AC9L1AU2U02 Year 1 Languages

AC9L1AU2U02 – Year 1 Languages: Understanding systems of language

Strand

Understanding language and culture

Substrand

Understanding systems of language

This Content Descriptor from Year 1 Languages provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

Content Descriptor

recognise that signs and features of language are used to construct meaning in Auslan

Elaborations

• showing understanding of signing space, movement, CAs, DSs and NMFs, such as using medium signing space for normal signed discourse and larger space for more energetic/emotional signed discourse, or smaller space for discreet signed discourse
•
understanding how to create complete sentences through movement within signs, for example,
FINISHED CALL PRO3 (sign moves from the signer to referent)
I called him.
PRO2 HELP PRO3(PL) (the sign HELP moves from the referent location to the signer’s body, expressing that the help was given to them)
You helped them.
• identifying how DSs can be represented by handshapes and SASSs, for example, a person, pole or tree can be represented by a pointer handshape, a cylinder can be traced by a cup handshape, and SASSs can also be used to show size and length of an object such as a ruler
•
understanding that signing involves a combination of signs, CAs and DSs to convey detailed information, for example, The man walked slowly can be expressed as
MAN WALK SLOW
or
PT+f DS:MAN-WALKS-SLOWLY
or
CA:MAN-SWINGS-ARMS-NONCHALANTLY
•
noticing that single-digit numbers can be separate lexical items or merged into other signs (numeral incorporation), such as those for ages, for example,

AGE-YEARS(FIVE)
, or adverbs of time such as

WEEK-AGO(THREE)
•
categorising noun signs in clauses such as common and proper nouns, for example,
DOG, PARIS,

fingerspelled nouns such as

GIRL READ
versus
PRO3 READ
•
recognising that there is no verb ‘to be’ in Auslan, for example,
PRO1 COLD
I am cold.
PRO2 GO SHOP?
Are you going shopping?

Show 4 more elaborations

•
practising the signing of examples of adjectives that describe nouns in different ways, such as how they look (
BIG
or
RED
), feel (
SOFT
or
HOT
), smell (
SMELLY
) or sound (
LOUD
) and using lexicalised signs such as colour and sound, or for size, shape, weight, texture
• recognising that adjective signs can reinforce the signers’ messaging or description and are used for distinguishing between statements and those that are questions
• using NMFs and SASSs to represent meaning, such as widening eyes and puffing cheeks for depicting growth, puffing cheeks and slumping shoulders for depicting heaviness, narrowing eyes and mouth for something thin
• noticing that Auslan pronouns are different from English because they do not show gender, but they can show location and a specific number of referents, using NMFs

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 1 ASLANAUSFLLF10Y12

Year 1 Languages Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 2, students use Auslan to interact and share information related to the classroom and themselves. They use cues to respond to questions and instructions. They locate and convey key items of information in texts using non-verbal, visual and contextual cues to help make meaning. They use familiar signs including fingerspelling (FS), lexical signs, depicting signs (DSs), non-manual features (NMFs) and signing space, to create texts.Students recognise and use the parameters of signs. They demonstrate understanding that Auslan has conventions and rules for signs and features of language. They give examples of similarities and differences between some features of Auslan and English. They understand that language is connected with culture and identity, and notice how this is reflected in their own language(s), culture(s) and identity.