Teaching Context for Stage 4

One of the key components of understanding a text is consideration of its context. We can see this idea echoed over and over again in a range of material related to teaching English and literacy, consider:

• The NSW English K-10 Syllabus, which specifies in the Rationale for students to "examine the contexts of language to understand how meaning is shaped by a variety of social factors".
• Outcomes EN3-5B, EN4-3B, and EN5-3B across Stages 3, 4, and 5, which all mention a need for recognition of different language contexts.
• Content points in the syllabus, which take it a step further through requiring students to "develop and apply contextual" knowledge by describing and analysing the context of texts (EN4-3B). Or for students to "critically consider the ways in which meaning is shaped by context" (EN4-5C).
  
• The English Textual Concepts, which includes Context as one of the twelve concepts - specifying the way in which context changes meaning in the way we read things, the way texts are shaped by outside factors, and the way values can change over time.
  
• The Literacy Progressions, which map the need for contextual understanding of words in both the Understanding and Creating Texts sub-elements from Levels 5-10.
  

For NSW High School English we start with Stage 4, where context becomes an important factor in modifying meaning when writing, or when recognising the parameters of meaning while reading.

It's easy for English teachers to start looking at context by considering the cultural or personal factors of an author, or how texts are reinterpreted and adapted over time (think Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, or Clueless as an adaptation of Emma) but sometimes I find jumping straight into this can leave some students behind. It took me a couple of years of teaching before I realised that context wasn't something explicitly taught in Primary School English, at least certainly not to the extent that the metalanguage term of 'context' had become embedded in student thinking. I can say, "What's onomatopoeia?" to a Year 8 class and, without fail, students will start shouting things like "BANG!", "CRASH!", and "CRACKLE!" If I ask, "What's context?", I usually get blank looks from the same group.

A good starting point is to break the term down into four parts:

• Who wrote it and/or to what audience?
• When was it written?
• Where was it written?
• Why was it written?

I want to get students understanding the impact of these elements on a text and, as with learning vocabulary, it's more effective for students to do rather than copy. So the starting point is to consider a single sentence delivered identically in two very different contexts:

"Stop falling asleep"

Who: said to a student vs. to an airplane pilot.

When: in the daytime vs. during a flight.

Where: in a classroom vs. on a plane.

Why: they should be doing their work vs. they should be flying the plane!

Once students understand this, give them a series of sentences and have them devise their own contexts to go with each one. They should create two separate contexts per sentence with the challenge being that these contexts should be as different as possible. Once they've finished, discuss as a class and compare the responses students came up with, exploring the idea of just how much context can matter. Considering this for single sentences is the building block of considering larger extracts of text, to short stories or articles or films, to whole novels, to whole genres or literary movements. The advancement through the progression will depend on the sophistication of the student as they work their way through the stages and courses towards their final year in High School.

Here's a worksheet that lays out the above-described context activity for students to complete: Context Worksheet.