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HSC English Standard Course Information:: Overall Approach To Module A

This document provides information and guidance about Module A of the NSW HSC English Standard Course. It outlines the key requirements and approaches for the module, which focuses on language, identity, and culture. Students are advised to spend 40 minutes answering one question in Section I of the exam paper. They should demonstrate understanding of how texts represent identity and culture through specific language features and forms. The document lists prescribed texts and sample exam questions, and provides tips for writing high-quality responses that analyze language features and their relationship to ideas about identity and culture.

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305 views6 pages

HSC English Standard Course Information:: Overall Approach To Module A

This document provides information and guidance about Module A of the NSW HSC English Standard Course. It outlines the key requirements and approaches for the module, which focuses on language, identity, and culture. Students are advised to spend 40 minutes answering one question in Section I of the exam paper. They should demonstrate understanding of how texts represent identity and culture through specific language features and forms. The document lists prescribed texts and sample exam questions, and provides tips for writing high-quality responses that analyze language features and their relationship to ideas about identity and culture.

Uploaded by

Alanah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HSC English Standard Course Information:

Module A – Language, Identity and Culture

Overall approach to Module A


• Answer one question only for Paper 2, Section I
• Allow 40 minutes for this section
• This section is worth 20 marks

• Show your knowledge of the prescribed text and textual material and how they connect
to language, identity and culture 

• Make sure you answer the question so you can lift your grade 

• Practice writing sample analytical responses, using sample HSC-style questions
• Keep looking at the syllabus requirements and the rubric in the examination 


Syllabus Requirements
In this module students develop knowledge and understanding of how language has the power
to both reflect and shape individual and collective identity.

Through responding and composing,


students consider:
• how their responses to written,
spoken, audio and visual texts can
shape their self-perception
• impact texts have on shaping a sense
of identity for individuals and/or
communities
• how language can be used to affirm,
ignore, reveal, challenge or disrupt
prevailing assumptions and beliefs
about themselves, individuals and
cultural groups.
They will study one prescribed text in detail as well as a range of textual material and explore,
analyse and assess the ways in which meaning about individual and community identity, as well
as cultural perspectives, is shaped in and through texts.

To do this, they will investigate how textual forms and conventions and language structures and
features are used to communicate information, ideas, values and attitudes which inform and
influence perceptions of ourselves and other people and various cultural perspectives.

Through reading, viewing and listening, students:


• analyse, assess and critique the specific language features and form of texts.

Students will:
• develop increasingly complex arguments
• express their ideas clearly and cohesively using appropriate register, structure and
modality
• experiment with language and form to compose imaginative texts that explore
representations of identity and culture, including their own
• draft, appraise and refine their own texts, applying the conventions of syntax, spelling
and grammar appropriately and for particular effects.

See the link below for more information about the NSW HSC Standard English Syllabus
https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/english-standard-stage6/

Exam Specifications

The marking criteria 



Below is the exact wording of the marking criteria in
the exam. This is what the examiner will assess your
response on. 


______________________________________________________________________________
Your answer will be assessed on how well you:
• demonstrate understanding of how ideas about language, identity and culture are
expressed through texts 

• demonstrate understanding of how language is used to shape meaning about
individuals and/or cultural groups 

• organise, develop and express your ideas using language appropriate to audience,
purpose and form. 

______________________________________________________________________________
Sample HSC-style Questions
• There will be one question which will require a sustained response.
• These questions are examples of the types of questions that may be asked in Section I.

Example A (20 marks)



Analyse how language is used in your prescribed text to express community identity. 


Example A is a generic question for all prescribed texts. 


Example B (20 marks)



Explain how a text’s form contributes to the way that it captures unique cultural perspectives. 

In your response, make close reference to your prescribed text. 


Example B is specific to the form of the prescribed text. 


Example C (20 marks)



Explain how sound and music contribute to the representation of identity and culture in One
Night the Moon.


Example C is specific to the prescribed text.




Prescribed texts
The prescribed texts for Section I are:

Prose Fiction - Henry Lawson, The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories
* The Drover’s Wife 

* The Union Buries Its Dead 

* Shooting the Moon 

* Our Pipes 

* The Loaded Dog 

- Andrea Levy, Small Island


Poetry - Adam Aitken, Boey Kim Cheng and Michelle Cahill (eds), 

Contemporary Asian Australian Poets 

The prescribed poems are: 

* Merlinda Bobis, This is where it begins 

* Miriam Wei Wei Lo, Home 

* Ouyang Yu, New Accents 

* Vuong Pham, Mother 

* Jaya Savige, Circular Breathing 

* Maureen Ten (Ten Ch’in Ü), Translucent Jade 

- Ali Cobby Eckermann, Inside my Mother
The prescribed poems are: 

* Trance

* Unearth

* Oombulgarri
* Eyes

* Leaves

* Key 


Drama - Ray Lawler, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll


- Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion

- Alana Valentine, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah 


Nonfiction - Alice Pung, Unpolished Gem


Film - Rachel Perkins, One Night the Moon 



- Rob Sitch, The Castle
Media - Merewether, Reindeer in my Saami Heart 


Reference
https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/assets/english_standard/files/sample-questions-new-hsc-
english-std-paper-2-exam-2019.pdf

Writing an exemplary response


Below is an outline of what makes an effective
response in the HSC Examination:
• deep understanding of language, identity and
culture are shown by drawing on detailed
textual knowledge
• a personal perspective is demonstrated
• the purpose of the text/s is demonstrated
through a conceptual understanding of
language, identity and culture
• ideas are developed by referring to the whole
text 

• appropriate textual evidence and explanation
about why this textual evidence is valid 
is clearly demonstrated 


• for Module A, the range of textual materials are relevant and clearly link to the
prescribed text and key ideas about language, identity and culture
• meta-language is used that is appropriate to the text type. 

Feedback from the Marking Centre 


• For each Module, it is a good idea to read the feedback from the HSC Marking Centre for
previous examinations (when they become available).
• Pay careful attention to the characteristics of best responses.
• Consider what is deemed valuable by the Marking Centre.
• Apply what it tells you about the qualities of good scripts to your analytical responses.
• Use the key comments to make any further changes or refinements to your response.

Textual features
• Textual features describe the textual
forms and conventions and language
structures and features in texts.
• You are required to write about the
textual features in your prescribed texts
and a range of textual material.
• When you write about the textual
features, focus on how they represent
identity and culture
• There are a number of textual features
you could explore to develop an
understanding of the significance and
impact of language, identity and culture.

Textual features include:



o Textual form and conventions:
- Structure: How the text is text is put together. The most basic structure is a
beginning, middle and end, but many narratives experiment with structure, for
example a non-linear narrative.
- Genre: The genre refers to the type of text and the form of text. For example,
‘romance’ and ‘horror’ indicate the type of text, whereas drama, poetry, prose
indicate the form of text.
- Context: Context means surrounding circumstances or elements. Several
contexts might contribute to a text. These might include elements of society
and its culture and values.

o Language structures and features: The structure coheres by its interrelationship with
the details of the text. These are the textual elements represented through:
§ Content
- Plot: The storyline or what happens in the text. 

- Characterisation: Refers to how characters or personas are constructed in the
text. 

- Narration: Refers to the use of first (I, me, us, we), second (you, your) or third
person (he, she, they) narration.
- Point of view: Indicates whose point of view the narrative is told from. For
example, is they story told from one character’s point of view, or many? The
type of narration will indicate this.
- Setting: Refers to all aspects of the text that indicate a sense of time – date and
time of day, and place – the physical location. 

- Voice: The writer clearly shows through their choice of language who the
persona/character is — through what they do, their reactions, personal thoughts
and reflections, type of dialogue and language.
§ Language: The meaning is conveyed through language features such as figurative
language, dialogue, juxtaposition, formal/colloquial language, etc.

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