Language Investigations

Language Investigations is a resource book for teachers specifically focused on meeting the requirements of The Australian Curriculum: English. The material is presented in a flexible way that allows teachers to use the information, ideas and activities at different year levels and with students of different ability levels. Each chapter contains multiple activities: some are quite specific, others open ended. Some chapters will be integrated units; others will be a succession of discrete activities on the chapter topic.

This is a book which not only provides teachers with assistance in implementing the Australian Curriculum: English but can also make the study of English and language interesting and relevant to students.

It has 25 practical units which individually and together explain and address terms like the following, referred to in the curriculum:

• accent
• dialect
• monologue
• satire
• adjective
• dialogue
• myth
• setting
• adverb

• ellipsis
• narrative
• sentence structure
• allegory
• idiom
• nominalisation
• spelling roots (Greek/Latin)
• allusion
• imagery

• noun/abstract noun
• Standard Australian English
• analogy
• innuendo
• parody
• stanza
• apposition
• intertextuality
• point of view

• suffix
• characterisation
• juxtaposition
• prefix
• symbolism
• clause/embedded clause
• metaphor/extended metaphor
• prepositional phrase
• theme (grammatical)

• cohesion
• metonymy
• pun
• topic sentence
• contrast
• modality
• rhythm
• verb
• voice

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Connotation
3. Language of the Self: Autobiography and Memoir
4. The Language of Poetry (1)
5. The Language of Life Writing
6. Wordsmithing
7. Changing Language
8. The Evolution of the English Language
9. The Language of Advocacy
10. The Language of Shakespeare: Across Different Times, Forms, Cultures

11. It's a Wild World: The Language of Representing the Natural World
12. Monitoring Language
13. Vocabulary Development
14. The Language of Involvement: Fan Fiction, Blogs and Social Media
15. The Language of the Personal Essay
16. Spelling
17. George Orwell
18. The Language of Poetry (2)
19. The Language of Propaganda: Fictional Worlds
20. The Language of Gaming

21. The Language of Propaganda: The Real World
22. Names
23. Grammar
24. The Language of Adolescent Picture Books
25. Irony and Satire
26. Glossary