Does mother tongue affect score of VCE English ?

[Dipalee]

Just have quick question -

If a student's mother tongue is other than English but student is okay to select 'English ' (no need to select EAL) - would such students gets scaled in English little higher ?

[VCEStudent2034]

Just have quick question -

If a student's mother tongue is other than English but student is okay to select 'English ' (no need to select EAL) - would such students gets scaled in English little higher ?

Hi Dipalee!

I can’t advise you based on personal experience because English is my mother tongue, but if you’re asking about scaling, I checked out the 2019 Scaling Report from VTAC and English usually scales down by about 1 or 2, whereas EAL scales up by about 1. It really doesn’t matter about the scaling, though, because it’s all fair in the end.

I suggest you pick whichever one you believe you can do better it, but to answer your question, no, students who pick mainstream English do not seem to have an advantage over those who pick EAL. Speak to your parents and teachers - maybe they can help you decide. But if you think you can ace mainstream English, go ahead! Just put all your heart into whichever one you decide to do!

This is the link for the VTAC Scaling Report from 2019:

https://www.vtac.edu.au/files/pdf/reports/scaling_report_19.pdf

[Dipalee]

Thanks

[spectroscopy]

Someone else can chime in here, but if you can, I would recommend doing EAL, as your peers/cohort will likely perform less well at English, so you have a better chance at getting a higher ranking, and a higher study score.

When I was in high-school, everyone who could do EAL did, so I believe it is best to do it if you can. You will most likely have a slightly less competitive cohort, who will be easier to outscore comparatively. Take any advantage you can get

Also to answer your question more directly, English not being your mother tongue will not effect your scaling if you do mainstream English. You will have to compete with everyone as if it were equal

[VCEStudent2034]

Someone else can chime in here, but if you can, I would recommend doing EAL, as your peers/cohort will likely perform less well at English, so you have a better chance at getting a higher ranking, and a higher study score.

When I was in high-school, everyone who could do EAL did, so I believe it is best to do it if you can. You will most likely have a slightly less competitive cohort, who will be easier to outscore comparatively. Take any advantage you can get

Also to answer your question more directly, English not being your mother tongue will not effect your scaling if you do mainstream English. You will have to compete with everyone as if it were equal

I agree

[somebody8442]

Just have quick question -

If a student's mother tongue is other than English but student is okay to select 'English ' (no need to select EAL) - would such students gets scaled in English little higher ?

If you are okay to select English, then I strongly advise you to do so. It just doesn't make sense to do EAL though because it won't make a difference in your scores and no, you will not get scaled higher based on your "mother tongue". If that consideration existed, then nearly every immigrant('s child) would do so even if they are absolutely fluent in English which would make it incredibly unfair for native speakers. Furthermore, the reason why English is not scaled based on mother-tongue is because of how important the language is in an English-speaking country. If one person's communication skills are not as good as someone else because they speak a different language, they cannot receive such a consideration. The same goes for someone who is poor at mathematics. If they were not exposed to numbers at a young age, they would not get exempted from it just because of that. It is truly up to you whether you choose to pursue EAL (English as an Additional Language) or English Language. Good Luck

[Billuminati]

Hi there,

As a Chinese Australian (came to Australia when I was 7 in early 2008, graduated VCE in 2018 with a 44 raw in English), my school deemed me eligible for EAL even though I was already speaking English more fluently than Chinese by the time I graduated primary school. I refused despite the fact that EAL scaling was better than mainstream English scaling the previous year, because even if I got a 50 in EAL, I would still feel inferior to native speakers as I never would've known what my true English abilities are compared to them. I do agree that mainstream English deserves to be scaled higher than EAL, because I've seen how easy the EAL kids' tasks were (they've even introduced listening like the LOTE exams LLLLOOOOOLLLL). But NEVER be discouraged from mainstream English just because it's your 2nd language, you will do well if you're willing to put in the hard work of regurgitating and tweaking the same essay a million times including on the exam.