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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

K–10Auslan K–10 Syllabus

Record of changes
Implementation from 2026
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Stage 5

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
  • Exchange information, opinions, ideas and/or perspectives

  • Communicate about personal interests and broader issues relating to the Deaf community with peers, teachers and different audiences

Prior
  • Exchange information, opinions, ideas and/or perspectives

  • Discuss issues of personal and/or social significance and build relationships with peers and/or members of the community

First
  • Exchange information, opinions, ideas and/or perspectives in interactions involving advocacy and consideration of cultural diversity, perspective and experience

  • Discuss personal aspirations, perspectives or social issues using formal and informal registers in interactions with peers and the wider community to build relationships

Using features of Auslan to communicate
Additional
  • Use smooth fingerspelling in planned and some spontaneous interactions

  • Use constructed action to represent multiple characters

  • Modify indicating verbs for non-present referents

  • Use more complex entity depicting signs

  • Use non-manual features to mark manner on verbs, express negation and for topicalisation and conditional forms

Prior
  • Fingerspell longer words and lexicalised words fluently and make appropriate adjustments to handshapes and movements

  • Identify efficient fingerspelling techniques and evaluate effectiveness of own techniques

  • Demonstrate understanding of iconicity by experimenting with the visual connection in Auslan to adapt meaning

  • Identify the elements of a sign which are arbitrary or meaningful

  • Use a range of manual and non-manual features simultaneously in constructed action and regular signing, representing multiple characters and perspectives

  • Switch between both character and observer space

  • Use body partitioning

First
  • Use fingerspelling effectively in a range of interactions and adjust style and pace to suit the audience

  • Apply complex linguistic structures specific to Auslan in formal and informal interactions

  • Use non-manual prosodic features to create emphasis or other effect

  • Alternate between methods of depiction (constructed action, depicting signs and lexical signs) and frames of spatial reference (character or observer)

Applying Auslan protocols
Additional
  • Interact using appropriate strategies to gain and maintain attention and hand over to another signer

  • Adjust communication methods to communicate with peers, teachers and/or members of the Deaf community

Prior
  • Interact appropriately by adjusting language when necessary

  • Use a range of appropriate protocols when interacting with peers, teachers and/or members of the Deaf community

First
  • Use culturally appropriate protocols and strategies to initiate and sustain communication

  • Consider how intercultural communication involves shared responsibility for making meaning

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