English Glossary

Aesthetic

A sense of beauty or an appreciation of artistic expression.

Analyse

Consider in detail for the purpose of finding meaning or relationships, and identifying patterns, similarities and differences

Appreciation

The act of discerning quality and value of literary texts

Audience

The group of readers, listeners or viewers that the writer, designer, filmmaker or speaker is addressing. __________ includes students in the classroom, an individual, the wider community, review writers, critics and the implied audience.

Author

The composer or originator of a work (for example, a novel, film, website, speech, essay, autobiography).

Attitudes

An outlook or a specific feeling about something. Our values underlie our attitudes. __________ can be expressed by what we say, do and wear.

Context

The environment in which a text is responded to or created. __________ can include the general social, historical and cultural conditions in which a text is responded to and created (the __________ of culture) or the specific features of its immediate environment (context of situation). The term is also used to refer to the wording surrounding an unfamiliar word that a reader or listener uses to understand its meaning.

Convention

An accepted practice that has developed over time and is generally used and understood, for example, the use of specific structural aspects of texts such as in report writing with sections for introduction, background, discussion and recommendations.

Digital technologies

The use of digital resources to effectively find, analyse, create, communicate, and use information in a digital context and incorporates the hardware of mobile phones, cameras, tablets, laptops and computers and the software to power these devices.

Digital texts

Audio, visual or multimodal texts produced through digital or electronic technology, which may be interactive and include animations and hyperlinks. Examples of digital texts include DVDs, websites and e-literature.

Evaluate

__________ of an issue or information that includes considering important factors and available evidence in making judgement that can be justified.

Figurative language

Word groups/phrases used in a way that differs from the expected or everyday usage. They are used in a non-literal way for particular effect

(for example, simile - 'white as a sheet'; metaphor - 'all the world's a stage'; personification - 'the wind grabbed at my clothes').

Form; forms of texts

The shape and structure of texts. Literary texts, for example, include a broad range of forms such as novels, poetry, short stories, plays, fiction, multimodal texts, and non-fiction. (See Texts under Organisation of content.)

Genre

The categories into which texts are grouped. The term has a complex history within literary theory and is often used to distinguish texts on the basis of their subject matter (for example, detective fiction, romance, science fiction, fantasy fiction), form and structure (for example, poetry, novels, biography, short stories).

Hybrid texts

Composite texts resulting from a mixing of elements from different sources or genres (for example, infotainment). Email is an example of a hybrid text, combining the immediacy of talk and the expectation of a reply with the permanence of print.

Ideas

In this course the word has an open meaning and can be interpreted as understandings, thoughts, notions, opinions, views or beliefs.

Idiom

A group of (more or less) fixed words having a meaning not deducible from the individual words. Idioms are typically informal expressions used by particular social groups and need to be explained as one unit (for example, 'I am over the moon', 'on thin ice', 'a fish out of water', 'fed up to the back teeth').

Issue

Matters of personal or public concern that are in dispute; things which directly or indirectly affect a person or members of a society and are considered to be problems. Many __________ are raised in texts and it is for the reader/audience to identify these.

Language Features

The __________ that support meaning (for example, sentence structure, noun group/phrase, vocabulary, punctuation, figurative language, framing, camera angles). Choices in language features and text structures together define a type of text and shape its meaning. These choices vary according to the purpose of a text, its subject matter, audience, and mode or medium of production.

Language patterns

The arrangement of identifiable repeated or corresponding elements in a text. These include patterns of repetition or similarity (for example, the repeated use of verbs at the beginning of each step in a recipe, or the repetition of a chorus after each verse in a song). The patterns may alternate (for example, the call and response pattern of some games, or the to and fro of a dialogue). Other patterns may contrast (for example, opposing viewpoints in a discussion, or contrasting patterns of imagery in a poem). The __________ of a text contribute to the distinctive nature of its overall organisation and shape its meaning.

Literary texts

__________ refers to past and present texts across a range of cultural contexts that are valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value. While the nature of what constitutes '__________ ' is dynamic and evolving, they are seen as having personal, social, cultural and aesthetic appeal and potential for enriching students' scope of experience. __________ include a broad range of forms, such as novels, poetry, short stories, plays, fiction,

non-fiction and multimodal texts.

Media texts

Spoken, print, graphic or electronic communications with a public audience. They often involve numerous people in their construction and are usually shaped by the technology used in their production. The _______________studied in English courses can be found in newspapers and magazines and on television, film, radio, computer software and the internet.

Medium

The means or channel of communication such as the spoken word, print, graphics, electronic/digital forms (for example, the __________ of television, the _________ of newspapers and the __________of radio).

Language

________ used to discuss _____________ (for example, ____________ used to discuss film or literary study, such as mise-en-scène, symbolism, characterisation, or ___________ used to talk about grammatical terms, such as 'sentence', 'clause', 'conjunction').

Mode

The various processes of communication: listening, speaking, reading/viewing and writing/creating. _______ are also used to refer to the semiotic

(meaning-making) resources associated with these communicative processes, such as sound, print, image and gesture.

Mood

The atmosphere or feeling in a particular text. For example, a text might create a sombre, reflective, exhilarating or menacing _______ or atmosphere depending on the imagery or other language used.

Multimodal text

Combination of two or more communication modes (for example, print, image and spoken text, as in film or computer presentations).

Narrative

A story of events or experiences, real or imagined. In literary theory,

______________ includes the story (what is narrated) and the discourse (how it is narrated).

Narrative point of view

The ways in which a narrator may be related to the story. For example, the narrator might take the role of first or third person, omniscient or restricted in knowledge of events, reliable or unreliable in interpreting what happens.

Personification

The description of an inanimate object as though it were a person or living thing.

Perspective(s)

A position from which things may be viewed or considered. People may have different ________ on events or issues due to (for example) their age, gender, social position and beliefs and values. A _____________is more than an opinion; it is a viewpoint informed by one or more contexts. While a pregnant woman, a homeless man and a police officer, for example, view the world from different perspectives, they may still share the same opinion about something. Texts through an embedded ideology can also present a particular ___________

Point of view

(See also Narrative point of view.) The opinion or viewpoint expressed by an individual in a text, for example an author, a narrator, a character or an implied reader.

Prose

Ordinary language used in speaking or writing, distinguished from poetry by its lack of a marked metrical structure. Many modern genres, such as short stories, novels in fiction, for example, and letters, essays, and other types of non-fiction writing are typically written in __________ .

Reading

The process of making meaning of text. This process draws on a repertoire of social, cultural and cognitive resources. ___________ occurs in different ways, for different purposes, in a variety of public and domestic settings. __________ is therefore a cultural, economic, ideological, political and psychological act. The term applies to the act of reading print texts or the act of viewing a film or static image.

Readings

___________ are particular interpretations of a text. The classification of ___________ into alternative, resistant or dominant is quite arbitrary, depending on the ideology held by the reader.

Alternative ___________ : readings that focus on the gaps and silences in texts to create meanings that vary from those meanings that seem to be foregrounded by the text.

Dominant ___________ : is the reading that seems to be, for the majority of people in society, the natural or normal way to interpret a text. In a society where there are strongly competing discourses (i.e. most societies), the definition of what is a dominant reading depends on the ideology of the person making the decision.

Resistant ___________ : a way of reading or making meaning from a text which challenges or questions the assumptions underlying the text. Resistant ___________ employ a discourse different from the discourse that produces the dominant reading.

Representation

__________ refers to the way people, events, issues or subjects are presented in a text. The term implies that texts are not mirrors of the real world; they are constructions of 'reality'. These constructions are partially shaped through the writer's use of conventions and techniques.

Rhetoric

The language of argument, using persuasive and forceful language.

Rhetorical devices

Language techniques used in argument to persuade audiences

(for example, rhetorical questions, repetition, propositions, figurative language).

Short answer response

Well-developed paragraph or paragraphs in Standard Australian English which include supporting detail and typically ranging between 200-300 words depending on time allocation. While not required to conform to the conventions of formal essay writing, short answer responses should be succinct and directly address the question.

Standard Australian English (SAE)

The variety of spoken and written English language in Australia used in more formal settings such as for official or public purposes, and recorded in dictionaries, style guides and grammars. While it is always dynamic and evolving, it is recognised as the 'common language' of Australians.

Stylistic choices

The selection of stylistic features to achieve a particular effect.

Stylistic features

The ways in which aspects of texts (such as words, sentences, images) are arranged and how they affect meaning. Style can distinguish the work of individual authors (for example, Jennings' stories, Lawson's poems), as well as the work of a particular period (for example, Elizabethan drama,

nineteenth-century novels), or of a particular genre or type of text

(for example, recipes, scientific articles, play-by-play commentary). Examples of stylistic features are narrative viewpoint, structure of stanzas, juxtaposition, nominalisation, alliteration, metaphor and lexical choice.

Synthesise

Combine elements (information/ideas/components) into a coherent whole.

Text structure

The ways in which information is organised in different types of texts

(for example, chapter headings, subheadings, tables of contents, indexes and glossaries, overviews, introductory and concluding paragraphs, sequencing, topic sentences, taxonomies, cause and effect). Choices in ____________ and language features together define a text type and shape its meaning. Examples of ____________ in literary texts include sonnets, monologues and hypertext.

Theme

An idea, concern or argument developed in a text; a recurring element

(for example, the subject of a text may be love, and its____________ could be how love involves sacrifice). A work may have more than one ____________.

Tone

____________ describes the way the 'voice' is delivered. For example, the ____________of a voice or the ____________ in a passage of writing could be friendly or angry or persuasive.

Types of texts

Classifications of texts according to the particular purposes they are designed to achieve. In general, in the senior courses in the English curriculum, texts are classified as imaginative, interpretive, persuasive or analytical types of texts, although these distinctions are neither static nor discrete and particular texts can belong to more than one category.

Analytical texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to identify, examine and draw conclusions about the elements or components that make up other texts. ______________ develop an argument or consider or advance an interpretation. Examples of these texts include commentaries, essays in criticism, reflective or discursive responses and reviews.

Imaginative texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to entertain or provoke thought through their imaginative use of literary elements. They are recognised for their form, style and artistic or aesthetic value. These texts include novels, traditional tales, poetry, stories, plays, fiction for young adults and children, including picture books, and multimodal texts such as film.

Interpretive texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to explain and interpret personalities, events, ideas, representations or concepts. They include autobiography, biography, media feature articles, documentary film and other non-fiction texts. There is a focus on interpretive rather than informative texts in the senior years of schooling.

Persuasive texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to put forward a point of view and persuade a reader, viewer or listener. They form a significant part of modern communication in both print and digital environments. They include advertising, debates, arguments, discussions, polemics and essays and articles.

Visual elements

Visual components of a text such as composition, framing, representation of action or reaction, shot size, social distance and camera angle.

Authorial voice

In the literary sense, voice can be used to refer to the nature of the voice projected in a text by an author; the persona, role or character adopted by an author.

Narrative voice

The ways in which a narrator may be related to the story. For example, the narrator might take the role of first or third person, omniscient or restricted in knowledge of events, reliable or unreliable in interpreting what happens.

Voices in texts

As well as an author's voice, texts often contain 'multiple voices'. These are the views, positions, ideas and perspectives of other individuals or groups. It is important to recognise the various voices in a text, how they relate to one another, and how the creator of a text uses these to shape audience response.