Rationale
Rationale for English in Stage 6 curriculum
In acknowledgement of its role as the national language, English is a mandatory subject from Kindergarten to Year 12 in the NSW curriculum. Knowledge, understanding and skills acquired in English are central to students’ learning and development.
Language and text shape understanding of individuals and the world. Language allows students to relate to others, and contributes to their intellectual, social and emotional development. In English K–12, students study language in its various textual forms, with increasing complexity, to understand how meaning is shaped, conveyed, interpreted and reflected.
Students engage with literature from Australia and across the world, and develop an understanding of the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the interconnections of Country/Place, Culture and Community. Texts communicate in distinctive ways and are shaped by experiences, knowledge and cultures. By exploring past and contemporary text with a range of cultural and social perspectives, students broaden their experiences and become empowered in their identities, values and ethics.
Through interrelated practices and experiences in understanding and creating texts, students explore the power, purpose, value and art of English. These practices and experiences support students to become literate and confident communicators, critical and imaginative thinkers, and informed and active participants in society.
The study of English in this syllabus is founded on the belief that language learning is recursive and develops through ever-widening contexts. Students learn English through explicit teaching of language and literacy, and through their engagement with a range of purposeful and increasingly demanding textual experiences.
Rationale for English Advanced
The English Advanced 11–12 Syllabus is designed for students who have a particular interest and ability in a subject that will enrich their personal, intellectual, academic, social and vocational lives. Students appreciate, analyse, evaluate and respond imaginatively and critically to literary texts drawn from a range of contexts and cultures, including literature from the past and present and from Australia. They study challenging written, spoken, visual, multimodal and digital texts that represent and reflect a changing world.
Students extend and deepen their ability to use language in nuanced, inventive and complex ways to express experiences, ideas and perspectives. They refine their understanding of the relationship between language, texts, context and meaning. Students extend their experiences in researching, accessing, evaluating and synthesising information and perspectives from a range of sources to fulfil a variety of purposes.
Through exploring and experimenting with processes of understanding and responding to texts, students develop an understanding of how language is employed to create artistic expression in texts. They analyse the different ways texts may reflect, challenge and extend the conventions of other texts. They evaluate the meanings conveyed in these texts, and how meaning is achieved. Students expand their skills as independent, collaborative and reflective learners required for post-school life, including the world of work and post-school training and education.