Skip to content

A NSW Government website

Welcome to the NSW Curriculum website

NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

K–10Auslan K–10 Syllabus

Record of changes
Implementation from 2026
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Stage 3

Interacting in Auslan

Content is provided for:

  • Additional: students learning Auslan as an additional language
  • Prior learning/experience: students learning Auslan with knowledge and/or experience from in or outside the classroom
  • First: students learning Auslan as their first language.
Exchanging meaning in interactions
Additional
  • Interact with peers and teachers to share information and opinions

  • Collaborate with peers to plan and conduct shared events or activities using familiar language

First
  • Interact with peers, teachers and/or visitors in formal and informal contexts

  • Participate in discussions using communication strategies to clarify meaning and sustain conversation

  • Negotiate with peers using appropriate language

Using features of Auslan to communicate
Additional
  • Use fingerspelling in prepared interactions

  • Identify different information in parts of the sign, including the movement or handshape

  • Use constructed action to show participants

  • Modify indicating verbs for non-present referents

  • Use more complex entity depicting signs

First
  • Use smooth and fluent fingerspelling in prepared and spontaneous interactions

  • Describe a sign’s form in terms of all the elements and how they are put together, including types of non-manual features and information included through modifications to a sign

  • Use constructed action, including different strategies to shift between participants

  • Recognise that handshape and movement represent different things in each type of depicting sign

  • Use a range of grammatical non-manual features and depicting signs

Applying Auslan protocols
Additional
  • Interact with peers, teachers or members of the Deaf community using a range of protocols

First
  • Reflect on how Auslan and associated communicative behaviours are similar to or different from wider community spoken languages and forms of cultural expression

  • Participate effectively in group discussions using a range of protocols and communication strategies

  • Make themselves understood when signing on videoconference platforms and take into account the different spatial layout on other participants’ screens

Related files