VCE English Language Question Thread

[lm21074]

Does English Language have any oral presentations or is it more written responses?

No, only written assessments in EngLang. There are short answer questions, analytical commentaries (involves analyzing features in a specified text) and essays.

hi all,
what does it mean what is the texts social purpose

See this thread on a discussion of social purpose

[Neave-hw]

What is the structure of an essay?

[beccalini]

Hey y'all - am currently in the middle of choosing subjects for VCE. I'm having the most trouble choosing which English I'll do. Just wanted to start off by saying English is one of my strongest subjects, however, I have no idea which variation to choose.

BUT, here are some of my questions with English Language
1. I believe for most schools it isn't offered until years 11/12 - so how did you go with learning quite a different variation of English compared to the English we've been studying since year 7? Is it a really big jump or was it manageable?

2. (Mostly yr 12's) How was the final exam? Two hours seems like a short amount of time to answer short answer questions, an analytical commentary, and an essay when most other English exams are 2+ hours. Was it difficult to finish it all on time?

3. Why did you choose English Language over reg English or Literature?

Thank you so much!! Bec xx

[Joseph41]

Hey y'all - am currently in the middle of choosing subjects for VCE. I'm having the most trouble choosing which English I'll do. Just wanted to start off by saying English is one of my strongest subjects, however, I have no idea which variation to choose.

BUT, here are some of my questions with English Language
1. I believe for most schools it isn't offered until years 11/12 - so how did you go with learning quite a different variation of English compared to the English we've been studying since year 7? Is it a really big jump or was it manageable?

2. (Mostly yr 12's) How was the final exam? Two hours seems like a short amount of time to answer short answer questions, an analytical commentary, and an essay when most other English exams are 2+ hours. Was it difficult to finish it all on time?

3. Why did you choose English Language over reg English or Literature?

Thank you so much!! Bec xx

Hey Bec! It's been a little while since I did EngLang (2012), but I'll provide my brief perspectives below. I hope others can also join the conversation!

1. I believe for most schools it isn't offered until years 11/12 - so how did you go with learning quite a different variation of English compared to the English we've been studying since year 7? Is it a really big jump or was it manageable?
I actually found it fine! Everybody studying English Language Units 1&2 is in the same boat, really. The course is designed with this in mind, and you can pick up things like terminology pretty quickly. If you're interested, these posts I made previously may be of assistance (note that the study design has probably changed since):

* What is VCE English Language all about?
* VCE English Language 1&2 review
* VCE English Language 3&4 review

2. (Mostly yr 12's) How was the final exam? Two hours seems like a short amount of time to answer short answer questions, an analytical commentary, and an essay when most other English exams are 2+ hours. Was it difficult to finish it all on time?
I found the timing a bit of a stretch, but you can work to this with practice. I think the same would probably be true of all English exams, and probably depends a bit on the person. But exam timing is just one of the skills you need in EngLang, and is definitely something you can work on.

3. Why did you choose English Language over reg English or Literature?
Honestly, largely gut feeling! I spoke with my Year 10 English teacher about it, as I was really torn between English/Lit/EngLang, and ended up selecting EngLang because I guess I was just drawn to it a little bit more. I hadn't really studied anything like it (formally) before, but I loved it!

I'm not sure how helpful any of that was, but keep us updated with how you go!

[beccalini]

Ahhh this helps so much! Thank you for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it. Those pages you linked are really helpful, I'll definitely be using those for the next few years!!

I think after doing my research into each English stream I'm definitely leaning more towards English Language, it just seems way more interesting and as much as I love reading books and analysing the hell out of them, I think Eng Lang. will be a nice change (And I much prefer analysing over creatives any day!)

P.S. I have got a VCE journal on my page if you'd like to have a look

[Joseph41]

Ahhh this helps so much! Thank you for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it. Those pages you linked are really helpful, I'll definitely be using those for the next few years!!

I think after doing my research into each English stream I'm definitely leaning more towards English Language, it just seems way more interesting and as much as I love reading books and analysing the hell out of them, I think Eng Lang. will be a nice change (And I much prefer analysing over creatives any day!)

P.S. I have got a VCE journal on my page if you'd like to have a look

No worries at all! I guess there's also the option of doing more than one English subject, too, depending on the rest of your subjects and availabilities.

Best of luck!

[schoolstudent115]

Hey y'all - am currently in the middle of choosing subjects for VCE. I'm having the most trouble choosing which English I'll do. Just wanted to start off by saying English is one of my strongest subjects, however, I have no idea which variation to choose.

BUT, here are some of my questions with English Language
1. I believe for most schools it isn't offered until years 11/12 - so how did you go with learning quite a different variation of English compared to the English we've been studying since year 7? Is it a really big jump or was it manageable?

2. (Mostly yr 12's) How was the final exam? Two hours seems like a short amount of time to answer short answer questions, an analytical commentary, and an essay when most other English exams are 2+ hours. Was it difficult to finish it all on time?

3. Why did you choose English Language over reg English or Literature?

Thank you so much!! Bec xx

Hi, here are my thoughts on this:
1. I believe for most schools it isn't offered until years 11/12 - so how did you go with learning quite a different variation of English compared to the English we've been studying since year 7? Is it a really big jump or was it manageable?
I found it good, however year 11 is actually pretty different to year 12 in terms of both content and the assessment structure. A big jump in my opinion is when you start doing Analytical Commentaries (ACs) which are analyses of texts/transcriptions from a purely linguistic perspective where you analyse the language features used and what purpose it has. Reason being, you must treat this from a completely different perspective as compared to a mainstream English essay since you aren't writing an opinion, you're not even talking about whether the linguistic feature actually had a particular effect on the audience. While it took a little bit to get used to, I became much better at ACs (and enjoyed it more) than regular essays.

2. (Mostly yr 12's) How was the final exam? Two hours seems like a short amount of time to answer short answer questions, an analytical commentary, and an essay when most other English exams are 2+ hours. Was it difficult to finish it all on time?

The final exam is very tight on time. I'd argue that time is by and large the biggest differentiator when it comes to getting a study score above the low-mid 40s, for example. Perhaps I should have added this in my answer to the first question, but timing was a huge jump especially if your SACs are too lenient on time and then the exam becomes a shock. This paired with the fact that for the AC, you can be served up pretty much any text type/register, and that the essay in section C isn't based on a pre-read text, kinda does make the exam fairly stressful. Exam strategy is extremely important for this subject, (much more so in my opinion than my other subjects like methods, spesh or physics etc.)
While I didn't do Mainstream English, just talking with some friends it does seem to be more of a time crunch in Englang. Having said this, the actual exam ended up being not so bad mostly due to getting a lucky essay prompt, the 'theme' of which I had the most developed evidence/ideas for.
Also don't let this discourage you, since if you truly enjoy the content of this subject more and due to the 'scientific nature' of it, it's (in my opinion) a lot easier to get much higher scores as there isn't as much subjectivity.

3. Why did you choose English Language over reg English or Literature?
Up until year 10, while I was a decent student in English (B-B+), I really didn't like it at all. However my English teacher in year 10 was so good I actually considered even doing Literature in VCE (never would I have thought this would ever be the case).
HOWEVER, I decided on English Language because despite not minding the essay analysis, I'm not a big reader and I do enjoy doing things in a more analytical/scientific manner which is what you will get in Englang. I think there is some merit in that maths/science oriented students tend to (of course not all) enjoy and/or do better in Englang than if they did Mainstream. I don't regret it one bit and I really did find the subject interesting, and to this day I still go into 'analysis mode' when I hear speeches and stuff. (A teacher did warn us that this may well happen; it's a natural consequence of the subject).