In recent months there has been a sustained attack in certain media on English and the ways it is taught in our schools. Reports, opinion pieces and letters have been laced with misconceptions and selective evidence. With each article, professional educators have tried to correct the misleading elements either in letters to the editor or opinion pieces. Very few have been published. The ETA believes that it is important for members and parents to know and understand what students learn in English and has prepared this statement to clarify some of the issues discussed in the community.
English teachers in NSW are very conscious of the fact that in educating our young people they are making the Australia of the future. This is a challenge and a responsibility they willingly embrace. NSW English teachers respect the traditions of Australia’s cultural heritage. In all that they do professionally they hold true to such enduring values as a fair go for all and an open spirit of enquiry that is respectful of diverse experiences and points of view.
NSW English syllabuses are supported by the state’s teachers because they propagate the values and traditions that have made Australia the great democratic nation it is today.
The Myths
Misconception: Students no longer study great works of literature in English.
Fact: Literature retains a central place in the English curriculum.
The study of literature is essential for the study of English in NSW. It continues to be an invaluable way for students to come to understand what it is to be human, and to appreciate the beauty of the English language and the power of the imagination to transform our lives and our world.
An experience of Shakespeare is now compulsory in NSW English classrooms in years 9 and 10. The study of a Shakespearean play is compulsory for HSC Advanced students and a frequently exercised option in other areas of the curriculum. The HSC reading list offers students the opportunity to study such significant authors as Euripides, Chaucer, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Henry James, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Peter Carey and David Williamson.
Misconception: The literacy levels of students are in decline.
Fact: Australian students are among the most highly literate in the world.
By international comparative data, the literacy outcomes of Australian students are the envy of the rest of the world, outstripping those achieved by students in the US, the UK, Singapore and, in fact, every country in the OECD except Finland, a remarkable achievement given the multicultural nature of this country.
Misconception: NSW English syllabuses are post-modernist in orientation and tell teachers and students there is no such thing as a universal truth.
Fact: The NSW syllabuses draw on a range of ways of thinking about English, language, literature and other forms of communication.
Neither the English Years 7-10 Syllabus nor the Stage 6 Syllabus (Years 11 – 12) favour one particular theoretical approach over another. The Rationale of the Stage 6 (Year 11 and Year 12) syllabus is most explicit about this: “The study of English enables students to recognise and use a diversity of approaches and texts to meet the growing array of literacy demands….”
When a text is approached from a particular critical perspective, students work towards knowledge and learning outcomes which require them to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of that approach.
Postmodernism is not part of any of the HSC English courses that are compulsory for the HSC and it is not included in the English Years 7-10 Syllabus. It is an optional elective undertaken by a minority of students in the high-order Extension 1 course.
Accordingly, the syllabus does not state there is no such thing as truth. This is patently nonsense as there are many facts that students need to learn and understand. It does, however, acknowledge that it is possible to understand the world from a variety of perspectives. Such an understanding enables students to appreciate the richness of Australia’s cultural diversity.
Misconception: Grammar and spelling are not taught in NSW English classrooms.
Fact: The basic skills are and always have been a core part of the English curriculum.
Grammar and spelling are taught in NSW classrooms. This is mandated by NSW English syllabuses. For example, students in Years 7 and 8 are expected to learn to “use Standard Australian English, its variations and different levels of usage appropriately” and to learn about “sentence structures, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and spelling”.
A distinction needs to be made between grammar, spelling and punctuation, which are often “lumped together” as “grammar” but are, in fact, different aspects of writing. What NSW English teachers understand about the teaching of writing and grammar, and what international research has confirmed repeatedly over many decades, is that once students reach high school, whole class instruction on items of grammar does not improve students’ written expression. Drilling and rote learning are time-wasting for students once they have attained a degree of mastery of the basics. Students in any secondary English classroom will possess different levels of mastery of grammar. As such, those very few items of actual grammar problems which some students experience are best taught at the point of individual need, in order that other students, who have a mastered a particular skill or concept, may proceed with their own learning and further develop their skills and knowledge. When assessment of students’ work reveals a particular area of weakness or misunderstanding across a class, it is common practice for teachers to run a ‘mini-lesson’ in order to demonstrate to students the correct usage.
Misconception: Students don’t read books but spend their time watching films and playing on computers.
Fact: Students reading prepares them for the range of texts that they encounter in the real world.
The literacy requirements of the 21st Century are much broader than they were a generation ago before the penetration of computers. Students need to understand the differences between the ways that print presents information and ideas and the ways information and ideas are communicated electronically. Hence, in addition to the traditional comprehension of content, this new understanding must involve the mode of the text (spoken, written and visual) and the organisation (form and structure) appropriate for particular media. For this reason, students need to develop their verbal and visual literacy and the ways that words, sounds and images work together in contemporary texts including print, web sites, television and film. To be able to comprehend the texts of tomorrow’s workplace and world effectively, they need to cover much more that we did when we were at school.
Misconception: Students don’t learn phonics
Fact: At the beginning of their schooling, phonics remains the most used method of teaching students to read and remains one of the cueing systems which all readers use – and are encouraged to use – throughout life. It is, however, not the only cueing system that we use.
“Phonics” refers to that skill which we use in reading which identifies words by their sounds. It is one of three “cueing” systems we use to make sense of the written word. The others are:
- making predictions about words as we read based on what the whole passage or sentence is about.
- using our knowledge of the kind of word (grammatically) that occurs in a particular place in a sentence (ie we expect and predict as we read that verbs will occur in verb positions, nouns in noun positions etc (In the sentence “The boy ran away”, a good reader would not substitute “rat” for the italicised word, since it would make no sense, despite looking like the actual word).
For beginning readers, or for children who have had trouble learning to read, all three cueing systems have to be taught since they don't work in isolation. Different readers with different experiences with language - and with different degrees of familiarity with the reading material in front of them - will use these strategies in different "proportions" in any particular reading situation. Many beginning readers will rely very strongly on letter sounds and shapes for decoding the words on the page in most situations and all beginners will be taught these strategies. However, an inclusive reading program catering for all learners in a class will mean students are also taught to use the other cueing systems. The argument that phonics is neglected tends to come from those who advocate a "phonics only" approach, which places little emphasis on meaning, which is the whole point of reading.
The state’s English teachers work assiduously everyday to meet the needs and interests of students from many different backgrounds, each with his or her own individual learning requirements. They value the myriad of beliefs and cultural experiences each student brings with them into the classroom. As they work to assist every individual student to reach their goals and realise their aspirations in the highly complex, information and technology rich Australia of the twenty-first century, English teachers are very conscious of just how essential it is for Australia to develop citizens who are powerfully literate in the full range of communication forms, and who are capable of the critical thinking necessary to participate fully and effectively in democratic society.