1st Language - Year 7 Entry (7-10)
Years 7 - 8 Level
Understanding Language and Culture
Content Elaborations - (U1) AC9L1AU8EU01
• showing how meaning can be expressed through either whole signs or fingerspelling, with NMFs
• recognising the variation in 'handedness' between signers in relation to both signs and fingerspelling: right handers using their right hand as their dominant (main) hand; left handers doing the opposite
• using NMFs to show emotional states such as a happy expression, or grammatical information, for example, a frown to mark a negative in like and dislike
• using signs with a change in handshape, for example, find or best, or a change in orientation, for example, can-not or how
• observing a sign's handshape and its orientation, for example, COCKATOO handshape:five, palm left, and SOCCER handshape:fist
• identifying signs that can represent a whole object or part of an object, for example, body versus legs
• noticing iconic signs that provide visual images of referents such as DRINK, ELEPHANT
• noticing the 5 major locations of signs on the body (body anchored signs) or in space (non-body anchored), and identifying signs associated with each, such as SEE (head/face), SAY (mouth/chin), WHY (chest), CHEST (non-body anchored, head signing space), HAVE, STOP and ONE (non-body anchored, chest signing space)
• noticing the path movement of a particular sign and identifying signs associated with the major types of primary and secondary path movements, for example, THROUGH (forwards) or FULL (down to up) - both primary movements; or WHEN (wiggle on cheek) or DINNER (tap on chin) - both secondary movements
• noticing that in a stretch of connected signing, a sign will often be produced differently from the way it is shown in a dictionary in terms of citation and non-citation form, for example, know signed at the temple location, but in conversation this sign is often dropped into a lower signing space such as cheek, or even lower
• identifying which hand is dominant and which is non-dominant in 2-handed signs, and how such signs may move, for example, double-handed signs with same handshape move in the same way such as BOOK or DIFFERENT, while 2-handed signs have one stationary hand and only the dominant hand moves such as CULTURE or IMPORTANT
• noticing signs can have different levels of visual motivation or iconicity, for example, those that are fully transparent (SLEEP), translucent (MILK) or arbitrary (PEOPLE), and that iconicity is often overestimated in sign languages
• noticing that a fixed 2-dimensional image of a sign may be produced differently in real-life Auslan
• swapping hand dominance and anchoring either the dominant or subordinate hand for a purpose
• demonstrating signing at a constant speed, with pauses to indicate the end of a phrase