English as an Additional Language: should I choose it?

What will I learn?

How will I be assessed?

Progression and companion subjects

No complete companion or exclusion review is attached to this profile. Check the official course-entry conditions, language eligibility and your school’s sequence before enrolling. Links between resource hubs show related learning; they do not establish a compulsory prerequisite.

Will I find it hard?

Difficulty depends on your experience, interests, teaching and assessment. These are our reflection prompts, not an official difficulty rating.

• Do you enjoy close reading, developing an interpretation and supporting it with evidence?
• Would you rather revise a piece of writing over time or respond to a text under timed conditions? Check the actual assessment mix.

Does it scale up or down?

Use SATAC subject evidence. An aggregate-to-ATAR table is not a subject scaling table.

Scaling is not a measure of difficulty or a guaranteed bonus. Prioritise content you can engage with and required subjects for courses you are considering.

Try a little of the subject

Communication and interactive study

Communication involves exchanging information, opinions and experiences with another person, rather than simply displaying vocabulary. Before speaking or writing, identify your audience, purpose and context. An explanation to a new student should define unfamiliar terms; a request to a coordinator should state the action needed politely. Information can be checked against evidence, an opinion expresses a judgement, and an experience describes something that happened to someone. Signal these differences with expressions such as “The notice states”, “I believe” and “When I first joined”. Give listeners enough context to understand your point without assuming they share your experiences. Choose vocabulary for its meaning and effect. Descriptive language supplies concrete detail, persuasive language gives reasons for agreement, and emotive language invites feelings. These purposes can overlap. “The narrow doorway becomes crowded” describes an observable problem, while “Nobody should feel trapped outside their own classroom” adds emotional force. Avoid exaggeration that makes a reasonable claim difficult to trust. A formal register can still use short, familiar words. Technical vocabulary is useful when it makes meaning precise, but define it for an audience that may not know it. Organise a response around a clear main point, supporting detail and a purposeful ending. Use cohesive links to show relationships: “because” introduces a reason, “however” introduces contrast, and “therefore” introduces a consequence. Check that pronouns have clear referents. Develop grammatical complexity by joining ideas with subordinate clauses, but retain control of sentence boundaries and tense. An accurate simple sentence is more useful than a long sentence whose relationships are unclear. Re

Original practice question: Which request best suits a formal email to a coordinator?

This is ATARMAxxing’s original sample learning material. It is not an official assessment task or a prediction of your school’s workload.

Explore the resources

Open the English as an Additional Language subject hub and free preview (opens in a new tab)

• English as an Additional Language — SACE Stage 2 (opens in a new tab)

Core subject information and planning are free. Full study resources are optional.