Strands and sub-strands
The English curriculum is presented in year levels from Pre-primary to Year 10. Content is organised under three interrelated strands:
- Language
- Literature
- Literacy.
The content strands and sub-strands are illustrated below.
Language
In the Language strand, students develop their knowledge of the English language and how it works. Students learn how language enables people to interact effectively, build and maintain relationships, and express and exchange knowledge, skills, attitudes, emotions and opinions. Oral language is the foundation of learning and an essential component of exploring ideas, expressing viewpoints, forming arguments and building vocabulary. Language operates within a contextual framework, in which choices vary according to topics, purpose and audience. Students discover the patterns and purposes of English usage, including phonic and word knowledge, spelling, grammar and punctuation at the levels of the word, sentence and extended text. By developing a body of knowledge about these patterns and their connections, students learn to communicate effectively through coherent, well‑structured sentences and texts. They gain a consistent way of understanding and talking about language, language in use and language as a system. This enables them to reflect on their own speaking and writing, and discuss these productively with others. The Language strand has four sub‑strands.
Students learn that language varies according to relationships, social setting, purpose and audience, and is a means for expressing personal and social identity.
Students learn how texts are structured for different audiences and contexts, and to achieve particular purposes. They learn the techniques that authors use to guide and influence the reader or viewer through effective use of resources at the level of the whole text, paragraph and sentence.
Students learn how authors control and use a range of clause structures and word groups as well as combinations of sound, image, movement and layout. They build vocabulary and learn how to understand and use words according to context.
Students develop knowledge about the sounds of English (phonemes) and learn to identify the sounds in spoken words. They learn the letters of the alphabet and how to write words by using combinations of these letters. They apply their knowledge of phonemes and graphemes to decode words. Students learn that patterns and generalisations relate to the spelling of words in English. They learn to apply phonic knowledge to decode text, especially from Pre-primary to Year 2. From Year 7, the sub-strand is called Word knowledge to reflect that students have progressed beyond phonic development.
Literature
The Literature strand engages students in the study of literary texts of personal, cultural, social and aesthetic value. These texts include works that are recognised as having enduring social and artistic value, some of which may be referred to as classic or canonical texts, and some that attract contemporary attention. Literature is a dynamic and evolving body of work comprising texts (written, spoken, visual, multimodal, print and digital) from diverse historical and cultural contexts. These texts are valued and appreciated for their form and style, and contribution to cultural, historical and social understanding. Learning to appreciate literary texts and to create their own literary texts enriches students’ understanding of the breadth and complexity of human experiences. It builds students’ knowledge of the interrelationship of language and culture, and stimulates creative and critical thinking. Students appreciate, analyse, interpret and evaluate a range of literary texts. This range includes the oral narrative traditions and literature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, classic and contemporary literature from wide-ranging Australian authors and world literature, including texts from and about Asia. Students create texts, such as short stories, poetry, prose, plays and short films. The Literature strand has four sub-strands.
Students learn how characters, events, perspectives and issues in literary texts are shaped by the historical, social and cultural contexts in which they were created.
Students learn to respond personally to literary texts and make connections to their own lives, other texts and the responses of others.
Students learn how to explain, analyse and evaluate the ways in which stories, characters, ideas, experiences, opinions and contexts are reflected in texts. They learn to compare and appraise the ways authors use language and literary devices to influence readers. They also learn to understand, evaluate, interpret and discuss how certain stylistic choices can create multiple layers of interpretation and effect.
Students learn how to use personal knowledge and literary texts as starting points to create texts. They create texts with imaginative and literary qualities in different genres and forms, and for particular audiences. Using print, digital and online media, students develop skills that allow them to convey meaning, address significant issues, and heighten engagement and impact.
Literacy
In the Literacy strand, students make meaning through application of skills and knowledge from the Language strand. They develop their ability to interpret and create texts with appropriateness, accuracy, confidence, fluency and efficacy for learning in and out of school. This ability helps them to participate in Australian life more generally. Students learn to adapt language to meet the demands of general or specialised purposes, audiences and contexts. They learn about the different ways in which knowledge and opinion are represented and developed in texts. They learn that more or less abstraction and complexity can be shown through language and multimodal representations. Texts chosen include media texts, everyday texts and workplace texts from increasingly complex and unfamiliar settings. Texts are composed using language ranging from the everyday language of personal experience to more abstract, specialised and technical language, including the language of schooling and academic study. This means that print and digital texts are included, and that listening, speaking, reading, viewing, writing and creating are all developed systematically and concurrently. The Literacy strand has four sub-strands.
Students learn that texts are influenced by historical and cultural contexts, and particular purposes and audiences.
Students learn how language is used to express ideas, arguments and opinions in spoken and written presentations by selecting and using linguistic and multimodal elements.
Students learn to apply text processing skills and strategies to navigate increasingly complex texts. Students learn to comprehend what they read and view. They develop more sophisticated processes for interpreting, analysing, evaluating and critiquing ideas, information and issues from different sources. Students explore how conventions and structures are used in written, digital, multimedia and cinematic texts. They use their growing knowledge of text structures, language and visual features, and literary devices to explain how texts influence different audiences.
Students apply knowledge and skills they have developed in other strands and sub-strands to create spoken, written and multimodal texts. They create these texts with clarity, authority and novelty. They do so by selecting key aspects of a topic as well as language and multimodal features. As part of the process of creating texts, students learn to edit for enhanced meaning and effect. They develop and consolidate a handwriting style that is legible, fluent and automatic, and that supports sustained writing.
The role of English in the Western Australian Curriculum
Integrating the strands in planning
Teaching, learning and assessment programs should balance and integrate the three strands to support the development of knowledge, understanding and skills. The focal point for a unit of work or learning activity may arise from any strand. However, the intention is that units and activities draw on all three strands in ways that are integrated and clear to learners.
Texts
Texts can be written, spoken, visual, multimodal, and in print or digital/online forms. Multimodal texts combine language with other means of communication, such as visual images, soundtrack or spoken words, as in film or digital media. Texts include all forms of augmentative and alternative communication; for example, gesture, signing, real objects, photographs, pictographs, pictograms and Braille. Texts provide important opportunities for learning about aspects of human experience and about aesthetic value. Many tasks that students undertake in and out of school involve understanding and producing texts in everyday and workplace contexts. The purposes of these texts may be aesthetic, imaginative, reflective, informative, persuasive, analytical and/or critical, or any combination of these.
Distinctions among types of texts can be useful when selecting materials for students at each year level to listen to, read, view, write and create. These distinctions can also guide the kinds of purposeful activities that can be organised around these materials. Although many types of texts are easy to recognise based on their subject matter, forms and structures, the distinctions between types of texts need not be sharply defined or formulaic.
Teachers and schools are best placed to make decisions about the selection of texts in their teaching and learning programs to address the content in the English curriculum while also meeting the needs of the students in their classes.
Language modes
The processes of speaking and listening, reading and viewing, and writing and creating – also known as language modes – are interrelated. The learning of one often supports and extends learning of the others. To acknowledge these interrelationships, content descriptions in each strand of the English curriculum incorporate listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing in an integrated and interdependent way.
Learning contexts that address particular content descriptions will draw from more than one of these processes to support students’ effective learning. For example, students learn new vocabulary through listening and reading. They apply their knowledge and understanding in their speaking and writing, and in their comprehension of spoken and written texts.