ENGLISH LANGUAGE

VCE English Language explores the ways in which language is used by individuals and groups. Informed by the discipline of linguistics, it provides students with metalinguistic tools to understand and analyse language use, variation and change. Furthermore, it enables students to understand the structures, features and discourses of written and spoken texts.

Unit 1:

This unit focuses on the nature and functions of language itself and the way language is organised so that it provides its users with the means by which they can make sense of their experience and have contact with others. It enables students to explore the informational and expressive functions of language, the nature of language as a highly elaborate system of signs, the development of language in an individual, and the relationship between speech and writing as the dominant modes of use.

There are 2 areas of study:

1. The nature and functions of language

2. Language acquisition

Unit 2:

Languages are dynamic and change is an inevitable and a continual process. This unit explores the concepts of change, especially within Australian English, and aims to give students insight into the what, how and why of these changes.

There are 2 areas of study:

1. English across time

2. English across the globe

Unit 3:

In this unit students investigate English Language in the Australian social setting. They consider language as a means of societal interaction, understanding that through written and spoken texts we communicate information, ideas, attitudes, prejudices and ideological stances. Students examine the stylistic features of formal and informal language in both spoken and written modes.

There are 2 areas of study:

1. Informal language

2. Formal language

Unit 4:

In this unit students focus on the role of language in establishing and challenging different identities, particularly within the Australian context. Students examine a range of historical and contemporary texts, both print and digital, to consider the ways different identities are constructed.

There are 2 areas of study:

1. Language variation in Australian Society

2. Individual and group identities