AC9L2AU8EU01 Year 7 Languages

AC9L2AU8EU01 – Year 7 Languages: Understanding systems of language

Strand

Understanding language and culture

Substrand

Understanding systems of language

This Content Descriptor from Year 7 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 and use modelled combinations of handshape, orientation, location, movement (HOLM) and non-manual features (NMFs) to form signs and phrases and demonstrate understanding of how these are represented in familiar contexts

Elaborations

• noticing that in signed languages meaning may be expressed through either whole signs or through fingerspelling, with NMFs
• noticing the variation in ‘handedness’ between signers in relation to both signs and fingerspelling: right handers using their right hand as their dominant (main) hand; left handers doing the opposite
•
understanding that NMFs are a significant Auslan element, paralleling vocal inflection in spoken language, and can show emotional states such as a happy expression, or grammatical information, for example, a frown to mark a negative in
LIKE
and
DISLIKE
•
recognising and using signs with a change in handshape, for example,
FIND
or
BEST
, or a change in orientation, for example,
CAN-NOT
or
HOW
•
observing a sign's handshape and its orientation, for example,
COCKATOO
handshape:five, palm left, and
SOCCER
handshape:fist
• identifying signs that can represent a whole object or part of an object, for example, body versus legs
•
noticing iconic signs that provide visual images of referents such as
DRINK, ELEPHANT

Show 7 more elaborations

•
noticing the 5 major locations of signs on the body (body anchored signs) or in space (non-body anchored), and identifying signs associated with each, such as
SEE
(head/face),
SAY
(mouth/chin),
WHY
(chest),
PAST
(non-body anchored, head signing space),
HAVE, STOP
and
ONE
(non-body anchored, chest signing space)
•
noticing the path movement of a particular sign and identifying signs associated with the major types of primary and secondary path movements, for example,
THROUGH
(forwards) or
FULL
(down to up) – both primary movements; or
WHEN
(wiggle on cheek) or
DINNER
(tap on chin) – both secondary movements
•
noticing that in a stretch of connected signing, a sign will often be produced differently from the way it is shown in a dictionary in terms of citation and non-citation form, for example,
KNOW
signed at the temple location, but in conversation this sign is often dropped into a lower signing space such as cheek, or even lower
•
identifying which hand is dominant and which is non-dominant in 2-handed signs, and how such signs may move, for example, double-handed signs with same handshape move in the same way such as
BOOK
or
DIFFERENT
, while 2-handed signs have one stationary hand and only the dominant hand moves such as
CULTURE
or
IMPORTANT
•
noticing signs can have different levels of visual motivation or iconicity, for example, those that are fully transparent (
SLEEP
), translucent (
MILK
) or arbitrary (
PEOPLE
), and that iconicity is often overestimated in sign languages
• experimenting with different methods of capturing signed languages such as a dot-point script, hand-drawn pictures, videos and written gloss, and planning Auslan texts
• shadowing a filmed Auslan story about an event in daily life, and copying signs and NMFs precisely from a signed text

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 7 ASLANAUSSLL7_10Y78

Year 7 Languages 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.