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Languages studied in the First Language Learner Pathway (L1) are typically used in spoken form as the language of everyday communication by whole communities across all generations.
Typically, but not exclusively, L1 programs will occur on Country/Place and will have constant involvement from a variety of speakers from the community. A key expectation in the L1 pathway is that of students having opportunities to interact with Elders and particular places on Country/Place.
Learners are typically Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children who have learnt the language from their families as a first language and continue to use it naturally at home and play. Students may have varying skills in other languages, including varieties of English.
The curriculum content and achievement standards in the First Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander languages that may be learnt as a first language. The curriculum content and achievement standards will need to be adapted when developing language-specific curricula, and will need to be modified for programs occuring off-Country.
Students enter the early years of schooling with well-established skills in spoken forms of the language along with a growing knowledge of local community and culture. In addition they may have varying skills in other languages, including varieties of English. School is often the first place these children encounter written language as a systematic means of communication.
Language learning and use
As well as continuing to develop oracy, a key feature of the First Language Learner Pathway is the development of literacy and extending language use in additional domains, particularly relating to the school context. Children build a vocabulary for thinking and talking about school topics, routines and processes, and expand their knowledge and understanding by exploring Country/Place with Elders and community members and by engaging with stories and other texts in the language.
Children learn about the concepts of kin, social groupings and how these are connected to the natural environment. They learn about their own songs, stories, dances and designs and their own place in the kinship system.
From Foundation to Year 2 children are learning how to interact with people in new contexts, share with others, and participate in more structured routines and activities. They learn about school, teacher and community expectations in terms of ‘right’ behaviour and ‘right’ ways of talking.
The curriculum builds on children’s interests and sense of enjoyment and curiosity, with an emphasis on active and experiential learning and confidence building. Creative play provides opportunities for using the language for purposeful interaction in some less familiar contexts. Imaginative activities, games, music and songs, movement and familiar routines provide essential scaffolding and relevant contexts for language development.
Students are supported to use the language for different language functions and in different domains, such as asking and responding to questions on a range of topics, expressing feelings, following instructions, working together for a common purpose, and taking turns in games and simple shared learning experiences.
They learn to recognise how the sounds of the language and its intonation are encoded in writing. They begin to understand how the language works, comparing and contrasting it with other known languages and learning how it fits into the diversity of regional and national languages.
The transition from spoken to written language is scaffolded through shared exploration of simple texts and language features. Children progress from supported comprehension and use of a small number of high-frequency and personally significant sight words to more elaborated texts that take account of context, purpose and audience. They use grammatical, cultural and contextual cues to comprehend texts and engage in communicative interactions. They progress from writing by tracing and copying, to independently forming legible letters. Writing skills progress from the ability to label images and copy high-frequency words to co-construct simple texts using familiar vocabulary, language features and structures. Children begin to develop familiarity with different types of texts in different genres.
Contexts of interaction
Across Foundation to Year 2, learning occurs largely through interaction with peers and the teaching team, with access to Elders and other speakers living in the same community for additional enrichment and authentication of the learning experience. Interacting with Country/Place to explore the environment with Elders and other community members is essential to learning at all stages, but particularly in the early years, when learning is grounded in the familiar, and understanding of the role of language as lived experience is important.
Texts and resources
Country/Place and the community are the most important resources for learning and are the origin of most of the texts and communicative situations offered to learners.
Children engage with a variety of spoken, visual, written and digital texts. They listen and respond to teacher talk, share ideas, and join in with song, dance, story, rap, as well as with various forms of play, performance, conversational exchanges and activities mediated by language. Printed and digital texts include stories, shared Big Books, wall charts and teacher-generated materials such as games, flashcards and items from the community and local environment. They engage with visual texts such as designs on body, bark and sand, and etchings and carvings on wood and rock.
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 recount, experiencing and retelling in oral and written formats assists in establishing early literacy.
The role of languages
The language of study is the principal medium of instruction in First Language Learner Pathway classrooms, while other known languages play a complementary role, such as for translating and creating bilingual/multilingual texts.
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Interact with peers, the teaching team and visiting Elders/community members to share information, thoughts and feelings about family, friends, community, activities, events and experiences
[Key concepts: family, community, friendship, personal world, experience, responsibility, safety; Key processes: interacting, sharing, describing, recounting]
Participate in shared tasks and activities that involve following instructions, making things and cooperating with peers
[Key concepts: family, cooperation, play; Key processes: participating, active listening, following instructions, making, turn-taking]
Participate in conversations and interactions that involve behaviours such as active listening, showing interest, asking questions and contributing ideas, information
[Key concepts: routine, consideration, contribution, appropriateness; Key processes: active listening, participating, responding, following instructions]
Locate/ discover/identify key information about Country/Place and community by exploring Country/Place and listening to stories from Elders and community members
[Key concepts: Country/Place, natural environment, Indigenous knowledge, the past, community life, health and well-being; Key processes: listening, reading, mapping, reading Country/Place, exploring, observing, recording, describing, classifying]
Give factual information about family, friends, Country/Place and community using simple statements and descriptions, captioned drawings and photos
[Key concepts: daily routines and activities, events, Country/Place, community life ; Key processes: labelling, captioning, describing, contributing, recounting]
Participate in shared listening to, viewing and reading of texts, identifying and describing favourite elements, mainand key events and responding through singing, dancing, drawing, movement and action
[Key concepts: storytelling, response; Key processes: responding, performing, sharing, expressing; Keytypes: songs, raps, dances, traditional and contemporary stories, paintings and visual design, video clips (IndigiTUBE)]
and present shared stories, songs and performances using familiar words and expressions that allow for exploration and enjoyment of language
[Key concepts: story, performance; Key processes: creating, narrating, retelling, singing, dancing, drawing, performing, shake-a-leg; Keytypes: songs, raps, dances, stories, paintings and visual design, performance]
Translate words and expressions used in everyday contexts and situations, from theinto other known languages and vice versa
[Key concepts: similarity, difference, gesture, sign language; Key processes: noticing, translating, explaining]
simple print, oral, digital bilingual/multilingual texts, such as songs, wall charts, labels for the classroom, class rules, timetables
[Key concepts: meaning, code, bilingualism; Key processes: creating, matching, captioning, sequencing]
Learn about and understand the concepts of kin, social groupings and relationships, and how these are connected to the natural environment
[Key concepts: identity, relationship, kinship, family terms; Key processes: identifying, categorising, representing, explaining, creating]
Identify with Country/Place and understand connections between Country/Place and individuals and groups
[Key concepts: Country/Place, kinship, social groups, identity, connections; Key processes: identifying, naming]
Identify their own songs, stories, dances and designs and their links to kinship systems
[Key concepts: identity, kinship, History, story; Key processes: identifying, describing, talking about]
Notice how using theand other known languages, including English, involve some different ways of communicating and behaving
[Key concepts: language, culture, context, similarity, difference, respect; Key processes: noticing, describing, comparing, responding]
Use and recognise the sounds,and rhythms in the spokenand learn how sounds and words relate to written language
[Key concepts: sound system, writing system, sound‒symbol correspondence, conventions; Key processes: listening, recognising, reading aloud]
Understand and use a developing vocabulary including topical and classificatory language, recognising the function of different word types in the language
[Key concepts: word function, word order, patterns, rules; Key processes: identifying, recognising, noticing patterns, observing]
Recognise there are many ways of communicating messages in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages
[Key concepts: communication, narrative; Key processes: recognising, identifying, comparing]
Recognise that different words andforms are used to address and communicate with people according to relationship and situation
[Key concepts: kinship, context; Key processes: noticing, recognising, comparing]
Recognise that languages borrow words from each other
[Key concepts: relatedness, word-borrowing; Key processes: identifying, recognising, comparing]
Recognise that theiris part of broader regional and nationaldiversity
[Key concepts: linguistic diversity,shift; Key processes: identifying, recognising]
Understand thatbelongs to communities, and thatlearning requires respectful and appropriate behaviour
[Key concepts: ownership, belonging, respect; Key processes: demonstrating, applying]
Notice that people usein ways that reflect their culture, such as where and how they live and what is important to them
[Key concepts: Country/Place, Language, Culture, symbol; Key processes: noticing, recognising, questioning, making connections]
Recognise how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are transmitted from generation to generation
[Key concepts: oral transmission,maintenance and development; Key processes: noticing, recognising, considering, valuing]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
The achievement standards for the Framework for Aboriginal Languages and Torres Strait Islander Languages First Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of languages that may be learnt as an L1 in the school context. The achievement standards will need to be adapted for use for specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
By the end of Year 2, students interact with the teaching team, Elders, community members and each other to share information about family, friends, community activities and events. They use appropriate ways of talking, including terms of respect, forms of address and sign language. They participate in routine classroom exchanges and collaborative activities, such as pair, group and class discussions, asking and responding to questions and taking turns. They make relevant suggestions during class writing activities when the teacher is acting as a scribe. They identify key information about Country/Place under the guidance of Elders and community members and demonstrate this understanding by describing habitats, plants, animals and seasonal changes, by classifying plants, animals and natural objects into categories, and by naming and describing key social and cultural events. They respond to texts such as stories, songlines, dance and visual art through singing, dancing, drawing, action and movement, demonstrating understanding by identifying and describing characters, sequencing events, and retelling parts of the story. Students use familiar words and expressions to create and present shared stories, songs and performances, drawing on their own experiences and knowledge and providing details about characters or events. They make short presentations consisting of a few connected sentences on familiar and learned topics. They read aloud short shared texts with familiar vocabulary, high-frequency sight words and supportive images. They use knowledge of sounds and letters, high-frequency words, sentence boundary punctuation and directionality to help them make meaning when reading. Students use family terms and skin names for immediate family members as appropriate and demonstrate appropriate ways of interacting and behaving according to kinship structures and social groupings. They demonstrate understanding of connections between Country/Place and individuals and groups by identifying and naming features of Country/Place that belong to their own family and kinship groups. They identify their own links/cultural affiliations, for example, to stories, totems, dances and designs.
Students link most sounds of the language to written symbols and conventions. They use knowledge of sound‒symbol relationships to read and recognise high-frequency words and use simple metalanguage to describe basic elements of language forms and structures. They recognise that messages in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages can be communicated in a number of ways, such as Elders’ story-telling or through song, dance, visual design and signing. Students know that different words and language forms are used to address and communicate with people according to relationship and situation. They recognise that there are many different languages spoken in their class, community and region. They describe how the language has been passed down from one generation to the next, and recognise that language use reflects where and how they live and what is important to them.
Read full description ›
Languages studied in the First Language Learner Pathway (L1) are typically used in spoken form as the language of everyday communication by whole communities across all generations.
Typically, but not exclusively, L1 programs will occur on Country/Place and will have constant involvement from a variety of speakers from the community. A key expectation in the L1 pathway is that of students having opportunities to interact with Elders and particular places on Country/Place.
Learners are typically Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children who have learnt the language from their families as a first language and continue to use it naturally at home and play. Students may have varying skills in other languages, including varieties of English.
The curriculum content and achievement standards in the First Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander languages that may be learnt as a first language. The curriculum content and achievement standards will need to be adapted when developing language-specific curricula, and will need to be modified for programs occuring off-Country.
Learners at this level are expanding their social networks, experiences and communicative repertoire in the language. They benefit from varied, activity-based learning that builds on their interests and capabilities and makes connections with other areas of learning. 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.
Language learning and use
Students interact with peers, the teaching team, Elders and community members in a variety of learning experiences and activities. They continue to build vocabulary that relates to a wider range of domains, such as curriculum areas that involve some specialised language use.
Students engage in a range of listening activities and build oral proficiency through responding to rich language input and opportunities to engage in meaningful communicative activities. They follow instructions, exchange information and express ideas and feelings related to their immediate environment and personal worlds. They participate in shared tasks, performance and play.
Students’ development of written literacy progresses from supported comprehension and use of high-frequency and personally significant sight words to more elaborated simple texts which take account of context, purpose and audience. The development of reading skills and textual knowledge is supported through interaction with a range of spoken, written, visual and multimodal texts, including sign language as appropriate.
At upper primary level, learners use the language for a widening range of purposes: collaborating, creating, performing and responding to resources and experiences. They have greater control of vocabulary and grammatical resources and use an increasingly sophisticated range of non-verbal strategies to support communication. Shared learning activities develop social, cognitive and language skills and provide a context for purposeful language experience and experimentation.
Oracy development includes listening to a range of varied language input from different sources and building more elaborated conversational and interactional skills. These include initiating and sustaining conversations, reflecting on and responding to others’ contributions, making appropriate responses and adjustments, and engaging in debate and discussion. 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.
At this level, there is focused attention on language structures and systems. Learners draw on more established grammatical and lexical resources to compose and comprehend more complex language. With support they build increasing cohesion and complexity into their writing in terms of both content and expression. They use ICT to support their learning in more independent and intentional ways and make comparisons between the language they are learning and other languages they speak or are learning, including English.
Contexts of interaction
Learning occurs largely through interaction with peers and the teaching team. Additional enrichment and authentication of learning experience is provided through interactions with Elders and other speakers living in the community. Interacting with Country/Place and exploring the environment with Elders and other community members is essential to learning at all stages. Students may also have access to community facilities and functions, such as the health clinic, art centre, coast patrol, local interpretative centre, and the office of the park ranger or land council.
Elders and community members may teach about cultural elements of language and communication, such as gender-differentiated roles, working separately with male and female students when appropriate.
Students may have some access to speakers of the language or related languages in other communities and regions through digital technologies.
Texts and resources
Country/Place and the community are the most important resources for learning the language. They are the origin of most of the texts and communicative situations students engage with.
Learners interact with a growing range of spoken, visual, written and digital texts, including photographs, maps, oral histories, community texts such as posters from health clinics, community notices, land-care programs, songs, raps, dances, stories, painting and visual design, music, video clips and films.
Level of support
While learners work more independently at this level, ongoing support is incorporated into task activity and the process of learning is supported by systematic feedback and review. Form-focused activities build student’s grammatical knowledge and support the development of accuracy and control in written language. 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, drafting and redrafting; and provide support for self-monitoring and reflection. Discussion supports learning and develops children’s conceptual frame for talking about systems of language and culture.
While learners are becoming more autonomous and independent at the upper primary years, ongoing support is still needed, including explicit instruction, structured modelling and scaffolding, and provision of appropriate stimulus materials and timely feedback. Learning experiences incorporate implicit form-focused language learning activities and examples of texts and tasks.
The role of languages
The language of study is the principal medium of instruction in First Language Learner Pathway classrooms. Other known languages play a complementary role, for example, used when translating, creating bilingual/multilingual texts or comparing and contrasting writing systems, language structures and language features and use.
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Interact with others, sharing and comparing experiences, personal perspectives and points of view on topics related to immediate environment and personal world
[Key concepts, family, community, relationships, interaction protocols, experience, health and well-being, personal and cultural safety; Key processes: sharing, participating, recounting, discussing]
Plan and participate in collaborative activities and events, negotiating and performing different roles and responsibilities that are appropriate to local cultural traditions
[Key concepts: collaboration, experience, shared decision making; Key processes: making arrangements, designing, making, planning, suggesting, negotiating]
Participate in classroom interactions that involve some changes to ways of communicating at school and the development of learning relatedand interaction patterns
[Key concepts: interaction patterns, cooperation, domains ofuse, agreement/disagreement, reflection; Key processes: working together, contributing, enquiring, building language, monitoring, clarifying, acknowledging, explaining]
Gather, organise and compare information from a range of sources relating to Country/Place, community and past and present ways of living
[Key concepts: past and present, natural environment, caring for Country/Place, social and cultural events, health and well-being; Key processes: enquiring, investigating, comparing, describing, tracking, mapping, measuring, charting, explaining, analysing]
Convey information on specific topics using formats such as oral or digital presentations, displays, diagrams, timelines, narratives, descriptions and procedures
[Key concepts: Country/Place, community life, identities; Key processes: creating, editing, presenting, profiling, sequencing]
Listen to,and view a variety of texts, describing and discussing key elements, ideas, characters, events and messages, making connections with own life and experiences
[Key concepts: visual design, representation, journey; Key processes: participating, describing, predicting, recalling, responding, listening, shared/guided reading; Keytypes: songs, raps, dances, traditional and contemporary stories, paintings and visual design, video clips]
Create, present and perform expressive and imaginative texts that involve different modes of presentation, such as stories, dance, skits or video clips, based on a stimulus concept, theme or resource
[Key concepts: imagination, entertainment; Key processes: imagining, creating, experimenting, performing, storytelling; Keytypes: raps, songs, dances, performances, digital texts, video clips, skits, paintings and visual design]
Translate short texts from theinto other known languages and vice versa, including theof sign language, noticing words or expressions that are not easy to translate and identifying elements which require explanation rather than literal translation
[Key concepts: equivalence, meaning, culture-specific concepts; Key processes: identifying, translating, transcribing, predicting, deducing, selecting, comparing, explaining]
bilingual/multilingual texts for the classroom and the school community, such as records of excursions and shared learning experiences, songs, photo stories, posters, brochures, maps
[Key concepts: bilingualism, expression; Key processes: creating, performing, describing, code-mixing]
Describe kinship relations as a system and explain its role in determining social behaviour
[Key concepts: identity, relationship, kinship, family terms, social groupings/sub-groupings, story, behaviour, ways of talking; Key processes: investigating, explaining, describing, categorising]
Interact with Country/Place, for example, by discussing roles within the family, ownership, custodial and totemic affiliations, and links between History, social groups and natural species
[Key concepts: Country/Place, identity, significance, family, Dreaming/History, totemic affiliation, role connections; Key processes: identifying, naming, describing]
Describe and explain behaviour, rights and responsibilities in relation to the kinship ownership of songs, stories, dances and designs
[Key concepts: identity, rights, responsibilities, ownership, behaviour; Key processes: describing, explaining, discussing]
Notice and describe similarities and differences in ways of usingand interacting with people when communicating in theand in other known languages, including English
[Key concepts: language, culture, values, similarity and difference, communication, emotion; Key processes: noticing, comparing, describing, reflecting]
Compare and use the patterns of speech sounds,and rhythm in theand learn the written forms of these and associated conventions
[Key concepts: sound system, writing system, intonation, rhythm, sound–symbol correspondence, punctuation, conventions, alphabetic order; Key processes: listening, recognising, comparing, reading aloud, transcribing]
Understand and describe the word formation processes in the language, including the use of prefixes and suffixes
[Key concepts: word formation, word class, grammatical person and number, negation, metalanguage; Key processes: noticing, comparing, applying, understanding, modifying meaning]
Understand that texts such as stories, paintings, songs and dances have a distinct purpose and particularfeatures, and understand and applyconventions
[Key concepts: purpose,features; Key processes: recognising, identifying, distinguishing, applying, linking]
Understand that speakers varyforms and styles according to kin relationship and context
[Key concepts: kinship, respect, register, silence, taboo; Key processes: observing, examining, explaining, investigating, noticing, recognising]
Recognise that languages change over time
[Key concepts:shift,loss, borrowing and relatedness; Key processes: identifying, recognising]
Explore thesituation of their community and the diversity ofsituations in Australia
[Key concepts: change, sign; Key processes: recognising, discussing, investigating]
Understand that the use of stories and names in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages is culturally determined
[Key concepts: cultural safety; Key processes: recognising, observing, discussing]
Reflect on how a community’s ways of usingare shaped by values and beliefs
[Key concepts: Country/Place, cultural expression, transmission, value, belief, spirituality; Key processes: observing, making connections, discussing, investigating]
Understand ways theandcan be maintained and strengthened in changing contexts
[Key concepts:maintenance and development ; Key processes: discussing, exploring, considering, investigating,building]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
The achievement standards for the Framework for Aboriginal Languages and Torres Strait Islander Languages First Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of languages that may be learnt as an L1 in the school context. The achievement standards will need to be adapted for use for specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
By the end of Year 6, students use spoken and written language to share and compare experiences, personal perspectives and points of view on topics related to their immediate environment and personal, cultural and social worlds. They use appropriate ways of talking when interacting in different social situations and with different social groups, and apply principles and protocols of cultural safety when engaging with cultural property. Students participate in class discussion, asking questions to clarify content and to offer opinions and ideas and taking into account other perspectives. They locate, classify and compare information from a range of sources relating to Country/Place, community, culture, environment and past and present ways of living. They interact with Country/Place under the guidance of Elders and older family members, making and recording observations in different formats, reading signs, classifying natural objects according to Indigenous cultural categories and mapping key topographical features. They respond to stories, songs, dances and artistic expression by describing how events, characters and settings are depicted through sound, image and performance, by interpreting messages conveyed through these forms and by sharing opinions, responses and reactions. They understand that ownership of songs, stories, dances and designs is determined by traditional kinship and other social groupings, as well as by place, History and story. Students create, with the support of models, a variety of spoken, written and multimodal texts for different purposes and audiences. They use descriptive and expressive language to write narratives and expressive and imaginative texts, and to recount experiences. They use specialised language to present information on specific topics, for example by presenting research-based factual reports. They use procedural language, for example to explain how to prepare and cook food, how to make tools, decorate artefacts or play a game. They apply their grammatical and vocabulary knowledge and their understanding of spelling and punctuation conventions in a range of sentence and text types. They translate familiar texts, identifying and explaining culture-specific concepts and expressions. They create bilingual/multilingual texts for the school community on a range of topics. They explain the family basis of the kin and skin systems and their role in determining social behaviour. They elaborate their own positions and identities within these systems, explaining their roles and responsibilities with respect to caring for family, land/sea/water. They explain links between ceremonies, people, stories and ancestral areas of Country/Place. They identify places which have special significance to particular sub-groups in the community and which represent special bonds between people, place and story.
Students know that the language has its own rules for pronunciation, spelling and grammar and they apply this knowledge to predict the sound, spelling and meaning of new words and to create their own texts. They read aloud with developing fluency and intonation. Students use metalanguage to explain language features and elements, using appropriate grammatical terms and making comparisons with English and other known languages. They explain how language use is adjusted to suit different contexts, situations and relationships, for example, registers of deference and respect, avoidance language, speaking to the side, indirect references, generational differences and the use of silence. They provide examples of how languages change over time by identifying words borrowed from English and other languages, including words that are similar to or borrowed from neighbouring Indigenous languages. Students understand that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are in various states of maintenance, development and revival and can explain some historical reasons for this. They recognise the importance of maintaining and strengthening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages for their community and for the broader Australian community and describe ways that language and culture have been maintained and strengthened in their community. They reflect on their own ways of communicating, discussing how these might be interpreted by others.
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The nature of the learner, the pathway and particular language
Languages studied in the First Language Learner Pathway (L1) are typically used in spoken form as the language of everyday communication by whole communities across all generations.
Typically, but not exclusively, L1 programs will occur on Country/Place and will have constant involvement from a variety of speakers from the community. A key expectation in the L1 pathway is that of students having opportunities to interact with Elders and particular places on Country/Place.
Learners are typically Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children who have learnt the language from their families as a first language and continue to use it naturally at home and in social situations. Students may have varying skills in other languages, including varieties of English.
The curriculum content and achievement standards in the First Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander languages that may be learnt as a first language. They will need to be adapted when developing language-specific curricula, and will need to be modified for programs occuring off-Country.
At this level, students 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 of 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.
Language learning and use
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, songs/raps, blogs, reports and journal entries, and plan, draft and present imaginative and informative texts. They use vocabulary and grammar with increasing accuracy and complexity, drafting and editing written work to improve structure and to clarify meaning.
Learners continue to expand their vocabulary to domains beyond their personal experience and interests. They 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. They make connections between texts and cultural contexts, identifying how cultural values and perspectives are embedded in language and how language choices influence how people, issues and circumstances are represented. They are increasingly aware of the nature of the relationship between languages and cultures, noticing how family, community values and behaviours, such as familiarity, mutual obligation, reciprocity, respect, caring for Country/Place, are conveyed in the language.
Contexts of interaction
Learning occurs largely through interaction with peers and the teaching team, while additional enrichment and authentication of the learning experience is provided through access to Elders and other speakers living in the community. Interacting with Country/Place to explore the environment and learn about Country/Place with Elders and other community members is essential to the learning of students at all stages.
Elders and community members may teach about gender-differentiated roles as encapsulated in language, working separately with male and female students as appropriate.
Students may also have some access to speakers in other regions through digital technologies and may have opportunities to participate in school excursions or camps.
Texts and resources
Country/Place and the community are the most important resources for learning. They are the origin of most of the texts and communicative situations that learners engage with.
Learners interact with a broad range of spoken, visual, written and digital texts, such as photographs, maps, oral histories, community texts such as posters from health clinics, community notices, songs, raps, dances, stories, painting and visual design, music, video clips and films.
They may also have access to community facilities and functions, such as the health clinic, art centre, coast patrol, local interpretative centre, community interpreters, and the office of the park ranger or land council.
Level of support
While learners at this level are less reliant on teacher support during interactions, continued provision of rich language input and modelled language are needed to consolidate and sustain their learning of the language in its extended spoken and written forms. The teacher provides both 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 in developing autonomy. Learners 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.
The role of languages
The language of study is the medium of instruction in First Language Learner Pathway classrooms. Other known languages play a complementary role, for example, when translating and creating bilingual/multilingual texts, and when comparing and contrasting writing systems, language structures, and language features and usage.
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Discuss topics of interest to immediate and wider community, explaining, comparing, summarising and justifying points of view and responding to different perspectives.
[Key concepts: ways of talking, community issues, social, environmental, educational issues, aspiration, perspective; Key processes: comparing, explaining, discussing, summarising, justifying]
Plan, participate in and evaluate events and activities that involve taking shared action, negotiating and problem-solving and that draw upon personal and community knowledge
[Key concepts: event, managing different perspectives; Key processes: organising, persuading, deciding, negotiating]
Engage in inclusive and respectful discussion that involves commentary, analysis and reflection on shared experience, such as that of learning and using thein the school setting
[Key concepts: reflection, encouragement, literacy, learning strategies, respect; Key processes: discussing, analysing, reflecting, justifying]
Investigate, analyse and synthesise information obtained from a range of sources on topics and issues related to their Country/Place and community
[Key concepts: change, social and environmental issues, community initiatives/ projects, health and well-being; Key processes: researching, investigating, interviewing, comparing, summarising]
Convey information about events, experiences or topics of shared interest, using different modes of presentation to suit different audiences and contexts
[Key concepts: audience, Country/Place, community life; Key processes: describing, explaining, creating, annotating, reviewing, persuading, reporting, presenting, referencing]
and respond to a range of texts, sharing and comparing personal views and reactions, describing, explaining and comparing aspects of artistic expression and how these relate to land, people, plants, animals and social and ecological relationships
[Key concepts: representation, imagination; Key processes: interpreting, explaining, describing, discussing; Keytypes: songs, raps, dances, traditional and contemporary stories, paintings and visual design, video clips, films]
a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts involving real/imagined contexts and characters
[Key concepts: imagination, journey; Key processes: creating, collaborating, performing, composing; Keytypes: raps, songs, dances, performances, stories, cartoons, advertisements, digital texts, video clips, skits, paintings and visual designs]
Transcribe, translate andtexts from theinto other languages of the region and into English and vice versa, considering and explaining factors that influenced thefrom oneand discussing issues related to translating and interpreting
[Key concept: equivalence, representation, meaning, interpretation, ethics; Key processes: translating, interpreting, transcribing, comparing, explaining, analysing]
Produce short bilingual/multilingual texts such as digital stories, comics, animations, blogs and contributions to community newsletters
[Key concepts: bilingualism, expression, interpretation; Key processes: creating, performing, designing, interpreting, annotating]
Investigate, explain and discuss the relationship between kinship, Law, land, sea/water and sky
[Key concepts: identity, relationship, kinship, Law, connection, interrelatedness, rights, obligations; Key processes: exploring, discussing, investigating, describing, reflecting]
Describe and discuss the relationship between people, community and Country/Place, and how individuals and groups demonstrate connections to areas of land and sea/water and their rights and obligations with respect to those areas
[Key concepts: Country/Place, land, water, sea, sky; rights and obligations, responsibility; Key processes: discussing, reflecting]
Investigate and discuss how connections between Law, story, ceremony, visual design, people and Country/Place are demonstrated and manifested in individual and community behaviour
[Key concepts: identity, Law, behaviour, story, ceremony, guidance; Key processes: investigating, explaining, discussing]
Reflect on the relationship between language,and identity, and how this shapes and reflects ways of communicating and thinking
[Key concepts: intercultural experience, perspective, insight, self-reflection; Key processes: comparing, analysing, discussing, explaining, reflecting]
Understand and explain sound patterns in the spoken language, representing these patterns with an expanding repertoire of written symbols and conventions
[Key concepts: sound system, writing system, intonation, rhythm, punctuation, conventions; Key processes: listening, recognising, analysing, comparing, reading aloud, transcribing]
Develop and use (meta)language to analyse a range of grammatical structures in their language(s) and English
[Key concepts: system, grammatical case, affixation, transitivity, particles, metalanguage; Key processes: explaining, discussing, making comparisons and connections]
Investigate the ways people communicate using spoken, written and visual modes and analyse the form and structures of a range of texts, including their use, role and relationship to other social processes
[Key concepts: text, relationship; Key processes: analysing, investigating, linking and sequencing]
Analyse variations inuse that reflect different social and cultural contexts, purposes and relationships
[Key concepts: respect, silence, kinship, body language, code-switching; Key processes: examining, explaining, analysing]
Understand that languages and cultures change continuously due to contact with one another and in response to new needs and ideas, popular culture, media and new technologies
[Key concepts: contact, change; Key processes: exploring, observing, reflecting]
Investigate and compare the ecologies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages with indigenous languages in other countries, and consider issues such as languages policy,rights,loss, advocacy, reform and multilingualism
[Key concepts: environment, boundaries, policy, revival; Key processes: researching, investigating, exploring, considering]
Understand and apply cultural norms, skills and protocols associated with learning, using and researching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages
[Key concepts: ownership, protocols, ethical behaviour; Key processes: acknowledging, investigating, applying]
Reflect on how ways of usingare shaped by communities’ ways of thinking, behaving and viewing the world, and the role ofin passing on knowledge
[Key concepts: Indigenous knowledge, values transmission; Key processes: reflecting, exploring, analysing, comparing]
Investigate programs, initiatives and techniques that keep Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages strong
[Key concepts:maintenance and development; Key processes: discussing, exploring, investigating, evaluating,building,engineering]
Show subject-specific achievement standard
The achievement standards for the Framework for Aboriginal Languages and Torres Strait Islander Languages First Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of Aboriginal languages and Torres Strait Islander languages that may be learned as an L1 in the school context. The achievement standards will need to be adapted for use for specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
By the end of Year 10, students use written and spoken language to communicate with the teaching team, peers, Elders, community members and others in a range of settings and for a range of purposes. They use language to access and discuss information on a broad range of social, environmental, educational, cultural and community issues. They summarise and justify points of view, and respond appropriately to the opinions and perspectives of others using reflective language. They use strategies to initiate, sustain and extend discussion by inviting opinions, elaborating responses, clarifying and justifying statements with supporting evidence. When interacting in different social situations and with different social groups, students use appropriate ways of talking, for example, using appropriate speech styles with respected kin or authority figures and in situations involving seniority and status, and more informal styles with friends and close family members. They use respectful language to negotiate, problem-solve and to manage different opinions and perspectives and to reach shared decisions in collaborative tasks. Students investigate, analyse and evaluate information from a range of sources and perspectives on topics and issues related to their Country/Place and community; they present their findings using different modes of presentation to suit different audiences and contexts. They employ effective presentation strategies, including degrees of directness and length of utterance appropriate to the situation, and an appropriate restatement in accordance with spoken norms or developing written styles. They summarise main ideas and include varying amounts of supporting detail. They apply appropriate cultural norms and protocols when learning, using, recording and researching Aboriginal languages and Torres Strait Islander languages, and when engaging with cultural property. Students respond to stories, songs, dances and forms of artistic expression by describing main ideas, key themes and sequences of events and explaining how these relate to land and water, sky and weather, plants and animals, and social and ecological relationships. Students create a range of informative, persuasive, and procedural texts, as well as texts based on real and imagined experiences, in written, spoken and multimodal forms, such as reviews, reports, stories songs, conversations, brochures, blogs, and procedures for traditional activities. They use appropriate vocabulary and grammatical forms to link and sequence ideas to form meaningful texts, for example, serialisation, connectives, embedding; and apply typological conventions such as headings, paragraphs, fonts, formatting. Students apply culturally appropriate protocols and ethical behaviour to create, transcribe, translate and interpret texts, providing alternative expressions when equivalence is not possible and explaining elements such as language choice and variation due to dialect or register. They analyse and compare translations and interpretations of texts, explaining factors that may have influenced the translation/interpretation. They understand their role as contemporary documenters and users of the language, for example, by interviewing Elders and transcribing stories and placing them in safe-keeping places. Students explain how the kinship system maintains and regulates social relationships, and provide examples of how connections between Law, Lore, story, ceremony, visual design, people, and Country/Place are reflected in individual and community behaviour. They describe how individuals and groups affirm connections to areas of land and water and to individual places. They explain the rights and obligations associated with these connections and how these contribute to individual and social identity and a patterning of community roles. Students identify the relationship between language, culture and identity, describing how personal and community identity are expressed through cultural expression and language use. They reflect on their own ways of communicating, discussing how these might be interpreted by others.
Students use metalanguage to describe isolated speech sounds and the phonology of languages as a whole, and to analyse a range of grammatical structures in the language. They edit their own work and use appropriate conventions to cite others and to reference external information. They explain variations in language use that reflect social and cultural contexts, purposes and relationships, different registers of use (for example, mother-in-law language), intergenerational differences, and constraints that guide social interactions, such as word avoidance and substitution. They provide examples of how languages and cultures change continuously due to contact with one another and in response to new needs and ideas, popular culture, media and new technologies. Students make comparisons between the ecologies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and indigenous languages in other countries, in areas such as language policy, language rights, language loss, advocacy and reform, language revival and multilingualism. Students identify factors that serve to maintain and strengthen language use such as intergenerational collaboration and transmission, programs and initiatives in school and community, and explain associated challenges. They demonstrate their role as contemporary documenters of the language, for example, by interviewing Elders and transcribing stories, reminiscences, advice, ways of doing things, rules for living, and by placing documents in safe keeping places.
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