Course Overview

While English is considered a creative subject where individual style is encouraged, success, particularly in the higher year levels, lies in a student’s ability to establish discipline in clear essay structure and explicitly addressing the question.  

The year 7 - 10 English curriculum is grouped into three broad components – reading and viewing, writing, and speaking and listening.

The reading and viewing component requires an understanding of how authors use text structure, language and images to establish style and shape our interpretations of the text. Students learn to select evidence from the text to analyse and support the effect these techniques have on the audience. Sometimes literary techniques can be vague and subtle which can lead to misinterpretation. This skill improves with practise and maturity.

In the writing component, students can adopt the literary techniques learnt in reading and viewing in their writing to create their own style and influence audiences according to the purpose of the text. In the junior years, it is important for students to edit for spelling, grammar and punctuation as, by VCE, it is expected that these skills no longer require work. Students in the younger years tend to be resistant to essay planning which can lead to unclear structure and purpose. In VCE, essay structure becomes a critical skill so it is important to establish this habit in the junior year levels. Explicitly answering the question in text response essays is also a surprisingly difficult skill and again should be mastered early.

The speaking and listening component requires students to use language techniques in presentations and discussions to influence their audience. Students learn how to justify their opinions and develop logical arguments to support their ideas. They also learn to respect and consider others’ opinions and possibly build on them. The enjoyment and difficulty of this area depends heavily on a student’s personality and experiences. Public presentations can be daunting, so it is important to learn confidence-building strategies early.

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