Language Demands of Subject Content & Accompanying Tasks

Day 5: 14th October 2014
Session 3: 3.00 p.m. - 4.30 p.m.
Slot: Language Demands of Subject Content & Accompanying Tasks
Tutor: Andrew

Classroom Learning Outcomes
a) Identify the language needed for different text-types
b) Identify the steps in ‘genre-based approach’

Input from tutor

This session was slightly more theoretical as it involved introducing concepts such as ‘genre’, ‘genre-based approach’ as well as explaining the process of ‘genre-based approach’. Therefore in this session, the students were mainly wearing lecturers’ hat. Here are the main points gathered from this session.

a) Genre = A text type. E.g. a report. A genre-based approach helps students develop an awareness of the conventions (including vocabulary and language patterns) of different genres.

b) The following list is a useful resource for teachers as it includes the common language patterns in different genres. When doing a particular genre, the teacher can focus on teaching the related language pattern.



c) Additionally, teachers can refer to The Academic Wordlist (AWL) which lists word families according to their frequency in many academic texts. The wordlist is available at http://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Academic_word_list. It contains 10 sublists ordered in terms of frequency. Below is an example of Sublist 1 which contains word families of the highest frequency.

Sublist 1

• sector • available • financial • process • individual • specific • principle • estimate
• variables • method • data • research • contract • environment • export • source
• assessment • policy • identified • create • derived • factors • procedure • definition
• assume • theory • benefit • evidence • established • authority • major • issues •labour • occur 

• economic • involved • percent • interpretation • consistent • income • structure • legal 

• concept • formula • section • required • constitutional •analysis • distribution
• function • area • approach • role • legislation • indicate • response • period • context
• significant • similar •

Based on the sublist, teachers can select vocabulary to focus on that is appropriate for the genre students are working on.

d) The steps in using a genre-based approach in class are as the following:

Note : In Step 1, the teacher explains the writing task context to the students.

Teaching Tips/ Suggested Activities

I would focus on three activities here. These activities were carried out in this session. However, in the discussion below, I have modified the topics to suit students.

a) Reordering

Students are given jumbled-up steps of writing a report. In groups, students have to reorder the steps of writing a report. (E.g. Elaborate the content points, write the format, write the introduction,…)

Example of reordering used in the session:


b) Find the match

Groups are given two sets of cue cards. One set consists of language forms (e.g. Good morning). The other set consists of language functions (e.g. To greet). Students have to match both the sets (the language forms with their functions).





c) Closure/Recap

If there are five points to be recapped, students in each group would be numbered from 1 to 5. Note that students should be already seated in groups. Student number 1 has to recap point number 1 in the groups. Student 2 recaps point number 2 and so on.

Reflection

This session was useful as it provides knowledge on ‘genre-based approach’. A ‘genre-based approach’ basically entails highlighting the common structures and language used in a particular genre. However it might be difficult to identify the common structures in a text type due to the variety of language structures available. Here the language structure list provided in this session would become useful. Nevertheless, this notion of teaching common language structures and vocabulary is not entirely new as teachers are accustomed to providing students with sentence starters and useful phrases for their essay writing.

Prepared by:
Anita Mary 

(Kolej Vokasional Bentong, Pahang)