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Structure of the key learning area

Substrands

Aspects of language

Contextual understanding

The Contextual understanding substrand focuses on the development of students' understanding of English and their ability to use it appropriately in a variety of situational and sociocultural contexts. It also focuses on students' understanding of how different contexts affect the way English is used and interpreted. The ESL Companion recognises the particular need of ESL students to be aware of relationships between text and context, purpose and audience. The key learning areas provide a range of authentic contexts and purposes for the study of English, so the texts students use and produce while learning English as a second language should be drawn from across the KLAs.

Linguistic structures and features

The Linguistic structures and features substrand focuses on increasing students' control over the structures and features of English. It considers their use of English in terms of:

• print elements, such as letters, words, spelling, paragraphs, punctuation, layout and presentation
• textual and grammatical aspects of language, such as cohesion, use of tenses, sentence structure and vocabulary
• patterns of text structure and organisation of various kinds of texts, including narrative, exposition, verse, narrative voice and point of view
• pronunciations of sounds, stress, intonation, rhythm and pauses in spoken English
• non-verbal elements of communication, such as facial expression, body movement, proximity and gestures, and the graphic elements of texts, such as the impact of illustrations on the meaning of a text.

To compose, comprehend and respond appropriately to texts, students need to be effective users of these linguistic structures and features. While much will be learned in an incidental way through using English, teachers should plan learning activities that focus on the explicit teaching of knowledge about language and control of English. This learning should be focused on the use of English in authentic situations, and on skill development in a meaningful context.

Strategies

The Strategies substrand focuses on the strategies students employ as they learn English and use it to communicate. Two categories of strategy are identified:

• operating strategies: students use these to participate in, plan, manage, refine and sustain communication in English
• acquisition strategies: students use these in acquiring English; they include learning-how-to-learn, social, and affective strategies.

The ways in which ESL students approach the task of learning English and learning through English can vary greatly. The strategies they use depend on those they bring with them from their first language and prior educational experiences, and those they learn in an Australian classroom. For this reason, the indicators provided under the strategies learning outcomes should be seen as examples of the kinds of strategies that students might be using, depending on their particular learning style. It is not expected that they will all be using the same strategies, or that they will limit their learning to the strategies in the examples provided.