024211 English Education 1

This subject aims to introduce students to the central role played by language in children's intellectual, social and emotional development and to its essential role in all of the key learning areas. A functional view of language underpins the course. This view of language is concerned with relationships between context, language structure and meaning. Students closely examine a range of factors which influence the acquisition of literate behaviour prior to formal schooling as well as in the emergent literacy and early school curriculum. Children's literature is used as one context for examining the way language works, as well as providing an opportunity for examining the importance of books for young children and response theory and its implications for the teacher. A broad range of genres is covered and the crucial importance of language in the key learning areas is explored.