Project Description
Programme Specification
Subject Aims
The Leaving Certificate English syllabus aims to foster students’ development in the following areas
Concepts and Processes: the ability to think, reason, discriminate and evaluate in a wide variety of linguistic contexts, personal, social, vocational, and cultural. In comprehending, students should be able to analyse, infer, synthesise, and evaluate; in composing, students should be able to research, plan, draft, re-draft, and edit.
Knowledge and Content: knowledge about the nature and uses of language and the variety of functions and genres in which it operates. In this context genres of literature will be of particular significance.
Skills: interpreting and controlling the textual features (grammar, syntax, spellings, paragraphing) of written and oral language to express and communicate.
Attitudes and Effects: the development of interest and enjoyment in using language, a respect for its potential to make meaning and an appreciation of its diverse cultural manifestations.
Rationale for Subject
The syllabus is based on five fundamental ideas about language and language development
- Language, identity and power: Language is the chief means by which we make sense of our experience. Language gives u s a sense of personal and cultural identity, enables us to relate to each other and empowers us in multitudinous ways, from engaging in gossip to rejoicing in poetry.
- Language, meaning, and values: Language is neither a transparent medium nor a neutral instrument of communication. Language in use is value laden; it carries within its structures and choice of words an implicit statement of the writer’s or speaker’s social and moral outlook.
- Language as shape: Language does not reflect reality like a mirror; language creates its own view of reality. Language is dynamic and depending on a variety of factors puts specific shapes on reality. These language shapes can be called genres. The role of English is to develop students’ ability to comprehend these genres in all their diversity, to understand and appreciate how they work, and so come eventually to compose in them. In that way the students themselves will be interpreting, making meanings, and learning to communicate effectively.
- Critical literacy: The syllabus seeks to develop a critical literacy in students. This is a stance relative to texts, no matter what their source or pedigree, which is directed towards questioning texts, challenging their authority and problematising their apparent and accepted statements.
- Language awareness: To use language most effectively students need to develop an understanding of how language actually works to create meanings; they should be able to reflect on their own language use and that of others.
Subject Topics / Syllabus Content
The syllabus requires students to develop a range of skills and competencies across the five designated areas of language
- The language of Information
- The language of Argument
- The language of Persuasion
- The language of Narration
- The Aesthetic use of language
Over the course of two years students will develop these key skills through their study and analysis of a wide range of texts and genres.
- Novels
- Poetry
- Film
- Non-Fiction Texts
- Drama (Shakespeare is a required area of study for Higher Level Students)
Texts are chosen from the list ‘Prescribed Material for the Leaving Certificate English Examination’ published by the Department of Education each year.
Assessment
The syllabus will be assessed by a terminal written examination.
At both Higher Level and Ordinary Level there will be two papers.
There will be an equal allocation of marks to each paper.
Possible Career Options
- Journalist
- Novelist
- Poet
- Teacher
- Lecturer
- Business Management
