Foundation Auslan Syllabus
Foundation
Foundation Year Level Description
In Foundation, Auslan learning builds on the Early Years Learning Framework and each student’s prior learning and experiences with language. Students may interact in Auslan within their family and communicate with teachers and peers. They strengthen and extend their communication and interpersonal skills by interacting in Auslan through play-based and action-related learning. They receive extensive support through modelling, scaffolding and revisiting.
Students experience and imitate the gestures of Auslan. They participate in shared viewing of texts that represent Auslan and Auslan contexts. Visual and multimodal texts may include captioned films and cartoons, conversations, picture books, performances and stories. They learn that language can be represented in different ways, including using signs and gestures in Auslan and the Roman alphabet in English. They learn that languages and cultures are connected, and that what is familiar to one person can be new to somebody else.
Foundation Achievement Standard
By the end of the Foundation year, students use play and imagination to interact and create Auslan texts, with support. They identify that Auslan and English are different. They recognise that there are languages and cultures as well as their own, and that aspects of language and culture contribute to their own and others’ cultural identity.
Content Descriptions
with support, recognise and communicate meaning in Auslan
greeting others using appropriate forms of address, for example, HELLO, GOOD MORNING, GOOD AFTERNOON, and use of sign names if appropriate
participating in routine exchanges such as expressing thanks, asking to go to the bathroom or get a drink, and describing the day’s weather, for example, raising hand or waving when attending to roll call, saying PLEASE, THANK-YOU, GOOD, TODAY WEATHER SUN
- responding to and using visual cues such as pointing, eye contact and body language
following classroom instructions that include simple DSS for completing activities, such as
DS:SIT-CIRCLE
Sit in a circle.
DS:LINE-UP
Line up.
DS:LOOK-AT PRO1
Look at me.
- describing family, friends and peers using visual cues and prompts
participating in games that involve the use of repeated phrases, expressions, actions and NMFs, such as POSS1 TURN, POSS2 TURN, for example, I spy, Fruit salad
- responding to Auslan stories through play-acting or movement, illustrating characters, events or scenes
- using Auslan numbers 0–10, for example, sorting counters into groups and counting objects
participating in simple dialogues in Auslan, for example, playing shops using classroom objects such as toys and books, and practising simple phrases, PRO1 WANT, PRO1 WANT-NOT, YES, NO, PRO1 LIKE, PRO1 LIKE-NOT
- showing emotions through the use of NMFs, for example, responding to visual prompts and modifying emotions each time, such as being happy, sad, angry or tired
- shadowing parts of a simple Auslan story
explore, with support, language features of Auslan, making connections between Auslan and English
making connections between words and images and the signs to make meaning, for example, point to the object labelled as milk and sign MILK
- noticing that names can be signed, written and fingerspelled
- comparing how to gain attention or show approval in a classroom situation, in Auslan and English, for example, waving, tapping or deaf clapping in Auslan
noticing how, when communicating in Auslan, NMFs are more important than in English, for example, playing a matching game with facial expressions and sentences such as PRO1 LIKE FLOWERS
explore connections between language and culture
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- making connections with different types of deaf and hard of hearing groups, such as those with or without hearing aids or cochlear implants, those who are non-verbal or deaf, or hard of hearing people who do not sign
- exploring different languages and cultures of class members and identifying different ways of visually expressing meaning or showing respect, for example, waving in Deaf culture or bowing in Japanese culture
- noticing Auslan users’ use of physical space, such as by changing position or standing up so they can see the signer, for example, tapping for attention and then working out the spatial arrangement to have the interaction
- using the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) map of the languages of Australia to notice the language(s) of First Nations Australians in their local area and/or across Australia
- locating countries/places of significance to students in the class on a digital or print world map