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Cowra High School

Cowra High School

Knowledge is Power

Telephone6342 1766

Emailcowra-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Languages

LANGUAGES

Languages (Japanese) - Years 7-10

Learning languages opens minds of students to the world beyond the borders of their local communities and allows them to experience the world from a different perspective. Proficiency in languages provides a resource that encourages more effective engagement with global communities and markets. The study of Languages effectively reinforces essential foundational skills of literacy, leading to students having an improved understanding of the English language. Languages also fosters a rapid development of social skills through the discussion of unspoken cultural rules and norms, roles of the individual in a community and examining students’ own community through the lens of another culture. Finally, Languages develops a variety of cognitive skills as the demands of communicating in another language require students to learn improvisation, quick-thinking and complex problem-solving skills to communicate in the target language with varying degrees of fluency.

The rich linguistic and cultural diversity of New South Wales provides an educational environment where the study of languages and cultures is valued as a unique and integral part of the curriculum.

The Japanese 7–10 Syllabus provides opportunities for students to engage with the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Japanese-speaking community. By learning Japanese, students develop communicative skills in the language, an understanding of how languages work as a system and intercultural understanding capability.

Course requirements

Years 7-10:       The study of at least 100 hours in one language, to be completed over one continuous 12-month period, is a mandatory requirement for eligibility for the award of the ROSA  Record of School Achievement. The 100-hour course must cover the Stage 4 outcomes and content of the chosen language syllabus, and must be studied between Years 7–10, but preferably in Years 7–8.

LOTE (Japanese) - Years 11 and 12

Senior Japanese courses are academic category A HSC courses. These courses are both offered at CHS to give students the opportunity to learn languages at a level that will allow them to reach a different degrees of fluency that correspond with different levels languages at university and the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

Japanese Beginners

This course assumes no prior knowledge of Japanese language learning.

This course provides students who are interested in learning a language from the beginning with the opportunity to learn to communicate and understand Japanese to a pre-JLPT5, or a second semester-first year university level. Students do this through a range of units that examine Japanese and Australian cultural connections, similarities and differences whilst equipping students with the language to communicate and travel in Japan

Year 11 students will develop linguistic abilities to speak freely about their own personal world and understand the intercultural differences between Australian and Japanese individual worlds.

Year 12 students will develop the linguistic abilities to live, travel and communicate whilst in Japanese-speaking communities and learn to understand and navigate these communities as a valued member.

Japanese Continuers

This course requires students to have studied Japanese for 300 hours from Year 7 to Year 10.

This course provides students who have consistently studied Japanese throughout high school the opportunity to learn to communicate and understand Japanese at a post-JLPT5 level, or second year university level.

The Year 11 course continues to move forward from the stage 5 course and explores previously examined units in more linguistic depth. Students explore how the individual navigates Australian and Japanese cultural waypoints whilst learning the understand Japanese perspectives of the Australian way of life.

The Year 12 course focuses on how the individual interacts with the broader Japanese society, how the Japanese perspective of the world intertwines or clashes with the Australian perspective and encourages students to use language to communicate ideas and thoughts beyond the scope of themselves.

Course requirements

Years 11-12:

Japanese BeginnersNo Formal Study of Japanese language the compulsory 100 hours.

Japanese Continuers300 hours of Formal Japanese language study