Students who may use the target language at home (not necessarily exclusively) and have knowledge of the target language to varying degrees (for example, vocabulary, phonological accuracy, fluency, and readiness to use the language) and have a base for literacy development in that language form the target audience for Background Language subjects.

A human cognitive and communicative capability which makes it possible to communicate, to create and comprehend meaning, to build and sustain relationships, to represent and shape knowledge, and to imagine, analyse, express and evaluate.

Language is described and employed:

• as code– comprising systems, rules, a fixed body of knowledge; for example, grammar and vocabulary, sound and writing systems

• as social practice– used to do things, create relationships, interact with others, represent the world and the self; to organise social systems and practices in dynamic, variable, and changing ways

• as cultural and intercultural practice – means by which communities construct and express their experience, values, beliefs and aspirations

• as cognitive process – means by which ideas are shaped, knowledge is constructed, and analysis and reflection are structured

First Language subjects are aimed at students who are users of the target language and have undertaken at least primary schooling in the target language. They have had their primary socialisation as well as initial literacy development in that language and they use the target language at home. It also relates to students learning Aboriginal languages and Torres Strait Islander languages and includes learners whose primary socialisation is in the target language and who may or may not have yet developed initial literacy.

The target audience for Second Language subjects is comprised of students who are introduced to learning the target language at school as an additional, new language for them. The first language used before they start school and/or the language they use at home is not the target language.