Should I do English Language?

[natothegreat]

G'day,
I'm currently in Yr 11 doing regular English and while I am alright at it, I don't fancy all the reading and writing. I did choose to do Language however not enough people chose it so I wasn't able to do it. I have done some research into Language and to me it appears to be the more scientific version of English, something that interests me a lot. I'm not wanting to do Language because "gah I hate reading The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, I want to do Language because it's easy." I want to do it because it appears a lot more objective based rather than subjective. From I've heard from some of my friends it is still just as hard but they preferred it over regular English. If anyone doing Language at the moment could impart some of their wisdom upon me or perhaps give me some more insight into the subject I would be grateful.

Have a good one,
Nathan

[TheAspiringDoc]

Hey Nathan

I’m just gonna put this out there:

I actually honestly think distance ed (not that I know much about it) is the best way to do Eng Lang. At least from my perspective. Some teachers (I.e. mine) get really micro-managey in this subject, and I think thus it is actually best not to have a close relationship with them for this reason. It still is somewhat subjective in the sense that teachers have a subconscious view of you that prejudices their marking, which is why it is important to almost play the suck-up with your lang teacher. Honestly I feel like it would be a really easy subject if you just learn the fundamentals of linguistics, essay/exam writing and hammer the metalanguage. So in summary, doing it by distance would - I think - let you treat it like the science it is supposed to be (not the dictatorship that some omnipotent mainstream/lang teachers make it out to be).

Btw, 1/2 isn’t very useful to 3/4 in my experience, so I definitely endorse this subject by distance ed to someone who values objectivity.

Note: I know I may be presenting a somewhat controversial opinion on this - interested to hear others’ thoughts. (Honestly is it too late for me to switch to distance ed Lang?)

Good luck!

*to clarify, my main point is that you can’t disobey English/lang teachers like you can with real sciences, because their subsequent prejudice can impact your SAC marking too much. I know it is good to keep teachers happy, but sometimes you gotta learn your way (e.g., sorry to my Methods teacher!)

[natothegreat]

Hey Nathan

I’m just gonna put this out there:

I actually honestly think distance ed (not that I know much about it) is the best way to do Eng Lang. At least from my perspective. Some teachers (I.e. mine) get really micro-managey in this subject, and I think thus it is actually best not to have a close relationship with them for this reason. It still is somewhat subjective in the sense that teachers have a subconscious view of you that prejudices their marking, which is why it is important to almost play the suck-up with your lang teacher. Honestly I feel like it would be a really easy subject if you just learn the fundamentals of linguistics, essay/exam writing and hammer the metalanguage. So in summary, doing it by distance would - I think - let you treat it like the science it is supposed to be (not the dictatorship that some omnipotent mainstream/lang teachers make it out to be).

Btw, 1/2 isn’t very useful to 3/4 in my experience, so I definitely endorse this subject by distance ed to someone who values objectivity.

Note: I know I may be presenting a somewhat controversial opinion on this - interested to hear others’ thoughts. (Honestly is it too late for me to switch to distance ed Lang?)

Good luck!

*to clarify, my main point is that you can’t disobey English/lang teachers like you can with real sciences, because their subsequent prejudice can impact your SAC marking too much. I know it is good to keep teachers happy, but sometimes you gotta learn your way (e.g., sorry to my Methods teacher!)

Thank you for your reply
I was considering changing into Distance Ed for Language but I decided ultimately to stay and bite the bullet for one more year in regular English. So far I'm doing alright but I think I would have much greater success in Language. I see where you're coming at with the teachers. I'm in pretty good standing with most of my teachers at school, we don't really have a dictator teacher problem thankfully. Is doing English Language in distance Ed any disadvantage to doing a regular class?

[TheAspiringDoc]

Thank you for your reply
I was considering changing into Distance Ed for Language but I decided ultimately to stay and bite the bullet for one more year in regular English. So far I'm doing alright but I think I would have much greater success in Language. I see where you're coming at with the teachers. I'm in pretty good standing with most of my teachers at school, we don't really have a dictator teacher problem thankfully. Is doing English Language in distance Ed any disadvantage to doing a regular class?

Hey
To be honest I don’t really know much about distance education. I imagine it would be like self-learning on your own, with a bit of support material (PowerPoints and phone calls etc from teachers), which would really work for some students, but perhaps not others? Maybe it would be worth considering trying distance lang concurrently with regular English this/next term if you can so that you can get a feel for distance ed and also English language, but don’t yet drop mainstream in case you like it?
It’s good to hear you get on well with your teachers! Keep it up - not just for marks (maybe my previous post was OTT), that’s not everything.

[exit]

In my opinion, doing Lang is alright if you have the resources but you also need someone to mark your essays. In that case, you might need a tutor or someone to help you in the regard.

[vox nihili]

Just going to jump in and say that the idea that EngLang is a more scientific form of English. This is the critical mistake people make in choosing this subject, as there’s an expectation that EngLang involves learning facts about linguistics and then reciting them on an exam.

 EngLang does require you to read and write, often at a higher level than is expected in English. Sure, there are no core texts, but each class we require you to read short passages, and dissect them. Essays are the main form of assessment in EngLang as well, with all the conventions about writing essays still relevant here. Arguably, EngLang requires a better understanding and appreciation of texts, as you’ll need to be able to delve into authors’ attentions, discussing the reasons for their language choices. To that you add a layer of sociocultural context, through which you need to analyse the use of language.

[PhoenixxFire]

Hey,
I did U3 Englang through distance ed. TBH i really didn't put much effort into it but one thing I found was that even when I did submit work on time it took ages to get feedback on it. So if you are going to do it through distance ed you need to keep in contact with your teachers and email them questions etc. They won't ask if you need help with anything like teachers at your school would. Also my teacher got annoyed that I wasn't participating in the online lessons...which were on at the same time every week when I had normal class on but then I was a horrible student so maybe it was just me lol

[Joseph41]

Hey Nathan.

If you've done the research and are keen on EngLang, I'd recommend it! IMO not much point staying in English if you're not enjoying it and think EngLang would suit you better. What I'd suggest is using this thread to ask any questions you have at all about EngLang (assessments, content, whatever else), just to be really clear on it. I'd speak with your teachers if possible, too.

All the best with your decision!

[Bri MT]

I did Eng Lang through distance ed for units 3&4. English was traditionally my strongest subject (primary school and early high school) by far but I really wanted to feel like I was learning & neither english nor lit gave that to me.

Studying by distance ed:
- I don't think it would have been a disadvantage if we had gotten more feedback and timely feedback. But the feedback on essays and ACs was very limited.  (I completed a SAC where I had to write an analytical commentary before having received feedback for one. )
- I did feel like I was learning new things
- I did feel that the teacher knew the subject matter well
- I liked learning the subject but think that I would have gotten a higher score (Inc scaling) if I had done standard english