Course information
Contemporary English (M) is only available for students who are officially enrolled in the Inclusion Support Program (ISP). This course is designed to develop students’ literacy ability to become effective users of language. Skill development includes reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Contemporary English develops students’ skills which enable them to interact confidently and effectively with others in everyday, community, social and applied learning contexts.
Post-school pathways
Do you enjoy or are you good at English? (pdf, 110kb)
Workload expectation
The bulk of classwork and assignments will be done in-class with appropriate out of class time dedicated to the completion of assignments.
Course pattern
Available as a Minor or Major.
Suggested Minor course
Semester | Unit |
|---|---|
1 | Unit 1 |
2 | Unit 2 |
Suggested Major course
Semester | Unit |
|---|---|
1 | Unit 1 |
2 | Unit 2 |
3 | Unit 3 |
4 | Unit 4 |
Unit descriptions
In all units, students will comprehend, respond to and create texts from everyday contexts. Within each unit, students will study two electives. Below is a list of possible electives within each unit:
Unit 1:
- Red Tape: Navigating day to day forms, licenses, passports, bank accounts, creating a CV and understanding processes relating to these.
- Investigating Issue: Exploring contemporary issues in the news.
- City Living: Signs, symbols, maps, timetables, rental and house agreements.
- Spiders in the Web: Internet and Social Media exploration and safe usage; privacy and permanence of information.
- Just for laughs: Use of humour to explore issues and ideas.
Unit 2:
- Watch your language: English for the workplace.
- Who are we: Australian Identity.
- Conflict: War, interpersonal and workplace conflict; conflict resolution mediation and court processes.
- Who is in control: Manipulation of audience by advertising and mass media.
- Goals, Trials and hurdles: The place of sport in society.
Unit 3:
- Reading, what's the point: Reading purposes and strategies.
- Who Dunnit? Law and Order: Crime, crime fiction, law and order in society.
- What Pink and Blue has done to you: Gender representations in the past and present society.
- Multi-modal Texts; Unpacking the Jigsaw: Mixed text forms, representations of meaning.
- It's my Life: Autobiography and biography
Unit 4:
- Speak up, Speak out: Developing confidence and fluency in self-expression and in social interactions.
- Hero or Hoodlum: Representations and interpretation of heroic character types.
- Travel and Transformation: Journeys of personal and physical transformation.
- Screen and Sound: Exploration of TV, film and music.
- Over the Horizon: The future: personal, environmental and social.