ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English Language => Topic started by: dmitridr on January 29, 2015, 06:57:06 pm
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A couple of weeks ago I conducted a workshop for VCE English Language, and had around 30 students attend the event. At the start of the workshop I asked all students to fill out a document with their strengths, weaknesses and what made them choose English Language over other Englishes. Below I post a summarised version of the results, and subsequently help pinpoint WHERE you should be studying this year. No doubt this will help you see where you may need improvement or where you think your strengths may be.
Why students chose English Language over other Englishes:
• Most students stated that English Language was more logical, scientific and structured
• Some students stated that they were more into science and maths based subjects, and so they believed that English Language would suit them better.
• Some students found mainstream boring and uninteresting
• Some students believed that English Language was less subjective and more objective
What are English Language students’ noticeable strengths?
• Many stated that they found short answers relatively straightforward
• Surprisingly, some found that metalanguage was easy!
What are English Language students’ noticeable weaknesses?
• Many stated that learning metalanguage and IDENTIFYING it was a struggle for them
• Most students found writing a coherent and cohesive essay a struggle
• Most students found structuring an essay quite difficult
• Some had issues with analysing conversations (spoken dialogue) as sometimes it’s not so explicit as to what’s going on
• Some found writing analytical commentaries an issue due to the fact that they struggle to identify metalanguage in texts and elaborate on it
• Some students found spoken discourse features and conversational strategies difficult to understand and identify
So, what can we conclude based on the above feedback?
1. Learn ALL metalanguage for units 3/4
2. Learn to IDENTIFY metalanguage (after you’ve learnt it)
3. Learn HOW to elaborate on a piece of metalanguage after you’ve identified it in a text
4. Learn HOW to structure an essay
5. Learn HOW to make an essay flow (cohesion)
6. Practice analysing spoken dialogues
7. Practice identifying spoken discourse features and conversational strategies
I hope this has helped you out! :)