The English program aims to develop the students’ ability to read, write, speak and listen.  Students are presented with opportunities to further develop speaking and listening skills that focus on the protocols of formal presentation skills, and the use of evidence to support an argument/debate and to differentiate between fact and opinion. The reading program focuses on introducing students to a range of texts including stories, poems, plays, novels, reference materials, advertising, magazines and newspapers. They complete reading and writing activities that focus on the generic structures of different types of texts, including multimodal and online texts. When reading, comprehension skills are further developed with a continuing focus on higher-order skills, including critical interpretations, identification of stereotypes, figurative and symbolic language. Students continue to develop individual reading behaviours to read, interpret and respond to a wide range of literary, everyday and media texts. The writing focus encourages the development of writing skills and the ability to present individual thoughts in a written form.