Specific+Language+Use

=**Using Specific Language **= Related to the notion of register is the choice of specific language, which is commonly used in academic writing. An excellent text to work on this is:

Academic English in Use (CUP) by McCarthy and O'Dell. The following exercises and activities have been designed to do alongside this text.

Adjectives
When you use adjectives they often go together with prepositions. Look at the following adjectives and decide which preposition they are followed by:

relevant relative characteristic appropriate specific common


 * __Now check in Unit 4 to see if you were right.__**

__**Now look at the adjectives below and see of you can identify their opposites:**__

abstract complex simple precise quantative inaccurate accurate concrete significant qualitative rough insignificant


 * __Now check in Unit 4 to see if you were right.__**


 * __Now look at the text below and decide on an adjective for each choice. The choice often depends on common adjective noun collocations so add adjectives before the nouns highlighted in red:__**

There often tends to be an ..................... discrepancy (something which may not be real but which people see on the surface) between what teachers set out to teach and what learners often aqcuire. One ...................... problem (possible) is that the planning of lessons is often subject rather than learner based. This leads to frustration in the classroom when learner interests do not coincide with teaching aims. One study of several lessons carried out by trainees showed that the ....................... cause (very important) of failure feelings both for teachers and learners was actually a difference in perceived aims. ............................. methodology (Very rigid) planning lessons is, on the one hand desirable but, on the other, may not cater for this discrepancy and create the very breakdown in learning it seeks to avoid.


 * Now look at the text below:**

A Critical Review

This is the main character in a novel. Decide what type of genre you would expect it to be and what role a cat might play?

Here is an extract from the novel. What do you think probably happened before and afterwards? What makes you think this?

“Over the other side of the city things were slightly different and there was not the same feeling of jubilation, by any means. “What do you mean it slipped!” A shrill, goldfish voice went bubbling across the goldfish bowl as Orpheus, the head of Tidal Gold let loose his anger on his unfortunate assistant, Scarlet. “I didn’t mean to,” she pleaded, cowering behind a sort of ceramic, fairytale castle that was in the centre of their bowl, and which she had once had fond hopes of turning into a home for her, Orpheus and…She shook herself...Now was hardly the time for romantic dreams, but the truth was that she just wasn’t cut out to be a terrorist. She knew it and Orpheus knew it too, but he did not actually have a lot of choice, as he was very quick to remind her, every half an hour or so.. “ I was just intending to press it down on top of him, and to get him to confess how much he knew about this formula, when a fly landed on top of the water and I got distracted..” She hardly knew how to continue so she swam into the castle, where she thought she would be safe, but, of course, Orpheus’ bubbling scorn followed her there too. “Oh, I can just imagine!” He exclaimed. “Well, I hope you had a nice snack.. I wouldn’t want our plans to get in the way of your afternoon flea, would I?” “Yes, actually it was very tasty.” Scarlet was not very good at recognising irony. “Well, next time keep your mind on the JOB!! Oh what’s the point? If you want something doing well, you may as well do it yourself..”

== What do you learn about the two characters here? What themes are introduced? How does the author create the setting? Imagine that you are going to use this with a class of twelve year olds learning English. How might you exploit it in class? Now you are going to write a review of the material using the adjectives you studied earlier. Make your review into a gap filling exercise that other members then have to complete with the appropriate words. For example, you might want to write something like this: ==

==== One choice of text which is ........................ to young learner needs is children's literature, and this text is ......................... to needs whilst also being motivating. The themes touched on are both ....................... but clear at the same time as they are translated into a children's world, ....................... to the target audience. ====

An Article of Some Interest: The Verona City Council has decided to insure its Citizens

Before you read, decide what you think the article was about: Now read to check if you were right.

Those of us who are used to reading bad news about tax increases and constantly growing mortgage rates in the “Colosseum”, the local daily newspaper in our city, will have had __quite a pleasant__ surprise in Saturday’s edition. The local council, in fact, has taken out a rather unusual, new insurance policy which will protect everyone who is resident in Verona if their home is broken into. It is not only if your home is broken into that you are protected either. If you have the very irritating experience of having your house keys stolen, for instance,the town council’s very good policy enables you to contact a locksmith free of charge, who will open your front door for you. How do you know if you are eligible? The answer to this is extremely simple, if you are registered as a resident in Verona, then this policy applies to you. A very simple to follow guide has been provided for you on the City Council’s website, which provides you with all the information and extremely useful contact numbers that you may need. So don’t waste your very valuable time. Go straight to the website now and have a look. After all it’s always better to be prepared for a rainy day!

Now look at this text and add the adverbials modifiers in a way which seems logical to you:
====However, Saussure .............. (an adverb to indicate high degree) believed that once a signifier became attached to a signified this relationship, although ............................. (an adverb to incidacte this is an absolute) arbitrary, became fixed. This means that the words we use may have arbitrary meanings but traditionally linguists have ..................................(an adverb to indicate the degree to which they believe this)agreed that once they are "fixed" in that relationship the words become ...........................(degree)attached to those meanings. Because of this they claim that the same word always has the same meaning.====

====In the ..............................(use an adjective here to mean very innovative in an academic sense) work being done ....................................(an adverb of quantity) as a result of Sinclair's recent work with Corpus LInguistics, many linguists now ................. (degree) disagree with this structuralist approach to language, as it becomes ........................(an adverb to say that this is happening more and more) obvious that words change meanings depending on the company they keep. A word may have a meaning attched to it in one collocation which changes ....................... ( a transformation) in another one. This is one more argument for a sociolinguistic approach to language rather than a structuralist one.====

Here are some suggestions followed by an exercise you can do yourself:

Being able to paraphrase information is an important skill for expression in academic writing. Here is the version I wrote of paragraph three of the Carnivore vs. Herbivore text.
 * Paraphrasing Texts: carnivores and herbivores**