1st
L (Yr 7 Entry) 7-8
Understanding
Role of language and culture
- Elaboration 7
- recognising that people from different places and backgrounds may use
different languages and have ways of living and communicating that differ from
their own
- appreciating that culture and cultural difference means that people may value
different things or live differently, noticing observable examples of
‘difference’, such as ways of greeting (bowing versus shaking hands) or
conveying information (through words versus signs)
- recognising how they as deaf people live in ways that may be different from
how hearing people live and that these ways are primarily visual, for example by
responding to prompts such as: Compare how deaf and hearing people get the
attention of someone on the other side of the room; and How do deaf and hearing
people make sure they wake up at a particular time in the morning?
- recognising the importance of facial expression, eye gaze and non-manual
features in conveying information in a visual-gestural language and culture
- understanding that culture is more than the visible aspects of people’s lives,
that it also includes invisible elements such as beliefs and values, how people
think about themselves and others, how they relate to their social and physical
environments; and considering how this understanding applies to themselves as
users of Auslan
- recognising that in each culture there are general rules for what to say and
do, when, where and with whom, and that these rules differ from culture to
culture, for example, the Deaf culture places greater importance on eye contact
than cultures that communicate through spoken languages
- identifying the importance of signing space and proxemics in Auslan,
particularly in relation to a person passing between two signers, or the
positioning of communication partners
- recognising that shared experiences shape cultural values in Auslan and in
other cultures, for example, the experience of deaf children being excluded from
family and social discourse during dinner table conversations or social events
gives rise to the value placed in the Deaf community on sharing information with
each other
- considering how some spaces make deaf people feel comfortable, for example,
open-plan spaces with long sight lines allowing easy visual access