Understand this learning area

The Australian Curriculum: English has been developed on the basis that all students will study English in each year of schooling from Foundation to Year 10.

English is the national language of Australia and, as such, is central to the lives, learning and development of all young Australians. Through the study of English, individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and the world around them. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative and critical thinkers, and informed citizens. 

Australia is a linguistically and culturally diverse country, with links to Asia. Participation in many aspects of Australian life is dependent on effective communication in Standard Australian English. This is central to the study of the English curriculum and all other learning areas. In addition, proficiency in English is invaluable globally. 

The English curriculum helps students to engage imaginatively and critically with literature and appreciate its aesthetic qualities. They explore ideas and perspectives about human experience and cultural significance, interpersonal relationships, and ethical and global issues within real-world and fictional settings. Students are exposed to literature from a range of historical, cultural and social contexts. Through the study of texts, students develop an understanding of themselves and their place in the world. The English curriculum explores the richness of First Nations Australian voices and voices from wide-ranging Australian and world literature. 

The study of English plays a key role in the development of literacy, which gives young people the knowledge and skills needed for education, training and the workplace. It helps them become ethical, informed, perceptive, innovative and active members of society. The English curriculum plays an important part in developing the understanding, attitudes and capabilities of those who will take responsibility for Australia’s future. 

The English curriculum aims to ensure that students:  

• learn to purposefully and proficiently read, view, listen to, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex texts across a growing range of contexts 
  
• understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms, and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication, to create meaning 
  
• develop interest and skills in examining the aesthetic aspects of texts and develop an informed appreciation of literature 
  
• appreciate, enjoy, analyse, evaluate, adapt and use the richness and power of the English language in all its variations to evoke feelings, form ideas and facilitate interaction with others. 
  

The English curriculum is presented in year levels from Foundation to Year 10. Content is organised under 3 interrelated strands: 

• Language 
  
• Literature 
  
• Literacy. 
  

The strands and sub-strands are illustrated in Figure 1. 

Figure 1: English content structure

Language strand 

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 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. This strand informs teaching and learning activities, and connects to key concepts and skills in the other strands.  

The Language strand has 3 sub-strands: 

Literature strand 

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 First Nations Australians, 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 4 sub-strands: 

Literacy strand 

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. They learn the sound (phonemes) and letter (graphemes) correspondences of English and how these combine when they begin to read and write. 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 5 sub-strands: 

The role of English in the Australian Curriculum 

The  English curriculum plays a central role in the Australian Curriculum and contributes to all other learning areas by establishing and expanding students’ knowledge of the English language and how it is applied in different contexts. Students apply their knowledge of English to engage with learning area content and to communicate effectively across all learning areas. The English curriculum requires the most teaching time of any learning area due to its fundamental role. 

Teachers make decisions about the time required to address each content description depending on the needs of their students. It is not expected that equivalent time will be allocated to each content description. Teachers determine how content can be integrated across the 3 strands of the English curriculum and how English content can be integrated with the other learning areas. 

Integrating the strands in planning 

Teaching, learning and assessment programs should balance and integrate the 3 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 3 strands in ways that are integrated and clear to learners. 

Language modes  

The processes of listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing – 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. 

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. 

Protocols for engaging First Nations Australians  

When planning teaching activities involving engagement with First Nations Australians, teachers should follow protocols that describe principles, procedures and behaviours for recognising and respecting First Nations Australians and their intellectual property. Teachers should use approved resources such as those that may be provided by their state or territory school system, or First Nations Australians education consultative groups, or other protocols accredited by First Nations Australians.  

While the Australian Curriculum uses the terms “First Nations Australians” and “Australian First Nations Peoples”, there may be other terms that First Nations Australians of a particular area or location prefer. It is important to use the terms preferred in a particular area or location.  

Meeting the needs of diverse learners  

The Australian Curriculum values diversity by providing for multiple means of representation, action, expression and engagement, and allows schools the flexibility to respond to the diversity of learners within their community.  

All schools have a responsibility when implementing the Australian Curriculum to ensure that students’ learning is inclusive, and relevant to their experiences, abilities and talents.  

For some students with diverse languages, cultures, abilities and talents, it may be necessary to provide a range of curriculum adjustments so they can access age-equivalent content in the Australian Curriculum and participate in learning on the same basis as their peers.  

In the English curriculum, meeting the needs of diverse learners may include selecting appropriate texts that affirm aspects of diversity and acknowledge the impact of diversity on students’ social worlds. Texts can be written, spoken, visual, multimodal and in print or digital/online forms. Texts include all forms of augmentative and alternative communication; for example, gesture, signing, real objects, photographs, pictographs, pictograms and Braille. The English glossary defines key terms such as “speak”, “write”, “read” and “listen”. This provides important information about how students can access content within the Australian Curriculum and demonstrate what they know and can do. Teachers will design and adapt assessment, which may include varying the mode used to assess knowledge and skills. Teachers may provide alternatives for oral presentations, including live and recorded presentations. They may provide flexibility in open-ended tasks that can be completed at different levels of complexity for their students. 

The English curriculum is for all students. It is recognised that some students may require adjustments to support how they see, hear and/or process language. Students may require access to a wide range of approaches including, but not limited to:  

• auditory, visual and kinaesthetic methods of instruction  
  
• simultaneous learning modes such as combinations of listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing resources 
  
• resources such as picture cues for words or hand and mouth movements to illustrate a sound 
  
• peer-assisted learning  
  
• challenging individual and group extension activities  
  
• devices, mnemonics, rhythms and rhymes to reinforce vocabulary, expressions and features 
  
• alternatives to representing understanding including drawing, role-play and digital tools. 
  

Students for whom English is an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) 

EAL/D students’ experiences, understandings and expectations may be different from those assumed to be “common knowledge” in Australian learning contexts and must therefore be considered. The curriculum often refers to the familiar and the everyday; however, the “everyday” is determined by social and cultural contexts. Students attempt to make connections between new learning at school and what is known from home. 

EAL/D students need to learn English, learn through English and learn about English. 

EAL/D students require specific support to learn and build on the English language skills needed to interact at school and to access the curriculum. EAL/D students need support to learn the different registers of English. These include the social language of informal interactions as well as the learning area–specific tasks. Standard Australian English is the variety of spoken and written English language used in Australia in more formal settings, such as for official or public purposes, and recorded in dictionaries, style guides and grammars. While it is always dynamic and evolving, it is recognised as the “common language” of Australians.  

Many languages are spoken in homes and communities around Australia, including the many First Nations Australian languages and dialects. EAL/D learners start school with spoken and/or written skills in one or more languages. EAL/D students may have already developed relevant concepts and skills in their first language or dialect. Their existing language skills are a rich resource for learning English and for accessing the curriculum. 

General capabilities  

General capabilities equip young Australians with the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions to live and work successfully. General capabilities support and deepen student engagement with learning area content and are best developed within the context of learning areas. 

Opportunities to develop general capabilities in learning area content vary. While Literacy and Numeracy are fundamental to all learning areas, literacy development is core to the English curriculum. In addition, all other general capabilities are relevant to English. General capabilities are identified in content descriptions when they are developed or applied through the English content. They are also identified in content elaborations when they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning. 

Cross-curriculum priorities 

Cross-curriculum priorities support the Australian Curriculum to be a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that reflects national, regional and global contexts. Cross-curriculum priorities are incorporated through learning area content; they are not separate learning areas or subjects. They provide opportunities to enrich the content of the learning areas, where most appropriate and authentic, allowing students to engage with and better understand their world. 

Opportunities to apply cross-curriculum priorities to learning area content vary. All 3 cross-curriculum priorities have relevance and meaning to the English curriculum. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority is embedded in content descriptions where it is core to the delivery of the content in English. All 3 priorities are also identified in content elaborations where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning.  

Learning areas 

Through the English curriculum students develop skills in understanding increasingly complex texts and communicating knowledge and understanding, which are essential to all learning areas. 

Curriculum documents including understanding the learning area, curriculum content in F–6 and 7–10, a scope and sequence representation, the glossary, and comparative information about Version 8.4 and Version 9.0 are available on the download page.