WACE 2016 and beyond
and
The Australian Curriculum:
Languages
TOFA Stage à la plage
2014
TRIM: 2014/10515
1
The WACE syllabus review process
The 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.
2
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.
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.
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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.
4
Languages courses on offer from 2015
Language
Chinese
French
Second
language
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Background
language
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N/A
N/A
First language
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German Indonesian Italian
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N/A
Japanese
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Application for permission to enrol in a
WACE language course in 2015
From 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)
Indonesian: Second language (General and
ATAR)
Indonesian: Background language (ATAR)
Indonesian: First language (ATAR)
French: Second language (General and
ATAR)
French: Background language (ATAR)
Italian: Second language (General and ATAR)
Italian: Background language (ATAR)
German: Second language (General and
ATAR)
German: Background language (ATAR)
Japanese: Second language (General and
ATAR)
Japanese: Background language (ATAR)
Japanese: First language (ATAR)
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.
7
The WACE French courses
What’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.
WACE French Courses - Assessment
Based 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.
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WACE French Courses - Examinations
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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.
The Australian Curriculum
Languages 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.
13
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 Curriculum
Once 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.
Australian Curriculum: Languages French
Two sequences:
• F-10
• 7-10
Three areas:
• Band descriptions
• Content descriptions (with elaborations) in the strands
Communicating and Understanding
• Achievement standards
Scope and sequence
16
P – Year 10 Curriculum Implementation
17
P – Year 10 Curriculum Implementation
18
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.
19
Information
For 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