Level Description

The nature of the learner, the pathway and particular language

Languages studied in the Second Language Learner Pathway (L2) are typically languages used in spoken form as the language of everyday communication by whole communities across all generations.

The second language learner pathway has been written on the assumption that learning will occur off-Country involving students who are typically not from the language community and have little or no experience of the language and culture. They are introduced to learning the language at school as an additional, new language.

The language chosen for curriculum development should have a sizeable set of resources in a variety of media, such as local documentaries, bilingual narrative and descriptive texts, and educational materials in print and digital form. Learning is enriched and authenticated by interaction with visiting Elders and community speakers, and where possible visits to Country/Place. Information and communications technologies provide additional resources to support a range of language and culture experiences.

The curriculum content and achievement standards in the Second Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander languages that may be learnt as a second language. The content descriptions, content elaborations and achievement standards for the Second Language Learner pathway will need to be adapted for use with the particular language being taught and will need to be modified if the program occurs on-Country or if the learners are from the language community.

Children enter the early years of schooling with established communication skills in one or more languages and varying degrees of early literacy acquisition. For young students at this level, learning typically focuses on the immediate world of their family, home, school, friends and local environment. They are learning how to socialise with new people, share with others, and participate in structured routines and activities at school.

Language learning and use

The language is learnt in parallel with English language and literacy development. Learning in the two languages progresses at very different levels but each supports and enriches the other.

The language is used in classroom interactions, routines and activities and is supported by the use of visual and concrete materials, gestures and body language. At this stage, there is a focus on play and imaginative activities, games, music, movement and familiar routines, which provide scaffolding and context for language development.

Oral language is developed through listening to the sounds, shapes and patterns of the language, through activities such as rhymes, songs, clapping and action games and through imitating and repeating sounds in aural texts as modelled by the teaching team, visiting Elders and community speakers.

Learners experiment with simple formulaic expressions and with one- or two-word responses and single-idea phrases to prompts and cues. As they progress to using language for interactions such as greetings, asking for help, talking about self, friends and family, or asking and answering questions, they notice that the language behaves differently in different situations and that speakers communicate in some ways that are different from their own. Creative play provides opportunities for exploring these differences and for using language for purposeful interaction.

Students learn about Country/Place and community by interacting with visiting Elders and community speakers when possible, and by engaging with stories and songs and other texts such as videos, maps and pictures. They learn about the concepts of kin and social groupings, and how these are symbolised in the natural environment.

Students learn to use appropriate respect terms and to demonstrate respectful and appropriate behaviour when interacting with Elders, community speakers and community texts.

Learners will recognise the same alphabet they are learning for writing English. They write by tracing and copying, forming letters legibly. They learn to read and write words and sentences independently using modelled language, for example, matching pictures with single words, labels and captions. The use of repetition and recycling in instruction helps children to identify high-frequency words and simple phrases and to recognise the purpose and intention of simple texts.

They begin to understand how the language works, to compare it with English and to understand its place in relation to regional and national language diversity.

Contexts of interaction

Across Foundation to Year 2, learning occurs largely through interaction with peers and the teaching team, supplemented by some access to visiting Elders and community speakers. Information and communications technologies (ICT) resources provide additional access to language and culture experience.

Texts and resources

Children engage with a variety of spoken, visual, written and digital texts, which are short, clearly structured and supported by visuals and paralinguistic devices, for example, tone of voice, facial expression, gesture, with much repetition and recycling of structures and vocabulary. They listen and respond to teacher talk, share ideas and join in with song, dance, story and rap, and various forms of play, performance, conversational exchanges and activities mediated by language. Print and digital texts include stories, shared Big Books, songs, visual designs, photos, videos, environmental maps and wall charts and teacher-generated materials such as games, flashcards and items from both the local community and the target language community.

Level of support

Learning is supported through the provision of experiences that are challenging but achievable with appropriate scaffolding and support. This involves modelling, monitoring and moderating by the teacher; provision of multiple and varied sources of input; opportunities for revisiting, recycling and reviewing learned language, and continuous cueing, feedback, response and encouragement.

The role of languages

Learners are encouraged to use the language being learnt whenever possible in class interactions and daily routines with the teaching team, visiting Elders and community speakers. Using English for explanation and discussion allows learners to talk about differences and similarities they notice between the language and their first language(s) and culture(s), to ask questions about language and culture, to consider how they feel when they hear or use the language and to talk about how they view different languages and the people who speak them. This introduction to the ‘meta’ dimension of intercultural learning develops the ability to consider different perspectives and ways of being as mediated by language.

Achievement Standard

The achievement standards for the Framework for Aboriginal Languages and Torres Strait Islander Languages Second Language Learner Pathway are generalised in order to cater for the range of languages that may be learnt as an L2 in the school context. The achievement standards will need to be adapted for specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

By the end of Year 2, students interact with the teaching team, visiting Elders and community members to talk about themselves, family, friends and immediate environment using familiar language supported by gestures. When interacting with Elders and community speakers, they use appropriate forms of address and terms of respect. They use movement, gestures and rehearsed language to participate in guided group activities, such as adapting and performing action songs. They interact in familiar classroom routines by responding to requests, following instructions and using routine classroom language, for example, to request classroom objects. Students listen to, read, view and comprehend texts that are short, clearly structured and supported by visuals and paralinguistic elements, for example, tone of voice, facial expression, gesture and repetition and recycling of structures and vocabulary. They demonstrate their understanding of the target language region, for example, by making simple statements and giving descriptions of animals, food and artefacts, labelling and sorting these into categories, or by pointing to key topographical features on a map or at pictures of food sources, plants and animals in response to questions. They respond to texts such as stories, songs, dance and visual art through singing, miming, play-acting, drawing, action and movement. They demonstrate understanding by naming key characters, significant places, landscapes or topographical features and by identifying key messages. Students use familiar words, patterns and support materials to create and present shared stories, songs and performances. They translate and explain in English the meaning of target language words, simple phrases and gestures used in everyday contexts and situations. They create simple bilingual texts for the classroom environment, such as captions, labels and wall charts. They identify markers of their own identity, such as family, school/class and language/s, and compare these to the importance of language, place and family in the formation of identity in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Students identify similarities and differences in the ways they interact when communicating in English and the target language.

Students distinguish between the sounds of the target language and English and link sounds to written symbols and conventions. They use simple metalanguage to describe elemental structures of the target language, such as word order and word types. They identify how messages in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages can be communicated in a number of ways, such as Elders’ story-telling or through song, dance and visual design. Students identify kinship terms used for immediate family members and recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have their own personal relationships with place, natural species and phenomena. They identify which stories belong to which natural features, including animals and natural species. They know that different forms of address and kinship terms are used and depend on relationship and context. They identify some words in the language that have been borrowed from other languages. They identify regions, places and communities where the target language is spoken and recognise that there are many different languages spoken in their class, their local community and in Australia. They recognise that language speakers are the most important primary source of language knowledge and that language use reflects where and how people live and what is important to them.