Module 1: Language and Content

Language learning in oral and written modes.

Key Points:
 The concept of metalinguistic awareness for literacy development
 Context: Metalanguage in the Australian Curriculum
o Strands: Language, literacy and literature
o Levels/aspects of language (text, grammar, word/sound, visual)
o Language organisers: systems for making meaning
 Informing sociocultural and functional theories

Metalinguistic The ability to look at language as a thing: to evaluate language as a process

Awareness: or even a system and to maneuver around language (manipulate it).

Understanding the nuances and inferences beyond meaning.

Meaning can be changed by moving words around.

Language is not absolute!

Recognising that language has features

Knowing WHAT - HOW – WHY exists because of how malleable language is.

Exploring Field, Ideational. Field is the subject matter. = Topic

Tenor & Mode:
Interpersonal. Tenor is the relationship between the author and audience.
Who is involved. = Writer and Reader

Textual. Mode is how the text is constructed. = Spoken, Written, the

medium is being used.

Genre and Register: G: the purpose. = WHY

R: What, Who and How = Field, Tenor and Mode

Genre: Recount: Tells what happened.

Response: Reviews, summarises, responds to literary texts. May include a

personal viewpoint.

Narrative: Tells a story

Explanation: Clarifies how things work or why things are as they are.
Language Interacting with others.
Organisers:
Expressing and developing ideas.

Metafunctions Structure and organization.

Field, Tenor and Mode

Basic Word Classes Verbs: Processes

and their Functions:
Nouns: Who or What

Adjectives: Descriptive

Adverbs: Add more information about the classes

Verb: An Action

Example: There are small birds flying gracefully out the window

Word Classes and Phrase Classes <

Sociocultural View: Contexts and language used:

Gender, Ethnicity, Home Language and socio-economic status.

Functional View: Connecting language to context:

Metafunctions, register and genre

Informative, persuasive and imaginative.