Language in the English Curriculum
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The new Australian Curriculum for English has made changes to place knowledge about language at the core of the classroom practice for students, teachers and parents. Language plays a central role in both learning and personal development Why is language so important for your students and kids? According to the rationale of the English Syllabus, "developing proficiency in English enables students to take their place as confident communicators, critical and imaginative thinkers, lifelong learners and informed, active participants in Australian society". Many find that explicit knowledge about language is the least understood and therefore an appropriate model for language is needed to deal with the complexities surrounding language and to inform us about effective language teaching A functional model of language A functional model of language was developed and continues to be modified by Professor Michael Halliday and his colleagues. Halliday believes that language is not simply a collection of rules and labels for grammar, but it is a resource for making meaning through which we interactively shape and interpret our world and ourselves. SO what does this mean in simpler terms? The model explains that language is a system which we use to construct meanings for a whole range of different purposes. Everyday examples of language Could you tell me what your previous working experiences are?.... An interview What symptoms do you feel ?..... At the doctors A functional approach ensures that we learn how to choose our language to meet the particular needs of a situation. Where do we start? With a genre-based approach, we can show students how language is used to orient and interpret communicative interactions with an engagement in the comprehension and creation of meaning within the text. (Hyland, 2003). |