2nd L (Yr 7 Entry) 7-8
Achievement Standard


By the end of Year 8, students use Auslan to share information, experiences, interests, thoughts and feelings about their personal and immediate worlds.

They use modelled constructions, ask for repetition or clarification, such as please slow sign, and use strategies such as fingerspelling to replace unknown signs to support continued interaction.

They use lexical signs, gestures and affective non-manual features (NMFs) to indicate understanding, interest or lack of interest, for example, AGREE YES or PRO1 AGREE or PRO1 KNOW WHAT MEAN, BUT….

They ask and respond to familiar questions and directions and distinguish between statements and questions using grammatical NMFs.

Students use familiar language to collaboratively plan and conduct shared events or activities, such as presentations, demonstrations or transactions, for example, PRO2 TYPE PRO1 WRITE.

They describe people, animals and objects using lexical adjectives and familiar SASS depicting signs and appropriate classifier handshapes, for example, POSS1 MATH TEACHER TALL DS:long-wavy-hair or SCHOOL UNIFORM HAVE DS:long-thin-tie.

They compare routines, interests and leisure activities, using signs for timing and frequency, simple depicting verbs for showing location, and appropriate sequencing.

They use culturally appropriate protocols when communicating, such as maintaining eye contact, responding to and gaining attention by waving or tapping a shoulder or table, flashing lights, back-channelling and voice-off.

Students locate specific information in a range of signed texts, such as weather reports, public announcements and presentations by visitors, using visual and contextual clues to help make meaning.

They summarise and retell key points of information in correct sequence using list buoys.

They plan, rehearse and deliver short presentations, taking into account context, purpose and audience and using familiar signs and visual supports, such as photos and props, and cohesive and sequencing devices.

Students view and respond to short imaginative and expressive texts, such as short stories, poems and Deaf performances, for example by identifying and discussing ideas, characters and events.

They create their own simple imaginative texts and retell wordless animations using familiar signs, gestures, modelled clause structures, high-frequency signs, modifying NMFs and lexical signs to indicate manner.

They translate and interpret short texts using Signbank, and give examples of how languages do not always translate directly.

They create bilingual texts and resources for the classroom, for example, glossaries and captions for their own and each other’s short stories.

They explain the importance of facial expression, eye gaze and other NMFs in a visual-gestural language and culture, and reflect on their own cultural identity and ways of communicating in light of their experience of learning Auslan.

Students know that Auslan is a legitimate language, different from mime and gestures used in spoken languages, and that eye contact is necessary for effective communication.

They know that meaning is communicated visually through the use of signs, NMFs and gestures and can be expressed through whole signs or fingerspelling.

They identify and describe the handshapes, movements and locations of signs.

They distinguish between entity, handling or SASS depicting signs by looking at what the handshape and movement represent in each type and know that spatial relationships are typically expressed with entity DSs.

They know that signs can be displaced in space for a range of purposes, such as to show locations or show the participants in a verb. They know that signing involves telling, depicting or enacting.

They identify iconic signs and discuss how these match their referent, such as HOUSE, TREE, DRINK.

They know that the function of constructed action is to represent the words, thoughts or actions of themselves or others.

They use metalanguage to talk about Auslan, for example using terms such as depicting signs, indicating verbs, non-manual features, handshapes, pointing signs and clauses.

Students recognise variation in the use of Auslan, such as regional dialects and differences in signing space.

They understand different ways that English words are borrowed into Auslan and how these become lexicalised.

They explore the influence on Auslan of other signed languages, such as BSL, ISL and ASL, as well as English over different periods of time and in different domains of language use, and consider reasons for these influences.

They identify different ways that Deaf community members communicate with each other and with members of the wider hearing community, describing how different forms of digital communication such as social media, SMS/texting and NRS have improved accessibility for the Deaf community and contribute to the vitality of the language.

Students recognise that Auslan has been transmitted across generations and describe ways it has been documented and recorded.

They reflect on ways that culture is differently interpreted by others, for example by identifying how stereotypes about deaf and hearing people influence perceptions; and they understand that the most unifying factor of the Deaf community is the use of Auslan.