English A to Z
Our English A to Z glossary has more than 350 definitions of commonly used English terms used in primary and high school.
Our English A to Z glossary has more than 350 definitions of commonly used English terms used in primary and high school.
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A shortened form of a word.
The modern trend is not to use full stops in abbreviations.
Examples
The name of something we can’t see or touch. Often a feeling or emotion, such as sadness, love, wonder, anger, friendship, enthusiasm.
Example
“I value our friendship“.
Find more information about abstract nouns in our English help pages.
An abbreviation of several words by using the first letter of each word in such a way that the abbreviation itself forms a pronounceable word. Often written in capital letters.
Example
A type of poetry in which a letter in each line, usually the first letter, forms a word or message relating to the subject.
Example
“Dust and drought
Reddening the sky
Outback dustbowl
Unrelenting thirst
Goading our resolve
Heat and dust
Testing our faith”.
– Anonymous
There are also famous examples, such as Edgar Allan Poe's, An Acrostic, 1829.
The active voice occurs when the individual, animal or thing doing the action (the subject) comes before the verb.
Example
“The cat chased the bird”.
A group of words that contains a verb and tells more about a noun or pronoun.
An adjectival clause is a dependent clause and often begins with which, who, that, when, and why.
Example
“The elderly man, who was walking past, was carrying a walking stick.”
A group of words that gives more information about a noun and usually begins with a preposition.
Example
“The girl with brown curly hair sat at the front.”
Used to describe someone or something (a noun or a pronoun). It gives more information in a sentence.
Example
Find more information about adjectives in our English help pages.
The judge of the debate.
A word that tells us more about a verb. Adverbs tell us how, where, when, to what extent and how often things happen (e.g. quietly, very often, soon).
Examples
Find more information about adverbs in our English help pages.
A group of words containing a verb that tells more about another verb in the sentence.
An adverbial clause is a dependent clause.
Adverbial clauses often begin with when, where, how, why, after, although, as, because, even though, unless, until, whether, and while.
Example
When the clock chimed, the man checked his watch.
A group of words that gives more information about a verb.
Adverbial phrases often begin with prepositions, for example, ‘after school, when he was finished’.
Examples
The affirmative team must convince the audience that the statement is true.
Example
If the topic is: ‘that the number of school holidays be increased’, the affirmative must argue for the proposition.
The repetition of the consonant sound at the beginning of words.
Examples
‘Now the news. Night raids on
Five cities. Fires started.
Pressure applied by pincer movement
In threatening thrust. Third Division
Enlarges beachhead. Lucky charm
Saves sniper. Sabotage hinted
In steel-mill stoppage…’
From W.H. Auden’s The Age of Anxiety, in which the poet uses short ‘headline’ phrases to reinforce the theme of anxiety. Text is available under Wikipedia’s Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Examples
A word or phrase with the opposite meaning to another.
Examples
A punctuation mark used to:
Examples
To show ownership of a singular noun add (apostrophe) ‘ s after the word.
To show ownership of a plural noun add the (apostrophe) ‘ after the word, or after the ‘s’.
To show ownership of a collective noun add the (apostrophe) ‘ s after the word.
If a singular or collective noun already ends in s just add the (apostrophe) ‘ to the end of the word without an extra “s”. However, the missing “s” is pronounced in spoken texts.
Examples
Example
A visual text may be represented in different contexts, or appropriated for different purposes or effects, especially in advertising. Andy Warhol is famous for appropriating images of iconic subjects for his own artwork, for example, Marilyn Monroe face and Campbell’s soup cans.
The materials used to create the image.
Examples
Articles refer to: a, an and the. They come before the noun.
Examples
The repeated use of internal vowel sounds to create an auditory effect, particularly in poetry.
Examples
Example
In Preludes, 1917, T.S. Eliot vividly creates the atmosphere of a lonely and sordid city environment through his choice of words (burnt out, smoky, gusty, grimy withered). The weariness is developed through the run on lines.
The intended group the text is written for or presented to.
A helping verb that always comes before a verb, e.g. is running, am going, were driving, should put, would be, might make
Example
We will go to scouts after dinner tonight.
The area furthest from the viewer, behind the subject, or in the distance. The setting or context of an image.
A form of poetry or verse that tells a story or folk tale, sometimes set to music.
Most ballads have these elements:
Example
'The Man from Snow River' by Banjo Patterson.
A word that has nothing added at the beginning or the end. It stands on its own and it has a meaning.
New words can be made from base words by adding prefixes and suffixes.
Examples
Presented from a particular opinion or point of view. No other perspective is offered.
Types of bias include personal, cultural, ethnic, religious, gender and political. Bias may be found in advertising and other media texts.
Example
“My baby is the most beautiful baby in the world”.
A poem without rhyming lines and often with a pattern of five iambic feet (rhythm pattern is: da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM).
Example
Tintern Abbey (1798) by William Wordsworth.
To merge sounds together to pronounce a word.
A combination of two or three consonants is called a consonant blend.
Examples
Punctuation marks ( ) used to enclose words that gives more information about the text.
e.g. “Ella (John’s mother) will organise the drinks for the school community barbecue.” “She is referring to her friend (Emma) again.”
Brackets and parentheses are interchangeable words.
Examples
To write any ideas, words, memorable parts of texts, etc as soon as you think of them.
The position of the camera, relative to the action in the visual text (film, photo, cartoon etc).
Camera angles are referred to as low, eye-level, medium, high, top down, oblique, frontal.
A short title that accompanies an illustration, diagram or photo. Usually displayed underneath the item.
A printed explanation or translation of dialogue in film, television or a presentation.
The relationship between one event to another.
Cause and effect events are connected with words such as because, as a result, due to, is influenced by, is produced by, on account of, caused by.
Examples
“The lights were out due to an electrical fault”.
A poem with strong rhythm for group recitation. A chant can be called out once, or repeated for effect. Chants are also used in rituals, sport contests and war cries.
Example
“Aussie, Aussie, Aussie,
Oi, oi, oi”.
A person in a fictitious story of any medium, example novel, film, oral tale.
How the character is developed by the writer.
The art of making films.
A type of poem consisting of a five-line pattern around a topic.
The traditional cinquain consists of:
line 1 = 2 syllables
line 2 = 4 syllables
line 3 = 6 syllables
line 4 = 8 syllables
line 5 = 2 syllables.
Example
‘Magpies
in my garden
pilfering the insects
demonstrating song and warble
Magic’.
A complete message or thought expressed in words that contain a verb or verb group.
Example
A noun that refers to things or people as a group.
e.g., crowd, swarm, team
Examples
Find more information about collective nouns in our English help pages.
A punctuation mark ( : ) used to indicate that more information is to follow.
Example
‘Everything you need for the soccer game is in the back of the car: soccer boots, shin pads and ball.’
Often used deliberately in visual texts for symbolic meaning.
Example
The colour red signifies prosperity in Chinese culture.
A punctuation mark used in a sentence to:
Examples
A sentence that gives an order, instruction, direction or seeks an active response.
Written commands may end with a full stop or exclamation mark.
Example
An advertisement on radio, television and the internet.
Names common to people and things.
e.g., girl, boy, mum, dad, sister, brother, home, school, church, fence, pencil, computer, phone
Example
‘I have a pencil ready.’
Find more information about nouns in our English help pages.
A comparative adjective is used to compare nouns. There are degrees of comparison.
e.g., long, longer, longest
Example
‘I have longer hair than my sister.’
An adverb that gives a comparison of how something is being performed.
e.g., better, more, less, faster
Example
‘The small yacht went fast but the super yacht went faster.’
Example
Tables and diagrams can be useful in organising ideas and notes for essays requiring comparison and contrast of concepts, texts, features etc.
Made up of a simple sentence and one or more dependent clauses that contain an incomplete idea.
Example
While Lucy is taking the dog for a walk, she will be getting some exercise.
Simple Sentence: she will be getting some exercise.
Dependent clause: While Lucy is taking the dog for a walk.
How the elements of an image are placed within the text.
Two or more simple sentences joined together by a conjunction.
Example
Lucy is going to the park and she is taking the dog for a walk.
A word consisting of two or more smaller words, e.g. farmyard, bookshelf
Compound words that consist of an adjective and a noun are hyphenated, e.g. short-sighted, full-time, part-time
Examples
Understanding texts read, listened to or viewed.
The skills drawn upon to display an understanding of what is being read.
Key reading comprehension skills include identifying main ideas, sequencing events, describing cause and effect, making inferences, comparing and contrasting and drawing conclusions.
Find more information about comprehension strategies in our English help pages.
This involves understanding and using conventions and concepts about print.
Example
Reading left to right, knowing letter names and sounds they make, knowing pictures can give clues about the story, recognising capital letters and full stops, knowing the difference between a letter and a word.
A word that connects things in a sentence or joins sentences, e.g. and, but, while, meanwhile, when, before, finally, likewise, however, similarly, because, so, therefore, consequently, furthermore
Examples
Words that connect, or show the relationship between, ideas, sentences or paragraphs.
Includes conjunctions, but may also include groups of words, e.g. on the other hand, as well.
Any letter other than a vowel and the sounds they make.
Examples
b, c, d, f, g, h, j, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z.
A syllable, word or group of words that has been shortened by missing internal letters, usually marked by an apostrophe.
e.g., can’t (cannot), she’d (she had or she would), I’ll (I will), we’re (we are), you’ve (you have)
Example
They didn’t remember their hats
The clothing worn by characters in a visual text.
Worthy of belief. Free from bias. From a source of reliable information.
A punctuation mark (–) consisting of a horizontal line.
The dash is used to:
The dash is similar in appearance to a hyphen (-), but a dash is longer and it is used differently (–).
Examples
An interactive and representative argument where individuals argue their point of view.
A debate can be informal amongst people or a formal debate with a chairperson that follows a strict framework of rules.
Example
Debates may be formal, as in a parliamentary debate, or informal, as in impromptu arguments involving teams of speakers.
A team made up of 2 to 5 members. Four-member teams are common.
Application of knowledge about letter-sound relationships, letter patterns and base words to correctly pronounce or read unknown written words.
Describe the meaning and limits of the topic and words in the topic, according to the point of view of the particular team.
Example
Each team will define the topic in a way that suits their own argument, so each side may have a different definition of the topic.
the is placed in front of an noun or adjective that refers to a specific person or thing.
Examples
A direct gaze by a subject in an image at the viewer.
Example
A word that points out a specific person or thing.
Examples
A group of words that contain a verb but is an incomplete idea. It does not make sense by itself or stand alone as a sentence.
A dependent clause is usually attached to an independent clause in a sentence.
Example
While I was waiting for you, I read my book.
Poems which describe a place, a person, a feeling, through the use of imagery and descriptive vocabulary, that appeal to the senses.
A drawing explaining the shape, layout or workings of something.
Example
Two letters that together represent a single sound.
Diagraphs consist of vowel diagraphs (ee, ea, ai, oa, oo, au, ie, ou, ui) and consonant diagraphs (th, sh, wh, ch, ng, ck, qu).
Examples
A conversation between two or more persons or characters.
When writing dialogues, speech is inserted within quotation marks. However, no quotation marks are needed when dialogue is written in script form.
Examples
“Are you ready for school, dear?” asked mum.
“Yes,” replied John.
Mum: Are you ready for school, dear?
Jim: Yes.
The ability to locate and utilise words in a dictionary.
A narrative or recount that has been developed using digital media, e.g., slideshow with digital narrator voice over the images.
Examples
The thing that receives the action in a sentence.
Tells what or whom in relation to the verb.
Examples
The supervisor of the actual making of a film or television program.
Example
Should cars be banned from the inner city? (A response to this question, with arguments for and against, leading to a conclusion, would be a discussion).
An advertisement that includes pictorial elements.
A punctuation mark used to separate items in a list. Used also for note taking and writing key points from written text.
Listed items can be single words, phrases, sentences or whole paragraphs.
Examples
For the fete we require the following items:
Where the audience or some characters know something that the other characters do not.
Example
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning (a duke speaking to his messenger), and some speeches in plays such as The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare.
A poem which laments the death of someone.
Example
Dylan Thomas’ Elegy.
A punctuation mark (…) that consists of three dots.
An ellipsis is used to indicate:
Examples
Words with the same or similar sounds, which occur at the ends of lines. Rhyme helps to:
Example
A Barred Owl, by Richard Wilbur
The warping night air having
brought the boom
Of an owl’s voice into her
darkened room…
The inside covers, back and front, of the book. These are often used by the illustrator to add extra meaning or contrast to the story.
Example
Endpapers often include a map of the story setting, sepia photographs, etc.
A long, narrative poem detailing the adventures and achievements of a hero.
Epics deal with traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation.
Epics can also be written in prose.
Examples
An essay is a piece of writing that is used to develop and expand ideas or argument in response to a text, a question, issue or topic.
Essays include supporting evidence. In schools, this kind of writing is usually called a response.
There are different kinds of responses – typical school response (or essay) types include:
Find more information about essay writing in our English help pages.
Planning involves brainstorming; mind-mapping; organising notes depending on the question and type of response required.
A form of spelling knowledge that focuses on the origins and meaning of non-phonetic words.
It includes understanding the roots of words and word meanings, origins and history.
Example
The substitution of something more pleasant or agreeable for something that may offend or upset.
Example
She passed away peacefully yesterday.
A sentence that expresses sudden strong feelings such as anger, surprise, alarm, sympathy or happiness.
Exclamations end in an exclamation mark.
Example
It’s a lovely surprise to see you!
A punctuation mark (!) used at the end of a written sentence to emphasise the emotion or feeling that is contained in the sentence.
An exclamation mark may be used to strengthen humorous elements in a sentence.
Example
We found a cat asleep in the rubbish bin!
Explains how or why something happens.
Examples
Gives reasons for a point of view to try and convince others of it.
eg, A team’s argument for a debate, or a letter to the editor.
Examples
A comparison between two things, stating that one thing is another, extended over a large part or whole of a poem.
Example
Throughout his poem, The Tyger, William Blake depicts God’s acts of creation by using the inspiration, strength, skills and courage of a blacksmith. The metaphor is extended through references to fire, furnace, hammer, anvil; and action verbs frame, seize, twist, clasp.
The relationship between the human subject of the text and the viewer through looking.
Describes a place or thing using facts. For example, a description of an actual landscape.
Retells events which have already happened in time order. For example, a journal or historical report.
Words, phrases, symbols, and ideas expressed in such as way as to produce mental images and impressions. Figurative language is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense.
Figures of speech use words to create a particular impression or effect, e.g., metaphor, hyperbole.
A movie or motion picture.
A verb that agrees with the subject of a sentence.
Examples
A card with a word written on it that is displayed or ‘flashed’ quickly to support the learning of sight words.
An interruption in the progress of the story to return to a previous event in the action.
Type and size of letters.
Examples
The part of the image that appears closest to the viewer.
An event or action that suggests something, often unpleasant, that will happen later in the story.
Example
Close-up, medium, and long shot
Example
Thunder rolls,
from booming clouds
Hanging overhead, growling —
like black dogs.
Flashing brilliant white fangs.
A punctuation mark (.) used to indicate the end of a sentence that is a statement or command.
Examples
The relationship between the human subject of the text and the viewer through looking.
Example
If the topic is: “That the number of school holidays be increased“, the affirmative must argue for the case (argument).
The structural rules that generate meaning within language. Grammar uses sounds, words and symbols in phrases and sentences so that things make sense.
Diagram showing relationships between quantities.
To help develop reading strategies, an instructor helps students who read texts with 90-95% accuracy with guided reading.
A student’s guided reading level is also known as his or her instructional reading level.
A non-rhyming poem with 17 syllables of Japanese origin. The structure is:
Example
Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.
By Richard Wright (collected in Haiku: This Other World, Arcade Publishing, 1998)
Homonyms (or homographs) are words that are identical in pronunciation and spelling but have different meanings.
Examples
Same as homograph
A word having the same pronunciation as another but different meaning.
Examples
Find more information about homophones in our English help pages.
Examples
A punctuation mark consisting of a short horizontal line ( - ) used to:
Examples
Example
To swell the gourd,
and plump the hazel shells
(from John Keats' Ode to Autumn)
da | dum | da | dum | da | dum | da | dum | da |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
To | swell | the | gourd | and | plump | the | hazel | shells |
A small image – usually on a computer screen – that represents something (usually activated by a mouse click).
A popular expression that is not meant to be taken literally.
Examples
Example
When I awoke,
The tree limbs shone
As white as milk,
As bleached as bone,
As white as wool,
As chalk, as cream,
As white as ghosts
In a white-night dream.
From Snow on the Trees by Jane Yolen.
A command, order or plea.
A and an are placed before a noun or adjective and refer to one of many and is non-specific.
An usually precedes a noun or adjective that begins with a vowel.
Examples
A word that refers to people or things in a general way.
Examples
It contains the main idea of the sentence and can stand alone and make sense by itself.
A sentence can also be made up of more than one independent clause.
Examples
It tells to whom or for whom the action of the verb is done and who is receiving the direct object.
There must be a direct object to have an indirect object.
Examples
The process of drawing a conclusion from clues presented and using background knowledge of the content matter.
Example
He ran out the door with his umbrella. The inference is it is raining or possibly could rain.
A verb that has to in front of it.
e.g., to have, to run, to jump, to work
Example
Mum, I am going to run through the grass.
Classifies, describes and gives factual information about a subject or topic.
How the visual elements involve and position the viewer, through camera angles, colour, gaze, framing.
Examples
Words with the same or similar sounds, which occur within the same line. Rhyme helps to:
Example
Internal rhyme is used by Samuel T Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
‘In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud‘ or ‘Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white‘
A word used to ask a question.
Examples
The process of encouraging beginning spellers to approximate, or attempt to spell, words by using their knowledge of sounds and letters.
A form of punctuation (” “) used to denote speech or quotes. Also known as quotation marks.
Example
This explanation is as clear as mud!
A verb (doing word) that changes its form in the past tense.
Examples
Find more information about verbs in our English help pages.
Placing things side by side or close together, often to emphasise similarity or difference.
The choice of words, phrasing and language devices such as alliteration, paradox, onomatopoeia, repetition, puns, assonance etc.
The placement and arrangement of elements in a visual text.
The way light and shadow is used in visual texts.
A limerick is a five line verse with the rhyme scheme of a-a-b-b-a following a strict pattern of syllables:
Example
There was an old man
from Peru,
Who dreamed he was
eating his shoe.
He woke in the night,
with a terrible fright,
And found out that it
was quite true.
Use of linking words between paragraphs assists the reader to follow the line of the argument and binds the essay together.
Examples
Useful linking words for adding another point in an exposition are:
Useful linking words to use when introducing a contrasting point, as in a discussion, are:
A set of words or names for things written down one under the other.
Written lists are made to record groups, simplify information or to assist with remembering.
In more complex documents, lists may be recorded using dot points.
Examples
Literacy is the ability to understand and evaluate meaning through reading and writing, listening and speaking, viewing and representing.
Words used and understood according to their defined and explicit meaning.
Pertaining to literature.
Describes a text that evokes in the reader or listener a reflective, imaginative or emotional response.
Describes people, characters, places, events and things in an imaginative way.
Example
Character descriptions
Retells events from novels, plays, films and personal experiences to entertain others.
Example
A recount of a traditional story, for example, The Gingerbread Man – A humorous and creatively interpreted recount of an ordinary incident that actually took place.
A variety of spoken, written and visual texts that promote use of imagination, thought or emotional response in the reader or listener.
Examples
An easily recognisable design used by an organisation to represent it.
Example
A camera shot taken at a distance from the object which shows the surroundings.
The vowel sounds that say their letter name in words and include:
A strategy used to support the learning of spelling words. Students who participate in the Premier’s Spelling Challenge use this strategy.
A poem which expresses the personal feelings and thoughts of the poet.
Example
Most poems, except for ballads and epics, are lyrics.
Three common themes include:
An electronic board which teachers can use to reinforce learning, including using magnetic letters and numbers, as well as whiteboard markers.
What the sentence, paragraph or whole text is about.
A figure of speech that involves the substitution of a word for another word with a similar sound. The resulting phrase makes no sense and often creates a comic effect.
Malapropism is often used by young children who are experimenting with language.
Examples
Example
In a critical response you may be assessed on how well you:
Example
Examples
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables used to provide rhythm.
A diagram used to group words according to main ideas with arrows to link points that are related.
Refers to how the elements in the frame of a visual text or a stage are arranged.
Grammatical term describing words expressing a degree of possibility or necessity.
Examples
modal nouns:
modal verbs:
modal adjectives:
modal adverbs:
An adjective that expresses likelihood.
Examples
An adverb that expresses likelihood, e.g. definitely, clearly, rarely, occasionally
Examples
A noun that expresses likelihood. e.g., necessity, chance, likelihood
Example
There is a possibility I will go.
A verb that expresses likelihood.
Examples
A selection of words used by a writer or speaker to express how definite they are about something. Modality can range from uncertainty to certainty.
Example
Example
Twilight by Edward Elgar
“Adieu, the years are a
broken song,
And the right grows weak in
the strife with wrong,
The lilies of love have a
crimson stain
And the old days never will
come again.”
The mood is established here by the slow, resigned rhythm of the run-on lines (2 lines begin with “And”); the opening Adieu (good-bye); the reference to “broken”, “strife” and “stain”; “weak”, and the direct lament of the final line. The poem conveys a deep sense of loss on a personal and human level.
The smallest linguistic unit that has meaning.
e.g., unbreakable has three morphemes: un-, a prefix, break, and -able a suffix.
Examples
A form of spelling knowledge that focuses on the meaning of words in its smallest form (morphemes) and how they change when making compound words or using suffixes and prefixes.
Examples
A word that consists of more than one syllable.
Example
banana (ba/na/na)
The handwriting style taught to students in schools in New South Wales.
The style has one basic set of letter shapes using unjoined letters for young students, and the same letters joined to form cursive writing (running writing) for older students.
Examples
A poem that is organized into stanzas and tells a story using narrative elements of orientation, complication, series of events and resolution.
Examples
The person or character that tells the story.
The negative side must convince the audience that the statement is false.
Example
If the topic is: ‘That the number of school holidays be increased‘, the negative must argue against the proposition (i.e. that the number of school holidays should not be increased).
Examples
verbs:
adjectives:
Features of characters that are visual.
Examples
Extracting and recording the main ideas of a text in an organised and systematic way.
Can include recording keywords, phrases, sentences.
A word used to represent people, places, things and feelings, e.g. child, children, city, Dubbo, happiness, history.
Example
The children laughed.
Find more information about nouns in our English help pages.
A group of words that contains a verb and acts like a noun in a sentence.
A noun clause is a dependent clause. It does not make sense by itself or stand alone.
Examples
A group of words telling who or what is involved in the sentence. It may include adjectives and nouns linked together.
Examples
More than one item.
Examples
A word that describes how many of a person or thing there are.
Examples
A person, thing or feeling in the sentence that has had something done to it.
Example
Records information gathered and responds to it in a personal way.
Observations do not have a sequence of events.
A long lyric poem that addresses, and often praises, someone or something. It often has a stately quality.
Examples
The way in which a subject in a visual text seems to be looking at something other than directly at the viewer of the text.
Example
The gaze in the image below is an ‘offer’ as the subject is looking at something else in the image.
Examples
A cacophonous cannonade of thunder,
doesn’t it make you wonder?
blasting buss of blunder,
pitter-patter rain, pouring under,
streets awash like tumult tundra,
lucid lightning flash,
clip-clop heels as people dash
to take cover from the splash,
when grey skies clear
then listen here
in quiet heavens
doth now appear
a rainbow.
William Thomas Dodd's 'Storm'.
The separate sounds in words, ie the beginning part (onset) and the rest of the word (rime).
Examples
A subjective statement or thought about an issue or topic, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts. An opinion may be expressed in an exposition supported by an argument. An opinion may display bias.
Example
Children should not use calculators at school.
The team that disagrees with and argues against the topic.
Example
If the topic is: ‘That the number of school holidays be increased’, the opposition must argue against the case (ie that the number of school holidays should not be increased).
Examples
Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind
“O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming
forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold
fire, sick health! ”
From Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
Moving the camera across a still subject left to right or right to left, or following a moving subject. This may indicate length and create suspense.
A contradiction that at first seems impossible to bring together, but actually proves to be a truth.
Example
A common paradox in literature is gaining insight through loss of vision and blindness, for example, Shakespeare’s King Lear.
A section of writing dealing with a particular idea or topic usually consist of a number of sentences.
Paragraphs begin on a new line and may be indented in handwriting.
Punctuation marks ( ) used to enclose words that gives more information about the text.
Brackets and parentheses are interchangeable words.
Examples
A type of formal debate in which the affirmative team is called the government, and the opposing team is the opposition.
Example
The Daffodils by W. Wordsworth (with famous opening lines: I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills…) is a poem that is often parodied by others. For example, Daffodils No More by Gorden J.L. Ramel is a serious parody written to warn about modern problems with the environment.
Passive voice occurs when the object of the sentence is placed before the verb.
Sentences in the passive voice sometimes have the word ‘by’ after the verb.
Example
The bird was chased by was the cat.
A word that replaces a noun referring to a person or people in a sentence.
Examples
A personal opinion on a novel, play or film, referring to parts within the passage.
Example
What did you like about that artwork and why? Describe why you do or do not like this story/poem? (Responses to these questions would be described as personal responses).
Examples
Examples
The smallest unit of sound in a word.
There are 44 phonemes in Standard Australian English, represented by 26 letters of the alphabet in multiple combinations.
Example
The word dog is made up of three phonemes /d/-/o/-/g/
The ability to hear, say and manipulate sounds in words, and is a sub-skill of phonological awareness.
Phonics involves making the connection between sounds and letters when reading and spelling.
A broad concept that not only includes phonemic awareness but also encompasses awareness of things like words, rhyme and syllables.
A form of spelling knowledge that focuses the sounds of language and the relationship between sounds and letters.
A group of words that forms part of a sentence but does not have a finite verb.
A phrase cannot stand on its own.
Examples
Multiple or more than one. Plurals are usually applied to nouns.
Examples
A literary text that uses words in imaginative ways to express an idea or describe a subject.
Poetry is often written with the expectation that it will be read aloud, making the language, sound patterns and rhythmic qualities an important part of the meaning.
Some poems may make use of rhyme while others use a free verse form.
Examples
An in-depth exploration of a poem through study of the theme(s) and the poetic techniques.
A word that describes who something belongs to, e.g. my, his, her, Kim’s, the boys’
Examples
A word that indicates who owns something.
Examples
A printed picture with text used to inform or persuade.
The group of words that begin with a verb and describe what the subject of the sentence does.
Example
The student brought his homework to the teacher.
The word part that is attached to the beginning of a base word to change the meaning of the word.
Examples
A word that starts a phrase. A preposition may refer to place, time, position, manner or reason.
Examples
Find more information about prepositions in our teaching strategies section.
Tells how something was made or done.
Example
A recount of a science experiment.
Gives instructions on how to make or do something.
Examples
A document that outlines the requirements and presentation of information for a particular task. Pro formas are used to support students in writing text types for different audiences and purposes.
A word used in place of a noun.
Examples
The particular way in which words are sounded.
A proper noun used as an adjective.
Examples
A name of a person, place or title of something. Proper nouns start with a capital letter.
Examples
The statement of the debating topic, which often begins with ‘that’.
Examples
The process of speaking to a group of people in a structured and deliberate manner with the intention to inform, influence or entertain.
A clever play on words involving the multiple meanings of an expression, or two expressions that sound similar. A deliberate use of puns can add ambiguity, depth, and irony to a poem as words can have a number of meanings.
Examples
A commonly understood system of symbols and markers to make meaning from written text.
Find more information about punctuation in our teaching strategies section.
Markers and symbols that indicates the structure and organisation of written language so that it makes sense to the reader. Punctuation marks provide symbolic cues to support intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.
Words expressing a degree of possibility or necessity.
Examples
modal nouns:
modal verbs:
modal adjectives:
modal adverbs:
A sentence that asks for information and ends with a question mark (?).
A punctuation mark used at the end of a sentence to indicate that a question is being asked.
Spoken or chanted lyrics performed in time to a rhythmic beat, usually with a heavy use of rhyme. Similes and metaphors are sometimes used in rap lyrics.
The movement of a viewer’s gaze around the visual text. This movement can be demonstrated by lines of sight, or vectors.
An argument that tries to directly negate (argue against) the argument of a previous speaker in a debate.
Example
A speaker not only argues his / her own case, but rebuts or refutes the argument(s) put forward by the other team.
Words that express a mutual relationship.
Examples
A word that adds emphasis to someone or something.
Examples
A repeated part of a poem or song. Usually comes either at the end of a stanza or between two stanzas.
A technique to disprove, challenge or counter the other side’s argument.
Example
A speaker not only argues his / her own case, but rebuts or refutes the argument(s) put forward by the other team.
Regular verbs change their form very little and ed is added to the base word in the past tense.
A word that refers to people or things in a sentence.
Examples
Example
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor
motion; As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by S. T. Coleridge Coleridge makes extensive use of repetition in this poem to reinforce the tedium of the ship in the doldrums and the unrelenting nature of his crime.
Any text that involves a personal response to or critical review of another text.
Examples
Summarises, analyses and assesses the appeal of a novel, play or film, to a broader audience
A question which does not require an (often obvious) answer. It is asked for the sake of emphasis or effect. A rhetorical question is a figure of speech.
A form of poetry where the words at the end of the line have the same sounding (rhyming) pattern. Rhyme is one of the conventions of some poetry. Rhyming patterns within poems can vary.
Words with the same or similar sounds, which occur at the ends of lines (end rhyme) or within the same line (internal rhyme). Rhyme adds emphasis to sounds, adds pace and rhythm, binds the poem together, and is pleasing to the ear.
Examples
The warping night air having
brought the boom,
Of an owl’s voice into her
darkened room …
From A Barred Owl, by Richard Wilbur.
Internal rhyme is used by Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – “In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud” or “Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white”
A poem that often recounts an event. It is written in pairs of lines that rhyme.
Examples
End rhyme in A Barred Owl, by Richard Wilbur:
The warping night air having
brought the boom
Of an owl’s voice into her
darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that
all she heard
Was an odd question from a
forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened
to,
“Who cooks for you?” and
then “Who cooks for you?”
The overall pacing and tempo of a poem, most noted when the poem is read aloud. It is produced by the poem’s beat (metre), structure of the sentences, choice of vocabulary and rhyme.
Rhythm sometimes suggests the subject of the poem, for example, fast rhythm of galloping horses or slow movement of an old man. It also develops the mood of the poem, from light-hearted to solemn. The rhythm of free verse sounds more natural.
Examples
The warping night air having
brought the boom
Of an owl’s voice into her
darkened room, …
From A Barred Owl, by Richard Wilbur
“In mist or cloud, on mast or
shroud” or ” Whiles all the night
through fog-smoke white”
From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Coleridge
The English language skills taught in Australian schools that empowers students’ use of language in a variety of contexts.
Importance given to particular elements.
Example
The size, expression and foreground position of the front statue (in the image below) demands the viewer’s attention first.
Sarcasm is like irony where something is said but something else is meant. It is used, however, to mock, humiliate, hurt or insult. Sarcasm is a figure of speech.
Example
“Thanks a lot!” (when the implication is, ‘you have let me down!’).
Example
Goodwill to Men, Give Us Your Money, by Pam Ayres. As the title suggests, the poet describes Christmas, but also exposes the side of Christmas that is commercialised, wasteful of environmental resources and unsociable.
Degree of purity of colour.
The process that involves moving your eyes quickly up and down a page of text when seeking specific words and phrases. Used, for example, when looking for words in a dictionary or thesaurus.
Examples
Refers to making meaning from language, and particularly from the meaning of words within their context.
A punctuation mark (;) used to connect two related simple sentences together without a conjunction (joining word).
Semicolons may separate phrases or clauses that already include commas.
Examples
A group of words which expresses a complete thought, makes sense and stands on its own.
A written sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.
Examples
Find more information about sentence structure in our Teaching strategies section.
To put into a logical or deliberate order.
The location of the story or image in time and place. Setting is often used symbolically to reveal mood, character, theme.
A poem written in the shape of a topic, also known as concrete poetry.
Occurs when a proficient reader (like a parent or older sibling) reads to another person, or a group, for enjoyment.
This approach is helpful when the reading content is complex and at a higher reading level than the listening audience can read independently.
The short sounds that vowels make and include:
Individual view or frame on film.
Frequently used words in reading and writing that usually cannot be ‘sounded out’ or follow conventional spelling rules. They have to be learnt by looking at them.
Examples
A figure of speech in which direct comparison of two unlike things is made joined by the words as or like.
In poetry, simile assists the reader to build a mental image of the thing being described.
Example
W.B. Yeats in Adam’s Curse uses a simile to compare the labour required of love to the hard work of a poor house worker.
Better go down upon your
marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement,
or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds
of weather…
A sentence that has one verb, one idea, stands alone and makes sense.
Also known as an independent clause.
Example
Lucy is going to the park.
One of something. Usually applies to a noun.
Example
‘The child was at school.’ The singular nouns are child and school.
A process of reading quickly through text while visually searching for relevant details and main ideas.
People often skim read when they have lots of material to read in a limited amount of time.
A punctuation mark in the form of an oblique line ( / ) also known as an oblique and forward slash.
The slash is used to:
Refers to the meaning of relationships within a text, or between subject and viewer through shot distance.
A poetic speech in a play that is told by a person alone on stage as if there were no audience present, or as if the audience is the speaker’s confidante.
Example
To be or not to be – that is
the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the
mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a
sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end
them. To die, to sleep…
Shakespeare, Hamlet ca 1600
Example
Let me not to the marriage of
true minds (a)
Admit impediments, love is not
love (b)
Which alters when it alteration
finds, (a)
Or bends with the remover to
remove. (b)
O no, it is an ever fixéd mark (c)
That looks on tempests and is
never shaken; (d)
It is the star to every
wand’ring
bark, (c)
Whose worth’s unknown
although his height be taken (d)
Love’s not time’s fool, though
rosy lips and cheeks (e)
Within his bending sickle’s
compass come, (f)
Love alters not with his brief
hours and weeks, (e)
But bears it out even
to the
edge of doom: (f)
If this be error and upon me
proved, (g)
I never writ, nor no man ever
loved. (g)
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116.
Modern sonnets include:
Language tools that focus on the dramatic effects that the combinations of sounds within words make. Some sounds include those made by using alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhyme in a text.
A member of a debating team.
Example
Speakers are called first, second, third and fourth speakers depending on the order in which they speak. Each speaker has a specific role to play in the debate. The final speaker may not speak directly, but assists the team by making notes for the other members.
A punctuation mark that denotes speech, a quotation, a title or draws the reader’s attention to a word that is unusual or emphasised within an unfamiliar context. Inverted commas, quotation marks and speech marks are interchangeable words (synonyms).
A list of words designed for learning specific aspects of spelling.
A typical spelling list may contain words:
Find more information about spelling in our Teaching strategies section.
Words or phrases in which initial letters or syllables are switched. This often happens accidently as ‘slips of the tongue’ or a deliberate play on words. When used deliberately, a spoonerism is a figure of speech.
A group of lines within a poem, similar to a verse in a song. In some poems, stanzas may be of a standard length.
The length of a stanza can vary.
Stanzas provide a structure which may be predictable (helps meaning), contribute to the pace and rhythm of a poem and emphasise a stage in the poem (like a paragraph in prose).
Example
Stanza may share a rhyme scheme or a fixed number of lines, e.g. a couplet (2 rhyming lines with the same number of stressed syllables)
True wit is nature to advantage
dress’d;/
What oft was thought, but
ne’er so well express’d./
Quote by Alexander Pope.
A sentence that supplies information and usually ends in a full stop.
Example
Lucy is going to the park.
A graphic organiser, such as a series of illustrations or images, to outline a multimedia presentation.
Commonly used for the initial draft of a comic strip, as well as for planning film, animation and video productions.
How a poem is organised through stanzas, placement and length of lines, number of syllables per line, etc.
How a text is structured depends on the type of text, purpose, audience and context in which it is written.
The person, place or thing the sentence is about.
Example
‘The girl threw the ball.’ The sentence is about the girl. The subject is the girl The rest of the sentence describes what she did.
This is what the poem is about, at least at the literal level.
The word part that is attached to the end of the base word (root word) to change the meaning of the word.
Examples
A word that gives the greatest degree of comparison.
Examples
An adverb that indicates a comparison to the greatest degree (between three or more things).
Examples
A unit of sound within a word.
Every syllable must have a vowel (or a y acting as a vowel).
Examples
A document outlining a course of study.
The Department of Education and Communities has syllabi for each curriculum area that outline outcomes to be achieved in each key learning area.
Examples
Words with the same or similar meaning.
Relates to grammatical patterns and the ways in which sentences are structured.Syntax is often described in terms of its elements as subject, verb and object.
Information arranged in rows and columns.
Diagrams that can be useful for organising ideas and notes for essays requiring comparison and contrast of concepts, texts, features, etc.
Refers to time the action (verb) is taking place in a sentence. Verbs can be in the present, past or future tense.
Any written, spoken and/or visual communication involving language. Texts can be grouped as literary text types and factual text types.
A variety of spoken, written and visual texts for different purposes and audiences.
The intended audience influences the language used within different text types.
Guides are available to support students when writing particular text types.
The underlying thought, idea or message, presented through the words and imagery of a poem or literary text.
A list of words that may contain words from various topics studied at school, or relevant to particular learning areas.
The ability to locate and utilise words in a thesaurus to find words with similar meaning (synonyms).
Writer’s opinion or position on an issue.
A line which shows events arranged along it in chronological order.
Example
In The Pasture, by Robert Frost, the poet’s tone is both assuring and inviting in the following stanza:
I’m going out to clean the
pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the
leaves away
(And wait to watch the water
clear, I may):
I shan’t be gone long – You
come too.
An oral presentation given to an audience on a specific topic which may be spontaneous, planned or rehearsed.
Venn diagrams can be useful in organising ideas and notes for essays requiring comparison and contrast of concepts, texts, features etc.
Example
Lines, real or implied, which direct a viewer’s attention to a focal point in a visual text.
Example
Some vectors are invisible (as in a glance between people), but others are real, and draw the viewer’s eye directly, as in the train tracks in the image below.
A doing or action word.
A word that tells what is happening or what is.
Examples
More information about verbs in our Teaching strategies section.
A group of words built up around one or more verbs.
Examples
Example
There is nothing more to say.
Through broken walls and gray
The winds blow bleak and shrill.
They are all gone away.
|Nor is there one to-day
To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.
Why is it then we stray
Around the sunken sill?
They are all gone away,
And our
poor fancy-play
For them is wasted skill:
There is nothing more to say.
There is ruin and decay
In the House on the Hill:
They are all gone away,
There is nothing more to say.
Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1894
A form of spelling knowledge that focuses on how words look and includes:
Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image.
A voice that speaks over the top of visual (action) on screen, such as in a commercial, film or animation.
A vowel is any letter other than a consonant, ie the letters: a, e, i, o, u.
Vowels can make short and long sounds.
A page of information that is available on the internet.
The study of groups of words that end the same way.
The camera moves in or out without a cut.