English terms and definitions

Analyse

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

Attitudes

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

Audience

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

Context

The environment in which a text is responded to or created. 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.

Digital texts

Audio, visual or multimodal texts produced through digital or electronic technology.

Evaluate

Evaluation 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.

Form; forms of texts

The shape and structure of literary texts.

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 or their form

Hybrid texts

Composite texts resulting from a mixing of elements from different sources or genres

Ideas

Understandings, thoughts, notions, opinions, views or beliefs.

Interpretation

Interpretation is the meaning made of a text. Developing an interpretation can involve reading texts in particular ways, such as identifying ideas, issues and themes; analysing the effects of language features, conventions of genre, text structures and stylistic features; considering the influence of context; focusing on various representations; for example, representations of gender, class or cultural identity. Different ways of reading a text can produce different interpretations.

Issues

Matters of personal or public concern that are in dispute

Language features

The features of language that support meaning. 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 of production.

Language patterns

The arrangement of identifiable repeated or corresponding elements in a text. These include patterns of repetition or similarity. The patterns may alternate Other patterns may contrast. The language patterns of a text contribute to the distinctive nature of its overall organisation and shape its meaning.

Literary texts

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.

Metalanguage

Language used to discuss language or language used to talk about grammatical terms.

Mode

The various processes of communication: listening, speaking, reading/viewing and writing/creating.

Modes

Semiotic resources associated with communicative processes, such as sound, print, image and gesture.

Mood

The atmosphere or feeling in a particular text, which can be sombre, reflective, exhilarating or menacing depending on the imagery or language used.

Multimodal text

Combination of two or more communication modes, such as print, image and spoken text, as seen in film or computer presentations.

Narrative

A story of events or experiences, real or imagined, which 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.

Perspective(s)

A position from which things may be viewed or considered, influenced by factors such as age, gender, social position, beliefs and values.

Representation

The way people, events, issues or subjects are presented in a text, indicating that texts are constructions of 'reality' shaped by the writer's conventions and techniques.

Rhetoric

The language of argument, using persuasive and forceful language.

Rhetorical devices

Language techniques used in argument to persuade audiences

Style

The culmination of distinctive qualities that distinguish or characterize a text, which can also be discerned across a body of work or a specific period.

Stylistic choices

The selection of stylistic features to achieve a particular effect.

Stylistic features

The features of a text that contribute to its style.

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).

Theme

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

Tone

The way the 'voice' is delivered.

Types of texts

Classifications of texts according to the particular purposes they are designed to achieve.

Analytical texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to identify, examine and draw conclusions about the elements or components that make up other texts.

Imaginative texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to entertain or provoke thought through their imaginative use of literary elements.

Interpretive texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to explain and interpret personalities, events, ideas, representations or concepts.

Persuasive texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to put forward a viewpoint and persuade a reader, viewer or listener.

Visual elements

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

Voice

Distinct personality discernible in a text.