Auslan – Years 7 and 8
Learning Objectives
In Years 7 and 8, students are beginning their learning of Auslan. This will be influenced by the extent of students’ backgrounds and prior experiences of language learning. Students use Auslan to describe their personal worlds and interact and collaborate with teachers and peers within and beyond the classroom. Signing and viewing activities are supported by modelling, scaffolding and feedback. First-language and second-language learners may work collaboratively to facilitate learning.
Students access authentic and purpose-developed signed, visual and multimodal resources which may include advertisements, blogs, conversations, textbooks and video clips. First-language learners may source texts and other resources from the Deaf community to share with peers. Students use their Auslan and/or English literacy knowledge of metalanguage in a range of contexts to reflect on similarities and differences between Auslan and English language structures and features. They understand differences between using signs in Auslan and in using the Roman alphabet in English. They recognise that language choices reflect cultural identity, beliefs and values.
Achievement Standard
By the end of Year 8, students use Auslan language to interact and collaborate with others, and to share information and plan activities in familiar contexts. They respond to others’ contributions in exchanges using familiar gestures, questions and instructions. They locate and respond to information in texts and use non-verbal, signed, visual and contextual cues to help make meaning. They respond in Auslan or English, and demonstrate understanding of context, purpose and audience in texts. They use familiar language, modelled grammatical structures, and familiar signs including fingerspelling (FS), lexical signs, depicting signs (DSs), non-manual features (NMFs) and signing space, to create texts.
Students use the parameters of signs and demonstrate understanding that Auslan has conventions and rules for signed communication. They comment on aspects of Auslan and English language structures and features, using metalanguage. They demonstrate awareness that Auslan is connected with culture and identity, and that this is reflected in their own language(s), culture(s) and identity.