English language instead of English

[tange]

What are the pro/con for choosing VCE English language over VCE English? My school might no longer offer VCE English by substituting it with English language so I was just wondering what might be the possible effects for students. Any advice appreciated!

[Joseph41]

What are the pro/con for choosing VCE English language over VCE English? My school might no longer offer VCE English by substituting it with English language so I was just wondering what might be the possible effects for students. Any advice appreciated!

Hi tange,

Interesting decision by your school. I think the 'pros' and 'cons' would be very individual. What are you interested in? What might you like to study in the future?

Here is a nifty video on the differences between VCE English and VCE English Language. It features our very own Dmitri!

[wunderkind52]

What are the pro/con for choosing VCE English language over VCE English? My school might no longer offer VCE English by substituting it with English language so I was just wondering what might be the possible effects for students. Any advice appreciated!

As Joseph41 said, the pros and cons are really up to the individual! I started with englang in year 11, and picked up mainstream in S2 and did both of them for VCE. I think each subject is equally interesting. In mainstream you explore ideas and culture and history, whereas in english language it's more of how language is used in different contexts. Warning - if you do english language you will most likely end up analysing everything you hear in later life Personally, I liked English language because it had a little bit of everything and the classes were chill. In terms of things like resources and support - english will definitely win. There just aren't that many resources and tutors available for englang, and unless you have a top-notch teacher you'll find that you don't get much done in class and you need to self-study. Even less important but something to note - english is imo a more "predictable" subject. There's more students and it's easier to gauge your SS and level against other people. With a smaller cohort, your score can fluctuate a bit more from your predictions.
But, if your everyone in your school is going englang (not sure how big) it shouldn't be much of an issue!

[literally lauren]

What are the pro/con for choosing VCE English language over VCE English? My school might no longer offer VCE English by substituting it with English language so I was just wondering what might be the possible effects for students. Any advice appreciated!

It's odd that they'd replace English entirely; I know a lot of schools that are just starting to offer Englang as an alternative, but I've never heard of English just being phased out.

Broadly speaking (and assuming we're talking about the 2017 and beyond English Study Design,) Englang has a reputation for being the more 'analytical' subject and appealing to the Maths/Science-y kids, whereas English is kind of spread quite thin across a broad range of skills and writing types (i.e. everything in Englang revolves around analysis, either in short answer form, or extended response. But English will involve analytical essays, compulsory creative pieces, and the persuasive oral, which is now worth quite a bit more. There's even a kind of reflective writing element since students now have to write statements of intention for their creative piece and oral, so it's a much more diverse skillset compared to the previous/current SD, let alone compared with Englang).

If your school is very maths/science-inclined, then it'd probably be a good move because students could worry less about having to respond to a text in an imaginative way, and instead have assessment revolving around more discernible subject matter - kind of like Language Analysis only the focus shifted from how the author persuades to what the language actually means, and how it functions. It's still an ostensibly humanities-ish subject with essays based on sociolinguistic concepts like how the words we use can perpetuate cultural values etc. but the idea is to dissect and discuss in contrast to, say, and English Text Response.

Tbh a lot of students end up choosing Englang just because they don't have to study texts and read long books like they do in English, and a lot of teachers prefer it too because they don't have to spend time in class reading through passages or assigning summative work book questions. For students who do like writing about texts (by which I mean novels, films, poetry etc. not just 'texts' in the L.A. article sense) then they might be at a disadvantage unless your school offers Lit. as an alternative too.