1TRIM: 2014/10515

WACE 2016 and beyondand

The Australian Curriculum: Languages

TOFA Stage à la plage 2014

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The WACE syllabus review processThe Authority has listened to the feedback from teachers, principals and other stakeholders, and has adapted the Western Australian Certificate of Education to address the issues that have been raised.

As part of the review, changes and refinements to the current WACE courses have also occurred:

• Adopted and adapted the Australian Curriculum to reflect the content and understanding of our existing courses (E, M, H and S).

• Reviewed and repackaged the Stage 1, 2 and 3 courses into ATAR and General courses.

• ATAR courses typically reflect Stage 2 content in Year 11 and Stage 3 content in Year 12.

• General courses typically reflect Stage 1 content in Year 11 and Stage 2 content in Year 12.

The syllabus review tables will be published on the Authority’s website.

Review of courses

From 2015, courses (excluding Languages) with fewer than 100 students across the State for two consecutive years will be placed on notice and if enrolments remain at or below 100 students for a third year, the course will be removed from the Course List.

All syllabuses will be reviewed typically on a five-year cyclical basis, according to learning area.

The schedule of review will be published in 2014.

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What’s happening in 2014 for schools?• Available on our website on 31 March:

• 230 syllabuses• sample externally set tasks for all General courses• sample examinations for 13 new Australian Curriculum

based ATAR courses• the draft WACE Manual 2015-16 for consultation.

• You will be able to access learning area videos.• HOLAs will be able to register for learning area webinars.• You will be able to participate in online discussions.• Keep an eye on our website www.scsa.wa.edu.au.

Languages courses on offer from 2015

Language Chinese French German Indonesian Italian Japanese

Second language

 

Background language

First language 

N/A N/A

N/A

Application for permission to enrol in a WACE language course in 2015From 2015 all Year 11 students wishing to study a Year 11 WACE

language course must complete an application form before enrolling in:Chinese: Second language (General and ATAR)Chinese: Background language (ATAR)Chinese: First language (ATAR)

French: Second language (General and ATAR)French: Background language (ATAR)

German: Second language (General and ATAR)German: Background language (ATAR)

Indonesian: Second language (General and ATAR)Indonesian: Background language (ATAR)Indonesian: First language (ATAR)

Italian: Second language (General and ATAR)Italian: Background language (ATAR)

Japanese: Second language (General and ATAR)Japanese: Background language (ATAR)Japanese: First language (ATAR)

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Private Candidates

• From 2016, private candidature in ATAR examinations will be discontinued except for students:• seeking mature age university entrance• undertaking language courses through interstate

or Collaborative Curriculum Assessment Framework for Languages (CACAFL) offerings.

The WACE French coursesWhat’s new?• Pathway for all students• ATAR and General courses• Revised rationale • Refinement to unit content• Changes to names and number of topics and inclusion of

topic descriptions• Movement of some grammatical items• Synthesis of grade descriptions • Appendices for text types and grammar.

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WACE French Courses - AssessmentBased on previous WACE course assessment table with

the following amendments:• the assessment type Response has been split and has

been renamed Response: Listening and Response: Viewing and reading

• the wording of the assessment types has been modified slightly

• written and practical (oral) examinations have been included as assessment types in ATAR and Externally Set Task has been included in the Year 12 General

• weightings for each assessment type are fixed.

WACE French Courses - Examinations

• Practical (oral) examination and a written examination• Number of sections has remained the same• Weightings have been slightly altered• Supporting information has been refined to ensure clarity in

content and process, e.g. number of times texts are played, types of texts and question formats to be used.

WACE French: Background Language course

• Developed in conjunction with German and Italian Background Language courses

• ATAR course only• Content areas are similar to French Second Language• Draft grade descriptions • Appendices for text types and grammar • Year 12 syllabus also includes Personal investigation and

in the appendix, a list of suggested sub-topics for the Personal investigation.

WACE French: Background Language course

Personal investigation• Year 12• Basis of school based assessments and practical (oral)

examination• Research into a topic of interest, related to one of the

topics in Units 3 and/or 4• Use of texts and resources and reference to personal

experiences, if applicable• Prior to examination – 300 word written summary in French

and annotated bibliography of three source texts.

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The Australian CurriculumLanguages curricula currently being developed/to be developed:

• a Framework for Aboriginal Languages and Torres Strait Islander Languages (the Framework)

• Arabic and Vietnamese • French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese,

Korean, Modern Greek and Spanish • Chinese• Auslan, classical languages, Hindi and Turkish.

The Australian Curriculum• The F-10 Australian Curriculum: Languages continues to

be consulted on during 2014.

• It is anticipated that the Australian Curriculum: Languages will be endorsed by Ministers and published later this year.

• When the curriculum is endorsed by the Minister of Education (WA) for implementation by WA schools, the content of the curriculum will be adopted and adapted to suit Western Australian schools.

The Australian CurriculumOnce the curricula are endorsed and available for implementation, in WA, work will be done through the Authority to :• Identify core and additional content, and develop

syllabuses for P – 6 and 7 – 10 for each of the languages• The syllabuses:

• will outline explicit content that teachers are expected to teach and students expected to acquire

• will give an indication of notional time allocation.

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Australian Curriculum: Languages FrenchTwo sequences:• F-10• 7-10

Three areas:• Band descriptions• Content descriptions (with elaborations) in the strands

Communicating and Understanding• Achievement standards

Scope and sequence

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P – Year 10 Curriculum Implementation

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P – Year 10 Curriculum Implementation

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Overview of teachers’ role• Identify essential content.• Sequence teaching and learning activities to support

curriculum content and to reflect needs of students.• Develop assessment tasks to enable students to

demonstrate achievement (of the Achievement standards).

• Collect evidence of student achievement and provide feedback.

• Make on-balance judgments about student achievement, using the Judging standards resources.

• Report student achievement.

InformationFor further information and updates:

• WACE 2016 at www.scsa.wa.edu.au

• Australian Curriculum at www.acara.edu.au

Principal Consultants• Adriana Douglas – French | German

9273 6784 adriana.douglas@scsa.wa.edu.au

• Hanneke Rekelhof – Eligibility | Aboriginal Languages | Interstate Languages

9273 6724 hanneke.rekelhof@scsa.wa.edu.au

• Lisa Djanegara – Indonesian | Japanese

• 9273 6382 lisa.djanegara@scsa.wa.edu.au

• Nadia Civa – Chinese | Italian

9273 6355 nadia.civa@scsa.wa.edu.au