1st L (Yr 7 Entry) 7-8
Understanding

Systems of language - Elaboration 1

- realising that meaning is communicated through the use of signs, pictures, written or spoken words or miming

- identifying the handshape of a sign, for example, COCKATOO (hs:5, palm left) and SOCCER (hs:fist, palm towards signer) and identifying signs of a particular handshape

- identifying and demonstrating signs with a change in handshape, for example FIND or BEST

- identifying and demonstrating signs with a change in orientation, for example CAN-NOT or HOW

- noticing the path movement of a particular sign and identifying signs associated with the major types of path movements, for example, THROUGH (forwards) or FULL (down to up)

- describing how the movement changes between groups of related numbers, for example, 5, 15, 50, 5th)

- noticing the five major locations of signs on the body or in space, and identifying signs associated with each, such as SEE (head/face), SAY (mouth/chin), WHY (chest), TALK (hand) and ONE (signing space)

- understanding that NMFs are important in sign language for showing feelings of the signer or others

- identifying single, double and two-handed signs, and recognising which hand is dominant (the pen hand) and which is non-dominant (paper) within two-handed signs

- thinking of body-anchored signs, such as HEAD or WHY, and signs that are not body anchored, such as HAVE or STOP, and recognising that non-body anchored signs can be located in space around the signer

- understanding that signs can be organised by handshape, for example in Johnston’s Auslan dictionaries or localised handshape dictionaries in schools, and that this is useful if an English word for a sign is not known

- recognising that some signs are iconic, that is, provide a visual image of a referent, for example, HOUSE, TREE, DRINK, ELEPHANT, and that some are not, such as SISTER, WHY, SIMPLE

- experimenting with different methods of capturing the signed language, such as: a class-invented script, drawing pictures, videoing, English glosses or ASL-phabet