ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English Studies => Topic started by: SmartWorker on April 19, 2019, 06:43:20 am
-
Hey,
I just wanted to ask what is difference between English, literature and eng language?
Thanks
-
Hey,
They all have different focuses. Eng lang: how & why do we use language (eg why do people use slang and how is it created?)
Literature: How does the text reflect and contribute to reality? (Eg what allegories are present & why?)
English: same stuff you've been doing for years
Note: to get less subjective information about them it would be good to look at the study designs.
Imo eng lang is the most different out of the others. It doesn't have an assessed speech or assigned texts, and the 2 hour exam has short answer questions, an analytical commentary (analysis of text you see for the first time in the exam) and an essay.
(I studied this in year 12)
Literature is similar to english but you go deeper into the text, author & context. Expect to write essays, creative pieces, and deliver a speech. Literature classes can operate quite differently across schools, and I've found that people usually either love it or hate it.
(I studied this in year 11)
-
Hey,
They all have different focuses. Eng lang: how & why do we use language (eg why do people use slang and how is it created?)
Literature: How does the text reflect and contribute to reality? (Eg what allegories are present & why?)
English: same stuff you've been doing for years
Note: to get less subjective information about them it would be good to look at the study designs.
Imo eng lang is the most different out of the others. It doesn't have an assessed speech or assigned texts, and the 2 hour exam has short answer questions, an analytical commentary (analysis of text you see for the first time in the exam) and an essay.
(I studied this in year 12)
Literature is similar to english but you go deeper into the text, author & context. Expect to write essays, creative pieces, and deliver a speech. Literature classes can operate quite differently across schools, and I've found that people usually either love it or hate it.
(I studied this in year 11)
Does eng lang deal with verbs, grammar, punctuation stuff, etc
-
Does eng lang deal with verbs, grammar, punctuation stuff, etc
Yes, however, this is only one aspect of Eng Lang (it comes under one of the subsystems you’ll need to learn) and definitely isn’t all you’d be doing. The way that it is taught in Eng Lang may not also be what you’re expecting (ie not a lesson on learning ‘perfect’ English grammar and punctuation per se, but how grammar and punctuation are used in different contexts for various purposes). For example, you’re not going to be sitting in class repeating “I before e except after c”, but discussing how ‘proper’ grammar is used to make someone sound more formal, such as how the Queen of England speaks (compared to here, where the banter is informal so we’d dismiss many ‘proper’ English conventions and use contractions). Do you see the difference? An integral part of English Language is keeping up with the metalanguage (“language to describe language”) and using this to discuss any sort of communication, whether it be spoken, written or not quite either of those. Eng Lang is technically linguistics, if that helps at all.
Anyway, my advice for your original question is to check out the study design for each English, as Bri has mentioned. I’d also advise that you check out some of the boards on this forum on each English, as these can outline the sorts of things you’d be talking about. Pick the English that interests you the most.