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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

The language style that is characteristic of Secondary English is what Sawyer defines as Standard English: that variety or dialect of English used by educated people in formal situations, particularly in writing [] the dialect of English which carries the most prestige [] the language of power in our society. (Sawyer, Watson, & Gold, 1998) This style of English presents many difficulties to secondary English pupils through the sheer range of associated terms and concepts that the effective and acceptable use of Standard English demands. These terms and concepts manifest daily in secondary English classrooms they are at the heart of the New South Wales (NSW) English syllabus, which rests on the relationships between language and meaning. (Board of Studies NSW, 2001) Student understanding and application of the English language style and its terms and concepts is a skill central to most of the syllabus outcomes; the syllabus key terms include language forms and features, a concept defined as the term used to refer to the symbolic patterns and conventions that shape meaning in texts. (Board of Studies NSW, 2001) All of the key terms are clearly related to Standard English application across the various syllabus content areas. The overall emphasis, therefore, of the English syllabus in NSW is the effective use and understanding of the subjects specialist style. It is a specialist style that is commonly indistinguishable from vernacular English, due to Australia being a dominantly Englishspeaking society. Examination of specialist style English, or Standard English and what it involves for the instruction and learning of grammar, poetry, creative and critical writing will reveal that secondary English certainly has a specialist style distinct from the commonly spoken English, and it is one with identifiable features that commonly create serious difficulties for secondary English pupils.

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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

Grammar is the internal organization of a language, the ways in which the elements of the language (such as words and components of words prefixes, endings etc.) are arranged, modified and related to one another in order to express meaning. (Sawyer, Watson, & Adams, 1983)

Terms like grammar that are used to describe the English language and how it works are an integral part of the English that we teach at schools, but they are often highly problematic for students who already use the language fluently. The five-year-old [Australian] child has internalised the grammar of English simply by growing up in an English speaking community. (Sheridan, 1993) The terms of English used to separate its words into groups by function, tense and person are to experts and teachers of English aids to help make sense of Englishs complexity. They are problematic for students though, because although students certainly use all of these elements of the English language in their everyday speech, their knowledge of how English operates is entirely functional, (Murdick, 1996) or at least very unlikely to be theoretical, unless English is not their first language. Native English speakers are most likely to have learnt English through imitation and correction. A consequence of this is the idea that grammar instruction is obsolete, and so numerous studies been conducted on the usefulness of formal grammar instruction. (Brown et al., 2000) They have shown that learning the traditional grammatical system explicitly in schools has no measurably positive effect on student writing skills. (Murdick, 1996) This may have resulted in less emphasis on grammar programs in schools, and this has only made such terms and concepts more difficult for the students, as it remains true that a lot of English grammar terminology remains characteristic of the specialist style of English, and as such, the classroom teaching of English. Terms such as noun, verb and adjective all are specialised terms that to students in a classroom are often made inaccessible, technical and unnecessary through unfamiliarity. The sample attached in the appendix is from a Grammar instruction book Queens English: And How To Use It. (Lamb, 2011) Even this light-hearted and humorous approach to the correct use of Standard English is loaded with many unused, specialised terms. In an age of

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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

technology and popular use of abbreviated and slang English, it can be hard for students to understand the significance and practical application of the conventions of written and spoken language (Routman, 1996) in our modern world. It is true that many of the rules and uses of grammar such as those in bold on the sample are disappearing over time, and the more they lose significance in vernacular English, the more they become characteristic of the specialist style. Such conventions remain significant enough for knowledge of them to affect how well students will communicate in their lives, (Routman, 1996) but this is within the context of Standard, or specialist English as used in formal situations. (Sawyer, et al., 1998) This conflict between official expectations of literacy and everyday use of English does quite easily make the specific language style of English in the classroom seem disconnected from reality, and this often translates into considerable difficulties for students with academic English, especially when they are expected to write it, and write it correctly as evidence of their level of education.

Grammar terms are characteristic of specialist English because specialist English is considered with the deconstruction of such uses of English; foremost in texts. English seeks to dissect written English for its implications and references to the context in which it was composed and does exist. An understanding of grammatical terms, functions and their implications is integral to the success of this process. (Keen, 1978) Active readers, as most students are, conduct this kind of deconstruction, albeit on a superficial level, whenever they read. However, the prevalence and popularity of screen entertainment is quickly and increasingly dismantling these important, everyday skills in which academic English is grounded, for television reporting allows no opportunity for revisiting and rethinking the text (Routman, 1996) and this induces passive responses within students towards all, or most visual texts they encounter, apart from those they deconstruct in critical English studies of

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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

films at school. The specialist style of English that is taught in schools therefore also incorporates many technical terms of the media industry, for specialist English tries to teach students the importance of critical thinking, of analysing the meaning behind all texts they encounter written, visual or interactive through examination, to the end that they will not become passive consumers of in their everyday lives, especially of the ideologies implicit in visual texts, as these are most easily absorbed by passive consumers.

Critical examination of visual texts is related to the complex interaction between spoken English and Standard English. The former is chiefly vernacular while the latter is heavily associated with the written, formal form of the language. It is claimed that oral English is somehow less official, less trustworthy than written English [] decidedly more difficult to examine than written English. (Peim, 1993) The more the principles of Standard English become specialised through disuse in popular contexts, the more written forms of entertainment (mainly books) become out-dated and superseded by oral English in entertainment and media such as music and film. This results in Standard English becoming more inaccessible to students, as students increasingly come to the classroom with very limited background knowledge of the processes, terms and concepts of Standard English and how and where they can be applied. Effective, quality teaching recognises the importance of grounding everything taught in the classroom in the students existing schema (Department of Education and Training, 2003) in order for it to be assimilated. It is important to recognise that the pupils (often) wont know what youre talking about. (Wright, 2005) It is part of the job of English teachers to find the links between Standard English and todays vernacular, in order to account for the difficulties that todays students are experiencing. One of the major current difficulties students experience is with poetry. The poetic use of English has become a feature of the English specialist language style that is distinct and absent from the English

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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

style that secondary students know and use. This is, like grammar, explainable through the unfortunate, but increasing, separation of the poetry art form from the popular and the vernacular.

Poetry and the language used to describe how it works come from an art form that has arguably been the aspect of the specialist English language style most affected by the features and characteristics of our modern world and its digitisation. The popularity of movies and television shows as entertainment and art has superseded the one-time popular appreciation of poetry. Poetic techniques such as metaphors, similes and onomatopoeia are commonly used in spoken, vernacular English, but the names of these expressions are unknown apart from in the specialist language. This can be blamed somewhat on "the poetry voice" (Wright, 2005) that is often used in schools
You remember it: you take a deep breath and read the poem as if it were in a slightly foreign language, half a note above your usual pitch, in a kind of strangulated monotone, and this conveys a kind of dignity on the whole thing. (Wright, 2005)

The poetry voice actually alienates audiences, (Wright, 2005) and this is because it originates from the odd idea that poetry is a high art, in opposition to popular art, so it is specialist and inaccessible to the uneducated. It is ironic when it is considered that poetry was once a highly popular art form, used for the entertainment of the masses, written for them to understand and enjoy by authors and poets such as Shakespeare.

The attached well-known sonnet of Shakespeare is one that was once popular, but is often only read, enjoyed, and more importantly understood today by enthusiasts, tertiary students and academics. In the case of Shakespeare this is often due to the fact that his work is written in an older form of English than that we speak today. Words like Shall, owest and wanderest are obsolete. Mostly his work is difficult to students though simply because it is
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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

poetry. It is a figurative use of our language that is only popular today in the form of lyrics accompanied by music. This sonnet demonstrates that an ability to understand and analyse such English texts has become a feature of the English specialist language style, and as a result presents difficulty to most secondary students. The inevitable shift of popular art forms has made poetry and poetic terms largely fall to neglect outside the context of the classroom. Students do not approach the study of poetry with enthusiasm, (Wright, 2005) and much of the reason for this is the fact that it seems alien and inaccessible to students through the level of use it demands of characteristic features of the English specialist language. These features include terms such as intonation, tone, pentameter, couplets and all of the meanings and implications they have for understanding and appreciating poetry.

In the NSW standards-based education system, where a major portion of the allimportant Higher School Certificate (HSC) exam is a demonstration of critical analytical skills through extended response to texts and a central concept, it is evident that our society values the skills of critical analysis in our citizens, and so demands an education of them to our students. The terms and principles and expectations of critical analysis are part of English specialist style, and they are only explicitly applied within the context of the education system, so even if their link to the wider skill of independent and critical thinking is integrated into lessons by teachers, it remains an area of the specialist style that is often difficult for students to understand. An assessment criterion for the HSC area of study is shown in the attached extract from the 2011 HSC paper, when it asks students to describe, explain and analyse the relationship between language, text and context. (Board of Studies NSW, 2011) This is expected of students in response to a set of four texts they have not seen prior to the exam. The specialist terms of describe, explain, analyse, language, text and context are all characteristic of specialist English, and the effective answer to these questions demands a complete understanding of them and how they are applied in Standard English.
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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

The corresponding questions for each of the texts of Question 1 (Board of Studies NSW, 2011) demands an understanding of the specialist language style of English, and at the final exam of the education system, it is clear that this is expected. Understanding a relationship between place and identity is a skill that only has conceptual application in a context such as this exam, and so within the specialist English style the words relationship, identity and text have highly specific meanings and implications.

These samples that contain the language characteristic of specialist English were taken from the highest level of the style as used within the secondary school. At this level, and adequate understanding and skilful use of the language of specialist English is expected, not only in critical analysis of unseen texts, but also of poetry and film, which are both sustained elements of the secondary syllabus. The correct application of grammar and Standard English in the students written responses is also an expectation, and although our syllabus is designed to facilitate a gradual acquisition of the characteristic features of specialist English, it remains particularly difficult for students to access and understand, especially when it is within a language they speak and write on a daily basis, applied within a specialised context.

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EDUC6741 Essay (Subject-Specific Literacy Demands)

Bibliography
Board of Studies NSW. (2001). English Years 7-10 Syllabus. (2003284). Sydney: Board of Studies NSW. Board of Studies NSW. (2011). 2011 Higher School Certificate Examination. Sydney: Board of Studies. Brown, Deborah, Kalman, Judith, Gomez, Macrina, Martino, Wayne, Rijlaarsdam, Gert, D'Antonio Stinson, Anne, & Whiting, Melissa E. (2000). Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English. Research in the Teaching of English, 35(2), 261-272. Department of Education and Training. (2003). Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools: Discussion Paper. Sydney: Retrieved from https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_EPSColor.pdf. Keen, John. (1978). Teaching English: A Linguistic Approach. London: Methuen & Co Ltd. Lamb, Bernard C. (2011). Queen's English: And How to Use It (pp. 49-50). Murdick, William. (1996). What English Teachers Need to Know about Grammar. The English Journal, 85(7), 38-45. Peim, Nick. (1993). Critical theory and the English teacher: transforming the subject. London: Routledge. Routman, Regie. (1996). Literacy at the Crossroads. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Sawyer, Wayne, Watson, Ken, & Adams, Anthony (Eds.). (1983). English Teaching from A-Z. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Sawyer, Wayne, Watson, Ken, & Gold, Eva (Eds.). (1998). Re-Viewing English. Sydney: St Clair Press. Sheridan, Daniel. (1993). Teaching Secondary English: Readings and Applications. New York: Longman Publishing Group. Wright, Trevor. (2005). How to be a Brilliant English Teacher. New York: Routledge.