions and connect with events in their school and local community
[Key concepts: ideas, interests, community, issues; Key processes: comparing, contrasting, discussing, expressing]
Initiate and sustain interactions to share ideas and interests, report on experiences, offer opinions and connect with events in their school and local community
[Key concepts: ideas, interests, community, issues; Key processes: comparing, contrasting, discussing, expressing]
Engage in collaborative activities that involve planning, project design, problem-solving and evaluation of events or activities
[Key concepts: project design, procedure, direction; Key processes: creating, showcasing, reporting, evaluating]
Engage in collaborative activities that involve planning, project design, problem-solving and evaluation of events or activities
[Key concepts: project design, procedure, direction; Key processes: creating, showcasing, reporting, evaluating]
Use interactions to support discussion and debate and to demonstrate culturally appropriate behaviours in and beyond the classroom
[Key concepts: protocol, debate, role, feedback; Key processes: debating, clarifying, eliciting, evaluating]
Use interactions to support discussion and debate and to demonstrate culturally appropriate behaviours in and beyond the classroom
[Key concepts: protocol, debate, role, feedback; Key processes: debating, clarifying, eliciting, evaluating]
Investigate and synthesise information collected from a range of perspectives and sources, identifying how culture and context affect how information is presented
[Key concepts: perspective, culture, context, source, representation; Key processes: researching, comparing, critically reviewing, profiling, summarising]
Exchange/provide information, opinions and experiences in either formal or informal contexts
[Key concepts: debate, persuasive text, perspective, critical review; Key processes: summarising, comparing, evaluating]
a range of texts that involve the creative expression of emotions or ideas and the imaginative representation of people, events and cultural experiences
[Key concepts: imagination, representation, characterisation, artistic practice, Deaf experience; Key processes: paraphrasing, evaluating, exploring, analysing, profiling, shadowing]
imaginative and expressive texts that draw from their experience as Auslan users and members of theand which support the experience of younger learners
[Key concepts: Deaf experience, emotional expression, signed theatre, signed space; Key processes: composing, performing, creating, re-creating]
Translate andunfamiliar texts in Auslan or English and compare theirto those of their classmates, considering why there might be differences in interpretation and howreflects elements of culture and experience
[Key concepts: equivalence, representation, meaning, interpretation; Key processes: translating, interpreting, creating, paraphrasing, summarising, shadowing, comparing, explaining, role-playing]
bilingual texts to use in the wider school community, identifying words/signs or expressions that carry specific cultural meaning in either Auslan or English
[Key concepts: equivalence, interpretation; Key processes: creating, captioning, transcribing]
Explore the relationship between identity, community and visual ways of being and the nature and significance of relationship between people, culture and place/space
[Key concepts: identity, relationship, Deafhood, place, space, responsibility, ownership, Deaf gain, story, guidance; Key processes: comparing, describing, exploring, discussing, investigating]
Participate in and reflect on intercultural interactions and experiences, for example by considering and comparing their responses and strategies when engaging with hearing people
[Key concepts: intercultural experience, ways of knowing and being, discrimination; Key processes: comparing, analysing, explaining, reflecting, exploring]
Investigate and explain why signs are structured as they are, including with respect to iconicity, and compare transcription of Auslan videosoftware with glosses
[Key concepts: levels and types of iconicity, transcription; Key processes: identifying, recognising, glossing, annotating]
Distinguish between character and observer space, categorise different verb types and identifyin a text
[Key concepts: fully- or partly-lexical signs, character and observer space, depicting signs; Key processes: recognising, distinguishing, classifying, observing]
Understand that utterances in Auslan can consist of a mix of gestural and signed components, and thatare often used to link clauses into equal or unequal relationships
[Key concepts:types, sign order, conjunctions; Key processes: recognising, observing, analysing]
Explain the structure and organisation of particular types of texts, such as conversations or information reports, and identifyfeatures used by signers to meet specific purposes and tocohesion
[Key concepts: grammar, choice, coherence; Key processes: identifying, applying, analysing]
Understand that Auslan has evolved and developed through different periods of influence and cultural and societal change
[Key concepts: change, evolution, contact, technology; Key processes: identifying, recognising, researching]
Understand historical and contemporary factors that impact on awareness, support and use of Auslan and its vitality in contemporary Australia, comparing it with that of otheraround the world
[Key concepts: influence, transmission, vitality, evolution, endangerment; Key processes: investigating, exploring, describing, comparing, analysing, reflecting]
Reflect on howuse is influenced by communities’ world views and sense ofand on howand culture influence each other
[Key concepts: culture, knowledge, value, transmission; Key processes: explaining, reflecting, exploring, analysing, comparing]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
By the end of Year 8, students interact to share ideas and interests and to offer opinions, using compound and complex sentences, for example by using lexical conjunctions as well as non-manual features (NMFs). They participate in discussions and debates, acknowledging others’ opinions and developing and supporting arguments. They collaborate in activities that involve planning, project design and problem-solving, for example, G:WELL RIGHT-YEAH , BUT I WANT ADD COMMENT . They use evaluative language to reflect on learning activities and to provide feedback to others. They follow protocols for interacting with sign language interpreters in various contexts. Students locate, collate, summarise and analyse ideas and information from a variety of sources, such as interviews, documentaries or speeches, and they use such information in new forms. They use primary or secondary signed sources in their research, for example, when exploring significant events in Deaf history. They use specialised language to create texts such as vlogs, advertisements or research-based factual reports designed to convince or persuade others. They analyse elements of different imaginative texts such as poetry, performances, signed stories, skits and sketches, and explain how sign choice, NMFs and the use of different stylistic techniques combine to convey ideas and emotions. They create imaginative and expressive texts that draw from their experience as Auslan users and members of the Deaf community, including metaphorical iconicity to create particular effects and to engage interest. Students translate and interpret unfamiliar texts in Auslan or English and compare their own translations to those of their classmates, considering why there might be differences between them. They create bilingual texts to use in the wider school community. They describe how the concept and the experience of Deafhood and visual ways of being apply to themselves and others. They reflect on how their own ways of communicating may be interpreted when interacting with hearing people, and on their use of different communication strategies and behaviours, such as their use of gesture, facial expression and body language.
Students know that signs can be iconic in a number of ways, and identify iconic signs that represent a whole object or part of an object. They distinguish between character and observer space, classify verb types according to how they use space, and identify constructed action in a text. They explain the form and function of a range of clause types, including what NMFs are used, for example, questions, topicalisation, negation or conditionals. They identify all the ways a signer refers to the same referent throughout a text to create cohesion. They recognise that Auslan is constantly evolving and changing, for example, by identifying changes to Auslan that reflect changes in social relationships, community attitudes and changing technology. Students reflect on how all ways of language use are influenced by communities’ world views and identities, for example by comparing the cultural concept of Deaf identity with the medical model of deafness.
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The nature of the learners
This stage of learning coincides with social, physical and cognitive changes associated with adolescence. Increased cognitive maturity enables learners to work more deductively with language and culture systems, to apply more intentional learning strategies and to reflect productively on their learning. Motivation and engagement with language learning and use are influenced by peer-group dynamics, personal interests and values, and issues related to self-concept. This is particularly the case for bilingual learners, especially for deaf students who also use spoken English, for whom the duality of living between languages and cultural frames impacts continually on the process of identity construction. The role of language is central to this process and is reflected in the degree to which learners define themselves as members of language communities, how they position themselves in relation to peer groups, and choices they make in relation to linguistic and social practices. These processes are fluid and context-responsive and impact on learners’ engagement with both Auslan and English language learning. Learners at this level are increasingly aware of the world beyond their own and are engaging with youth, social and environmental issues. They are considering their future pathways and choices, including how Auslan could be part of these.
Auslan learning and use
This is a period of language exploration. Task characteristics and conditions at this level are more complex and challenging, involving collaborative as well as independent language planning and performance, and the development and strategic use of language and cultural resources. Elements of tasks involve interpreting, creating, evaluating and performing. Working with media resources, fictional and non-fictional texts, performances and research projects allows for the exploration of themes of personal and contemporary relevance, such as global and environmental issues, identity and relationship issues, questions of diversity and inclusivity.
Learners use Auslan to debate, clarify and interrogate ideas and concepts; to appraise and summarise opinions and to engage in elaborated discussions, developing and supporting arguments and sharing and evaluating opinions. They communicate in a wide range of contexts, such as a whole-school forum, present sustained signed explanations of abstract topics, and participate in imaginative and creative experiences.
Contexts of interaction
Learners interact with peers, teachers and other Auslan signers in immediate and local contexts, and with wider Deaf communities as well as cultural resources via virtual and online environments. They may participate in community events such as film or cultural festivals or intercultural forums.
Texts and resources
Learners use an extensive range of texts and materials designed for in-class learning of Auslan, as well as authentic texts produced in broader contexts. They are encouraged to source extra materials to support their learning and to pursue personal interests and explore various aspects of Auslan or Deafhood.
Features of Auslan use
Learners extend their grammatical knowledge to a range of forms and functions that give them control of more complex elements of text construction and sign formation. They have a greater degree of self-correction and repair. This greater control of language structures and systems increases confidence and interest in communicating in a wider range of contexts. Learners design, interpret and analyse a wider range of texts and experiences. Textual knowledge and capability are strengthened through maintaining a balance between activities that focus on language forms and structures and communicative tasks and performance.
Learners experiment with ways to refine a text, for example to strengthen it for entertainment, information or persuasion purposes. They understand that reordering clauses or parts of clauses can create subtle meaning differences. They use depicting signs to innovate where there are lexical gaps, and make richer use of the ‘visual vernacular’, producing complex narratives that combine and switch between methods of depiction (CA, DSs and lexical signs) and frames of spatial reference (character or observer). They demonstrate understanding of language variation and change, and of how intercultural experience, technology, media and globalisation influence language use and forms of communication. They investigate texts through more critical analysis, identifying how language choices reflect perspectives and shape meaning, and how they in turn are shaped by context and intention.
Learners at this level understand the relationship between language, culture and identity. They explore in more depth and detail the processes involved in learning and using different languages, recognising them as cognitive, cultural and personal as well as linguistic resources. They identify how meaning-making and representation in different languages involve interpretation and personal response as well as literal translation and factual reporting. They explore the reciprocal nature of intercultural communication: how moving between different languages and cultural systems impacts on their ways of thinking and behaving; and how successful communication requires flexibility, awareness and openness to alternative ways. They develop a capacity to ‘decentre’ from normative ways of thinking and communicating, to consider their own cultural ways through the eyes of others, and to communicate in interculturally appropriate ways.
Level of support
While learners at this level are increasingly less reliant on the teaching team for support during communicative interactions, continued provision of rich language input and modelled language is needed to consolidate and sustain language development. The teaching team provides implicit and explicit modelling and scaffolding in relation to meaningful language use in a range of contexts, situations and learning experiences; and explicit instruction and explanation in relation to complex structures, grammatical functions and abstract concepts and vocabulary. Provision of opportunities to discuss, clarify, rehearse and apply their knowledge is critical in consolidating knowledge and skills and in developing autonomy. Learners are encouraged to self-monitor, for example by keeping records of feedback, through peer support and self-review or by creating and maintaining a video journal or folio which they use to reflect on their language learning and intercultural experiences. They are increasingly aware of and responsible for their own learning, working independently to address their needs, for example by accessing technologies and additional learning resources, such as Signbank, to assist their learning. They use graphic organisers, modelled texts, dictionaries and teacher feedback to interpret and create texts.
The role of English
Learners and the teaching team use Auslan as the primary medium of interaction in language-oriented and most content-oriented learning experiences. English is used for comparative analysis and for research when a source text in Auslan cannot be found. Learners are encouraged to reflect on the different roles English and Auslan play in their academic work and in their conceptual development.
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Use interactions within the school and wider community to build relationships and to discuss personal aspirations or social issues
[Key concepts: register, debate, discussion; Key processes: debating, chatting, initiating, discussing]
Use interactions within the school and wider community to build relationships and to discuss personal aspirations or social issues
[Key concepts: register, debate, discussion; Key processes: debating, chatting, initiating, discussing]
Participate in actions and interactions involving advocacy and consideration of cultural diversity, perspective and experience
[Key concepts: diversity, perspective, inclusion, advocacy; Key processes: managing, promoting, advocating, collaborating]
Engage proactively inlearning experiences through discussion, justification of opinions and reflection on the experience of learning and using Auslan
[Key concepts:learning, argument, ideas, reflection; Key processes: clarifying, interrogating, reflecting, comparing]
Engage proactively inlearning experiences through discussion, justification of opinions and reflection on the experience of learning and using Auslan
[Key concepts:learning, argument, ideas, reflection; Key processes: clarifying, interrogating, reflecting, comparing]
Research and evaluate information from different sources and perspectives, summarising opinions and critically appraising relationships between texts and contexts
[Key concepts: debate, evidence, bias, critical analysis, context; Key processes: researching, evaluating, debating, providing feedback, summarising]
Prepare and present researched information on a range of issues, considering the context in which the information will be received
[Key concepts: audience, context, source, evidence, bias, statistics; Key processes: presenting, explaining, interpreting data, evaluating]
Analyse different types of imaginative, creative and performative texts, considering how different techniques and modalities are employed to communicate with different audiences
[Key concepts: meaning, mood, imagery, rhyme, metaphor; Key processes: analysing, interpreting, discussing, responding, reflecting]
imaginative texts designed to engage and/or reflect the interests of specific audiences and to stimulate discussion of cultural issues and experiences
[Key concepts: mode, multimodality, visual imagery, metaphor, intercultural experience; Key processes: creating, adapting, experimenting, performing]
Translate Auslan and English texts composed for different audiences and contexts and consider the dynamic nature of translating and interpreting and the role of culture when transferring meaning from oneto another
[Key concepts: equivalence, representation, meaning, interpretation, ethics, culture; Key processes: translating, interpreting, comparing, explaining, analysing]
resources such as videos, glossaries and classifications in English tocultural aspects of Auslan texts
[Key concepts: expression, bilingualism; Key processes: recording, creating, captioning]
Identify ways in which deaf people relate to and are perceived by society as ‘people of the eye’, how they demonstrate connections with culturally rich places and associations, and how their sense of identity, roles and responsibilities change over time
[Key concepts: identity, relationship, Deafhood, reciprocity, guidance, place, space, rights, responsibility, social action; Deaf gain; Key processes: discussing, comparing, investigating, reflecting]
Reflect on the experience of learning and using Auslan formally in school, and considering how interculturalinvolves shared responsibility for making meaning
[Key concepts: intercultural communication, perspective, insight, self-reflection, making meaning, discrimination; Key processes: comparing, analysing, explaining, reflecting]
Understand the perceptual andreasons for the structure of signs, and analyse howcan be used tometaphors in Auslan and critically evaluate videosoftware as a means of transcribing and analysing Auslan
[Key concepts: iconicity, metaphor, transcription; Key processes: analysing, applying, categorising, demonstrating, describing, evaluating]
Analyse signed texts in terms of spatial frames of reference used, and explain how signers show periods of constructed action
[Key concepts: character and observer space, constructed action; Key processes: contrasting, analysing]
Understand the difference between main and subordinate clauses and how the inclusion ofand depicting signs has an impact onstructure
[Key concepts: auxiliary and main verbs,types, reference; Key processes: recognising, comparing, identifying]
Understand the difference between main and subordinate clauses and how the inclusion ofand depicting signs has an impact onstructure
[Key concepts: auxiliary and main verbs,types, reference; Key processes: recognising, comparing, identifying]
Understand the interrelationship betweentypes, linguistic features, cohesive devices, audience, context and purpose
[Key concepts: audience, choice, convention, cohesion; Key processes: analysing, identifying, discussing, applying]
Investigate and analyse the nature of and community attitudes to variation in the use of Auslan
[Key concepts: standardisation, contact, evolution, flexibility, variability; Key processes: recognising, investigating, researching, analysing, considering]
Investigate and compare the nature and status of Auslan and other signed languages, considering issues such asand education policies,rights, representation and processes ofpreservation andbuilding
[Key concepts: policy, rights, representation, status, recognition, documentation; Key processes: describing, researching, comparing, investigating, analysing, evaluating]
Understand that Auslan andare interrelated, that they shape and are shaped by each other and that their relationship changes over time and across contexts
[Key concepts: knowledge, value, relationship, transmission; Key processes: reflecting, exploring, analysing, comparing]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
By the end of Year 10, students exchange information, ideas and opinions on a broad range of social, environmental, educational and community issues. They summarise and justify points of view and use reflective language to respond to others’ opinions and perspectives, for example, RIGHT-YEAH, PRO2 DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE NEVER THOUGHT . They initiate, sustain, support and extend discussion, using strategies such as paraphrasing, inviting opinions and elaborating responses, for example PRO2 CONFUSE PRO1 WIND-BACK . They select appropriate vocabulary and use supporting evidence when clarifying and justifying statements. They use respectful language to negotiate, problem-solve and to manage different perspectives when engaging in collaborative tasks, for example, PRO1 FEEL PRO2 RIGHT TALK OVER…. BECAUSE…. Students research, analyse and evaluate information from a range of sources and perspectives, and create sustained signed texts designed to entertain, inform, persuade or inspire different audiences. They use non-manual prosodic features to create emphasis or other effects. Students analyse different types of creative and performative texts, considering how specific techniques and modalities are used to different effect, for example, using repetition of handshapes and movement paths of signs to create rhyme, or the use of visual metaphors to convey meaning. They compare responses to texts that present particular values or points of view, for example, Deaf poetry. They create their own imaginative texts such as narratives or poems, combining and switching between types of language, for example, telling with lexical signs or showing with constructed action (CA) or depicting signs (DSs) and frames of spatial reference to indicate character or observer point of view. Students translate and interpret a range of signed texts, comparing their translations and explaining factors that may have influenced their interpretation. They identify the relationship that exists between language, culture and identity and explore how individual and community identity are conveyed through cultural expression and language use. They reflect on the experience of communicating in a visual world and on associated challenges and advantages experienced as deaf people in a hearing world.
Students identify and describe metaphorical iconicity, for example, love, avoid/resist, and compare this with the use of metaphors in English. They distinguish character or observer frame of reference in a text; between main and subordinate clauses; and demonstrate how the inclusion of CA and DSs impacts on clause structure. They analyse different types of text, such as expository texts, identifying characteristic language elements and features. They investigate variation in the use of Auslan, explaining influences such as geographical location, social groupings and history, educational experience, the age of learners, family background and degree of contact with Signed English or other languages. They make comparisons between the ecologies of Auslan and those of signed languages in other countries, taking into account issues such as language policies and language rights, advocacy, reform and language vitality. They identify factors that help to maintain and strengthen Auslan use, such as intergenerational contact and bilingual school programs. Students know that Auslan plays an important role in the expression and maintenance of Deaf culture and in assuring the rights of deaf people.
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