English teaching and learning is centred on students learning to understand, engage with, and produce oral, written, and visual texts of increasing complexity. Engaging with a range of texts and types of text supports students to become increasingly proficient and sophisticated in the skills associated with English, including writing, reading, speaking, listening, presenting, and viewing.

Studying English gives students access to the knowledge, skills, and understanding they need to participate fully at school and in the world. It supports students to become effective communicators who can think deeply and critically. Literacy is essential for educational success and underpins a student’s ability to access the breadth of the curriculum and achieve highly across it. Students who lack adequate levels of literacy risk experiencing a narrowed curriculum, ongoing difficulties with self-expression, and limited future pathways. Beyond formal education, literacy is an important factor when it comes to a range of life outcomes, from income levels to improved happiness and health. In addition, the study and critical interrogation of local and global literature contributes to students’ developing sense of identity, as well as their understanding of the world.

The evidence is clear that there are few skills more important to acquire than literacy. Literacy is a gateway to academic achievement and a significant influence on outcomes as diverse as earning potential and health and wellbeing. High levels of literacy across society are vital to happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives. 

Learning in English should involve reading and engaging with a range of texts and contexts from the past and present, and originating from places within and beyond the student’s own country. It also involves students developing and honing their skills in expressing and communicating ideas and information. This includes developing proficiency in speaking, creating visual texts, and writing in a range of genres and for a range of purposes and audiences. Students should learn about the purposes and audiences of a range of texts, the language features that characterise texts, and the structure of texts, and develop their ability to critically interrogate ideas and imagery of those texts.

• How can English programmes be designed to ensure students learn to effectively and skillfully make meaning from ideas or information they receive through listening, reading, and viewing, and create meaning by speaking, writing, and presenting?
• How can teachers ensure that students engage with a wide range of text types?
• How can teachers select a range of texts to ensure that students encounter and engage with local and international literature, as well as contemporary and historical literature?