Archived material
Some aspects of the documents in this section no longer apply, however they have been archived for reference.
Office of the Board of Studies NSW
Stage 6 English Forum
held at Trinity College, Auburn, NSW Australia - 7-8 March 1998
Speaker Abstracts
WAYNE SAWYER - Lecturer, School of Teaching and Educational Studies, University of Western Sydney.
In the last ten years, English curriculum has been undergoing fundamental changes as new socially-based Theory has sought to complement, or supplant, previous models of English, especially those based on individual growth, that issued from the 70s. These new models of English and the theories that underpin them have already influenced curriculum change in English in other systems within Australia as well as overseas. The current review of HSC English needs to take account of these changes without losing the best of past practice. Th is paper will deliver an overview of currently important models of English and point to some directions for HSC syllabus development.
PETER GOODALL - Senior Lecturer, School of English, Linguistics and Media, Macquarie University.
The professional and ideological relationship between `English' and `Cultural Studies' has been (and still often is) a contentious one, although Cultural Studies is unlikely to abandon completely its study of literary texts and a concern with culture has been a major focus of the study of English since the origins of the discipline in the late nineteenth century. There are many problems and genuine differences, but it is possible for English and Cultural Studies to co-exist and to share a common project- the study of text and culture.
KATE GRENVILLE - Writer and parent.
When we are young, Great Books of the Past can be a bore: Shakespeare seems obscure, Austen irrelevant. Years of life-experience later, the penny drops. But if we weren't exposed to them at school - no matter how reluctantly- we may never find our way to them as adults.
JUDY BYRNE - Director of Educational Development, Department of Education and Training
This presentation highlights the challenge which faces subject English in its role of preparing students for a range of post-school pathways. Currently around 63% of HSC students either proceed to vocational education or go directly into the workplace, while 37% take a higher education pathway. It offers suggestions for how Stage 6 English can meet this challenge by providing essential and portable communication skills, knowledge and understandings relevant to the further education, training and employment needs of this full range of exiting students.
ADRIAN MITCHELL - Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Sydney.
The proposition is that among other things Stage 6 English should concentrate on developing in students the capacity to discriminate. The challenge of Stage 6 English is to increase students' understanding and control of language so that they become confident users of it; which is to say that one outcome of appreciative reading is increased precision and liveliness of usage.