Should the basic HSC English courses be changed? (1 Viewer)

[Schoey93]

Hello all,

I have chosen English (Advanced) and it sounds boring as hell. I am sure many students would agree that it and English (Standard) are extremely boring and not worth studying.

I have read that a teacher thought ESL should be the basic English course. I have also heard numerous students comment on how good the English Extension 1 course is and how it is "so much better than Advanced".

Therefore, who would like to see either ESL 2 Unit, English Extension 1 Unit or a choice between both for the basic preliminary and HSC English courses? Are there any other English courses that you think should replace Standard and Advanced? Perhaps A-level English, International Baccalaureate English (SL) or English (HL) or even introductory undergraduate university English subjects would be preferable to the Standard and Advanced courses?

 

[possessionless]

Believe it or not English Extension 1 is alot easier than English Advanced.
Maybe they should change that around.
But really I think your texts in english have a huge impact on whether you like the subject or not.
And obviously your attitude, like alot of people "this is crap. this shouldnt be complusory. you dont learn anything from analysing texts"
Well if your attitude is like that, then you certainly are not going to enjoy english.

 

[speedofsound]

i would say Eng Ext 1. even though i dropped it, that course is more what i'd call "real" English.

 

[Schoey93]

Believe it or not English Extension 1 is a lot easier than English Advanced.
Maybe they should change that around.
But really I think your texts in english have a huge impact on whether you like the subject or not.
And obviously your attitude, like a lot of people "this is crap. this shouldnt be complusory. you dont learn anything from analysing texts"
Well if your attitude is like that, then you certainly are not going to enjoy english.

Well, that isn't my attitude. I have enjoyed English in the junior school. I just think pre-preparing essays and creative writing piece for exams makes your work so artificial. Surely at university English students prepare essays and creative writing pieces and then hand them in, rather than memorising them and regurgitating them under exam conditions?

 

[duckcowhybrid]

Why isn't English Advanced up there? I find that to be be a perfectly good HSC course. Out of that list though, I'd pick IB English HL.

 

[Schoey93]

Are you kidding? Even quite a few teachers have major issues with the English (Advanced) course. One student's teacher on this forum, for example, apologised to his class for teaching them Advanced English because it was not "English as I know and love it".

Edit: I haven't heard people say many good things about the Advanced course, that's why I'm a bit surprised at your comment. Maybe I will enjoy the English (Advanced) course, who knows? It was a pity English Extension and Hospitality clashed though, I would have liked to sample the Extension course ... people say it's easy and enjoyable.

 

[darkcounty]

Believe it or not English Extension 1 is alot easier than English Advanced.
Maybe they should change that around.
But really I think your texts in english have a huge impact on whether you like the subject or not.
And obviously your attitude, like alot of people "this is crap. this shouldnt be complusory. you dont learn anything from analysing texts"
Well if your attitude is like that, then you certainly are not going to enjoy english.

In what way is Eng Ext 1 easier than Advanced? Just wondering.

 

[possessionless]

In what way is Eng Ext 1 easier than Advanced? Just wondering.

I'm not sure I just found it easier. Maybe my texts were easier...I know I make no sense lol

 

[duckcowhybrid]

Extension is way harder than Advanced, or what I've done of it so far. But I do enjoy both. Maybe it's just my teachers. Advanced is easier than Extension for me.

 

[Schoey93]

Extension is way harder than Advanced, or what I've done of it so far. But I do enjoy both. Maybe it's just my teachers. Advanced is easier than Extension for me.

Yes, but you go to JRAHS, where teachers teach WAY beyond the syllabus. Other students either learn beyond the syllabus a little bit at school, in their own time or mostly, not at all. Of course Extension would be harder at JRAHS.

 

[Schoey93]

The fact that you (DCH) go to JRAHS perhaps explains why you like the English (Advanced) course... you actually get taught real English as an extension of the crap that most schools teach.

 

[kaz1]

I'm not really familiar with the content of most of the courses outlined in the poll. Wtf with Extension 2 English as the basic course, I'd move state if EX2 was the base course.

 

[Schoey93]

LOL

It's a matter of personal preference. I thought that English Extension 2 might be quite a popular choice, given that their is NO EXAM and you get to write a short story or even make a short film. I thought that most students' favourite part of English was creative writing and other forms of creativity. Am I incorrect?

 

[Arcorn]

Well yes the Advanced English course is terrible while the extension course is interesting and actually a good stance easier even with the bigger work load.

It is almost impossible to umbrella something completely for the whole state. We just did our first assessment task in English for yr 12 and it was common with standard and honestly the test was terrible. Everything seemed too simple, yes it was a listening task but the questions were too easy.

I think the main problem with the advanced course is that it doesn't challenge as much as it should and thus people lose interest in it.

 

[Schoey93]

Well yes the Advanced English course is terrible while the extension course is interesting and actually a good stance easier even with the bigger work load.

It is almost impossible to umbrella something completely for the whole state. We just did our first assessment task in English for yr 12 and it was common with standard and honestly the test was terrible. Everything seemed too simple, yes it was a listening task but the questions were too easy.

I think the main problem with the advanced course is that it doesn't challenge as much as it should and thus people lose interest in it.

I agree with this. I just started this thread to get a few different opinions. Would people like to have more options to choose from for their HSC English course? Perhaps English Extension could be offered with Standard English and also on its own. ESL would be a good course for many students - I think it involves less analysis. But instead of testing English speaking and listening skills, the general approach to texts in the ESL course could be adopted and the listening exam scrapped for native students.

Perhaps English shouldn't be compulsory at all. A lot of people have expressed that view in another thread.

 

[kaz1]

LOL

It's a matter of personal preference. I thought that English Extension 2 might be quite a popular choice, given that their is NO EXAM and you get to write a short story or even make a short film. I thought that most students' favourite part of English was creative writing and other forms of creativity. Am I incorrect?

It's probably personal preference. I detested creative writing, even more than analysing.

Well yes the Advanced English course is terrible while the extension course is interesting and actually a good stance easier even with the bigger work load.

It is almost impossible to umbrella something completely for the whole state. We just did our first assessment task in English for yr 12 and it was common with standard and honestly the test was terrible. Everything seemed too simple, yes it was a listening task but the questions were too easy.

I think the main problem with the advanced course is that it doesn't challenge as much as it should and thus people lose interest in it.

I thought it was the opposite as students find it difficult to produce a good quality essay within 40 minutes and have to resort to memorising.

 

[Schoey93]

English shouldn't be about memorising. It should be about skills, just like mathematics. It would be better in my opinion if there were no English examinations and all essays were assignments. The problem with that, of course, is that people would probably resort to cheating. However, I have no doubt that cheating does still occur within the current system, as people get tutors/teachers/parents to pre-prepare essays that are reproduced in exams.

 

[penguin.ali]

To be honest, I really enjoyed the advanced course, even though my texts were pretty dodge. [bladerunner, skrzynecki, frankenstein, speeches, caesar]
And I think that was because I didn't treat it as some major grab for marks or anything like that, and I have never worried about the 40min essay time limit.


I believe, that if you put in the effort and get to know the syllabus and your texts/concepts that the advanced course will be very enjoyable, because by purely thinking your way through things, you have a lot of freedom to critically analyse and examine your texts without feeling restricted, because the only people I have heard complaining about the advanced course are the ones that feel that they need to memorise essays in order to do well. Maybe they just feel restricted by their apparent "need" to memorise, and that is why they hate the course?
^this is just judging by my experience over this past year, and in no way defines all the kids in the state [there were only 40 kids in my year]

 

[Schoey93]

To be honest, I really enjoyed the advanced course, even though my texts were pretty dodge. [bladerunner, skrzynecki, frankenstein, speeches, caesar]
And I think that was because I didn't treat it as some major grab for marks or anything like that, and I have never worried about the 40min essay time limit.


I believe, that if you put in the effort and get to know the syllabus and your texts/concepts that the advanced course will be very enjoyable, because by purely thinking your way through things, you have a lot of freedom to critically analyse and examine your texts without feeling restricted, because the only people I have heard complaining about the advanced course are the ones that feel that they need to memorise essays in order to do well. Maybe they just feel restricted by their apparent "need" to memorise, and that is why they hate the course?
^this is just judging by my experience over this past year, and in no way defines all the kids in the state [there were only 40 kids in my year]

Those texts don't sound 'dodge'. They sound like they would have been fun to read, possibly even fun to analyse.
Did you write your essays and creative writing piece in the exams ad hoc? You didn't prepare responses beforehand? If so, that is admirable. What do you expect for your final mark?

 

[Schoey93]

It would be good if the same thing was done in the Standard and Advanced English courses.