Examines change and stability in the history of senior English in Australia and sums up the present position, noting differences within and among systems. (HOD)

Discusses ways to encourage children to write original poetry and provides samples of student works. Over a 10-week period introduced children to 3 types of poems: noisy poems (focusing on noises and sounds related to the topic), poems for 2 voices (dialog poems written in 2 vertical columns), and free poetry (poetry without rhyme or meter). (MDM)

The author reviews the relationship between "literature" and pop culture, arguing that both are part of an intellectual continuum, and that to attempt to extol one and demonise the other is not only based on false and simplistic premises, it is exclusive and destructive. She reminds us that "All education is based on assumptions…

Relates how the twin pressures of ignorance and prejudice acted as a serious stimulus to the replacement of the 1944 syllabus of the New South Wales curriculum with that of 1953. (HOD)

Expresses concern over the possible exclusion of literature from the English curriculum in Australia, arguing that through literature, students are able to reason, imagine, and speculate about the tension between the needs of the individual and the needs of society. (HOD)

Summarizes the discussions and findings of a working party within the Australian Commission on Language Development, which focused on ways of promoting children's language development. (HOD)

Noting that since 1979, the English course in Western Australian secondary schools has been reshaped into two separate courses--one for college admission and one in English literature--and that procedures for student assessment and examination have altered considerably, this volume reports on an extensive survey undertaken to discover how these…

Presents the curriculum development work with which the English department at John Therry High School (New South Wales) has been involved, exploring five aspects of the project: (1) why the project was undertaken, (2) what the project is, (3) how the project worked, (4) the reality of the project, and (5) implications of the project. (HOD)

Describes the Queensland project, "Study Talk," concerned with the study of oral language, with special consideration given to the exploration and study of the uses and varieties of talk. (HOD)

Questions about the implications of the new technologies for literacy, literacy teaching, and literacy practices provoke diverse and contradictory responses in the media, in policy documents, in state and national assessment surveys, and among teachers themselves. On one hand, the need for literacy to be reconceptualized and redefined in the face…

Increasingly in Australia, attention is being given in English or language education to core or functional literacy conceived as print mastery, alongside literature, and critical literacy. The Queensland Years 1 to 10 English syllabus evinces an attempt to organize such qualitatively distinct "literacies" under a burgeoning conceptual…

Provides an evaluator's perspective on the Language Development Project of Australia. (HOD)

This book examines the changes that have occurred in the teaching of English in recent years, especially in England and Australia, and attempts to arrive at a new conception of what it means to teach English. Divided into seven parts, this book explores English as a language activity; defines English in terms of what it is and what it is not;…