Tài liệu Teaching academic ESL writing part 19 ppt

However, the contextualized uses of the active and passive voices present a number of problems for L2 writers, who need to become proficient with passive verb forms and meanings.. Althou

6 *The students are taught by the Silent Method.

If this sentence is converted back from the passive to the active voice, the following structure results:

7 *The Silent Method teaches the students.

As noted, in passive sentences agentive by-phrases are located at the end

and include nouns and noun phrases that would be subjects of parallel

ac-tive constructions (e.g., The solution was mixed by the student [passive]—The student mixed the solution [active]).

In this case, the test question can be used to identify the doer of the verb

action: Does the subject noun of the sentence perform/do the action expressed by the verb"? If the answer is no, then the passive cannot be used (e.g., Teachers teach the students) Thus, the sentence may need to be completely rewritten:

8 Teachers taught the students by means of the Silent Method [instrumental

meaning]

9 Students were taught by means of the Silent Method [instrumental meaning]

When working with passive sentences, it is important that L2

writ-ers learn to identify the differences in meaning and function between

the agentive meaning of the fry-phrase [the action was done by

whom?/who did the action?] and the instrumental meaning in the fry means of phrase (see also chap 11) [how was the action donef/by what

means was the action done?].

The agentive fry-phrase refers directly to the doer of the action, and the sentence subject that did the action can be always reconstructed when the passive sentence is converted back to active, as in (6) On the other hand,

in-strumental fry means of (prepositional) phrases can never be sentences

sub-jects of any sentence (see chap 3)

In general terms, the uses of tenses and aspects in English are complex, and tense-related errors are considered to be one of the most grievous in L2 writing However, written academic discourse and text are relatively rigid and conventionalized; from this perspective, L2 writers do not need to be-come excellent users of the entire range offenses in English, but only some

of them A great proportion of contextualized verb phrases in academic prose employs the simple present tense, and it is probably one of the sim-pler tenses in English in terms of its attendant verb forms and contextual application The simple past tense is also not particularly complicated to use By consistently maintaining these two tenses in appropriate and overtly marked contexts, L2 writers may be able to construct a large variety of

rea-sonably accurate context at least in terms of tenses However, the contextualized uses of the active and passive voices present a number of problems for L2 writers, who need to become proficient with passive verb forms and meanings Although the form of passive verbs can become easier

to employ with some practice, the meanings and functions of the passive voice in sentences and broader contexts require a great deal of work from students and attention, effort, and knowledge from teachers

CHAPTER SUMMARY

English tenses are often difficult for students to understand and use appro-priately The simplest way to teach tenses is to start by separating tenses and aspects There are three tenses in English: the past, the present, and the fu-ture There are two aspects: the progressive and the perfect

In general terms, the simple present tense is very flexible, and its uses

are highly conventionalized For this reason the simple present can be em-ployed even in contexts where, logically speaking, the past tense should be

used (e.g., citations from and references to earlier publications) The

sim-ple past tense can be used in the specific contexts of historical and

bio-graphical descriptions of specific people, events, and/or places such as case

studies The future tense is rarely used in academic writing—more

com-monly, modal verbs (e.g., can, may) are used to express future expectation.

Progressive tenses are rarely found in academic writing, and perfect tenses are employed only occasionally and mostly with a limited class of verbs The passive voice is common in academic writing, although some com-position books advise against its use Students need to be taught judicious use of the passive voice—that only transitive verbs can be used in the passive voice, that the fry-phrase is optional and rarely used in academic writing, and that some passive constructions are idiomatic and must be learned in-dependently of general rules

STRATEGIES AND TACTICS FOR TEACHING

AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

The following six exercises and practice assignments can help students with verb tenses and voice

(1) Learning to Notice Typical Errors in the Verb Phrase and

Articu-late the Reasons for the Errors

This exercise is similar to those found in many ESL grammar books The primary benefit of this practice is that students need to explicitly indicate what the problems with the sentences are and devise a general rule to avoid making similar errors in their own writing Students can work in pairs and

then compare their generalizations to decide on the most accurate and easi-est to remember

Please correct the errors in the following sentences and create specific rules that can be followed to avoid making such errors in writing What types of errors have you noticed in these sentences? How many?

1 College graduates will earning more money than people without college degrees

2 The Internet has everything, the news, shopping, and gossip, and

the Internet has reach every aspect of our lives When I searched for the information for my classes, I have find all the facts I need

3 The purpose of my essay will be to focus on the work of Pendelton's early paintings that has been giving the credit for founding the still-art school

4 It is not Pendeltons style that was widely imitating among the local

group of painters in the 16th century, but the style of his pupil Johnson (1479-1559)

5 Johnson didn't just only learned painting from Pendelton; he was also often imitated the styles of earlier artists, such as Ellison, Dickerson, and Morris

6 Abraham Maslow did identified the order of human needs from the lowest to the highest

7 The interviewer have not spoke to the study subjects in detail, but

he should

8 The topic of the causes of Second World War has been discussing in

many articles

(2) English Is a Strange Language: Strange Subjects of Active Verbs

and Strange Active Verbs

This exercise leads to interesting discussions for pairs or small groups of stu-dents It is important that the teacher follow up with a whole-class discus-sion and explanation

In your opinion, which of the following sentences are grammatical, which are a lit-tle strange, and which are not grammatical ? Please explain why you think that some

of the sentences seem strange or incorrect and how they can be corrected.

1 It was a dark and stormy night, and students studied in the library

because they will have a test tomorrow

2 Engineers will make a decision about the design for the bridge

They will choose one of the three designs: a floating bridge, a

sus-pension bridge, or an arch bridge The public vote will approve their choice

3 The dog ate my homework The food processor ate my homework The vacuum cleaner ate my homework

4 The tree is growing John's paper is growing The city is growing The child is growing

5 The man is running The water is running The car is running The test is running The tape is running Time is running

6 A barometer predicts the weather A TV station predicts the weather A meteorologist predicts the weather

7 The weather is predicted (by a barometer) The weather is predicted

(by a TV station) The weather is predicted (by a meteorologist)

(3) "English Is Not my Native Language and I Can't Write Like Native Students" Practice

The purpose of this practice is to provide L2 writers examples of tenses and passive uses in authentic NS writing L2 writers often believe that the quality

of language usage (and discourse organization) usually found in NS texts is superb and that the standards of quality expected of L2 writing can be un-fair and unreasonable First of all, these beliefs are based on a simple lack of facts: Native students' writing often leaves a great deal to be desired in terms

of both the quality of language and discourse organization An important teaching objective is to demonstrate to L2 students that being a native speaker does not guarantee superb writing, and that the writing of native students, like L2 writing, also varies widely in quality

Samples of native students' writing can be requested from the Writing Center, a mainstream composition/writing instructor, or even individual students on campus If the teacher has access to the writing of several NS students, the best way to proceed is to collect three or four pieces of LI writ-ing: the not-so-good, passable (and passing), and a good one If the NS pa-pers/essays are written on the same topic (or in similar disciplines), text and discourse analysis can be made very profitable for L2 writers Most impor-tant, however, the analysis of NS essays can address a number of points si-multaneously or in the course of a couple of class meetings:

• discourse organization and structure (including thesis and topic sup-ports and the amount of elaboration—see appendix to chap 11)

• uses of tenses and passives, as well as adverbial time (and tense) markers and frames, and tense shifts

• uses of adjectives and descriptive adverbials such as prepositional

phrases (see chap 6)

• vocabulary range (e.g., nouns, verbs; see chaps 4 and 8)

• any useful/relevant type of discourse and text features

In addition to highlighting how NS writers of similar academic profi-ciency employ text features, one of the main benefits of this exercise is that it helps take away the illusions of NS writing perfection that many L2 aca-demic writers have regarding NS acaaca-demic papers

(4) Functions of the Passive Voice in Academic Writing

The goal of this activity is to help students identify the functions of passive

in academic writing and develop their skills as astute users of the active and passive voices An attendant objective is to practice revising and editing skills with tenses and passive/active constructions

Please read the following excerpt from a student assignment Some constructions used in it contain errors that need to be corrected In addition, some other construc-tions are grammatically correct, but they can be written better Please (1) identify both types of structures, and (2) correct the errors; also please (3) explain which sentences should be improved and why, and then (4) show how they can be rewritten.

As a part of our marketing assignment, we had to go to a small cheese farm where the husband and wife own it The husband and the wife sent a letter to our marketing professor, and they requested that someone come there to an-alyze their marketing techniques to help them improve their sales We went through their entire production chain, and we tried to figure out two things: how they can cut their costs and how they can improve their sales

In this paper, we analyze how they can cut their costs We found out that each cheese is poured into a container for ripening and storage The tainers cost 9 cents each and the lid costs 2 cents So, if they store the con-tainers one on top of the other than they do not need lids, and they can save

2 cents on each lid Of course, the container on the top needs to have a lid Then we analyzed how they can cut their storage costs They keep all the cheese in a huge refrigerator for ripening, and when it is ready, they take to the market They keep the new cheese for at least two months and the aged cheese for up to 18 months They keep the temperature between 40° and 45° So, we performed a little calculation and figured out that if they keep the temperature at 45° instead of 40°, then they can save about a dollar a day on their electric costs

Then we analyzed their shipping costs We asked them to tell us how much they pay for shipping They told us that the shipping of each cheese is costed them $2.80 because they have to ship the cheese in a spe-cial container so it does not warm up and spoil in the truck or when it is waited for the customer to come home and take it inside Each container costs $1.20, and they have to pay $1.60 for transportation So, we did some research, and we found out that they can find a cheaper supplier for their containers, and the new supplier will sell them the container for

$1.05 We are told them that they can save 15 cents on each container if they will buy it from the new supplier we found But they said that they

have a relationship going with their old supplier and that the new sup-plier will not like it if they switch

When we heard that we said to them do you care if your old supplier will not like it or do you care to save money? And then we said that if they will have trouble in their business in the future than their old supplier will have

to sell them fewer containers because they will ship fewer cheeses We rec-ommended that they talk to their old supplier and explain the problem with the price We said maybe your old supplier will match the price of the new supplier then you'll be in good shape But they said that they always buy from the old supplier for almost 30 years and that they cannot talk to them about a new price after all this time

(Extracted from a group student assignment in marketing.) When you are finished with the revisions, please explain the various func-tions of the passive voice that you noticed while working to improve this essay

(5) Subjects of Active Verbs

The goal of this activity is help learners become adept at using active verbs with subjects that are not live beings and that are seemingly unable to per-form the verb action

Please complete the following sentences The main verbs are provided.

1 Hot weather [lead]

2 Ice cream and diary consumption [increase]

3 In some regions, climate [change]

4 The chapter in the book [lack]

5 Human eyes [adapt (to)]

6 Mixing colors [produce]

(6) Mixing Active and Passive Constructions in Academic Writing

The goal of this exercise is to help L2 writers employ both active and passive constructions to the best advantage of their text (e.g., employ varied struc-tures in a reasonably cohesive text) This practice can be particularly useful for paired work when students can discuss their suggested revisions and changes The teacher needs to be sure to follow up with a whole-class review when students are finished working Exercises of this type can also be as-signed as homework with a follow-up in-class discussion

Please decide which structures should be used in the active or the passive voice to improve the text Some structures should be converted (l)from active to passive, oth-ers (2) from passive to active, and (3) some should be left unchanged Also please pay special attention to (4) various types of errors and (5) the uses of by-phrases It is your decision how to improve this text, but your goal is revise it to help its author get the

highest grade possible Please be ready to explain why you think a particular structure should be rewritten and how your revision improves the original.

When the world population increases dramatically, more food is de-manded by all people Only 40 years ago, the world population was counted

at 4 billion, in 1990 it was 5.3 billion, and it expects to grow to 8 billion by the year 2020 However, the speed of food production cannot be kept up the rate

of growth of population under the limited farmland, and it is already fallen far behind the demand This problem could solve by the development of en-gineered foods The new biotechnology can be contributed by increasing the productivity of crops and improve diversification in food sources

It is clear that to eliminate hunger is involved expansion of crop production The potential yield of existed crops is necessary to decrease or eliminate hun-ger, and in the process, the environment cannot be destroyed This be required further scientific advances in food production, and plant biology can play an important role in it Growing new crops requires the use of various pesticides and irrigation, in addition to fertilizing Creating new foods is requires chang-ing the local crops by the agricultural scientists because it is possible to ob-tained certain plants that can be made more productive and better adaptive A

"miracle rice" was developed under this process at the founded International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines in the 1970s by biologists The re-searchers created a new shorter rice plant with better crops The new rice was matured more quickly so farmers did not lost their crops to floods Engineered plans also have the ability to reduce the use of chemicals The cost to farmers will be reduced, and the pollution will be decreased as well

Opponents argue that engineered foods offend nature They think that the creation of a new type of life form should be left alone and evolution will

be taken care of that by itself They have these ideas only because people are always distrusted new products, particularly food We should know that tradi-tional creating of new crops is almost as old as agriculture The first farmer who was bred the best bull with the best cow in the heard to improve the stock, was implemented agricultural engineering in a very simple way The first baker who used yeast to make bread pie was also used a lining thing to pro-duce an improving product Science always finds new ways for them to intro-duce quickly and directly a specific crop, and animal improvements will lead

to more people with food by technology These days, it can take a decade to produce something that was taken by generations of farmers to come up with (Extracted from a student assignment on world hunger and biotechnology.)

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1 In your opinion, what does the term conventionalized uses mean

when it comes to English tenses and the passive voice in formal

aca-demic writing? Can you think of other conventionalized constructions

2 In the following excerpt from a student assignment, please iden-tify the tense-related (and other types of) errors, and state how these er-rors can be clearly explained to students so that they can the correct

them independently without having to rely on the teacher's corrections

Around the world, there are numbers of people with diseases that were inher-ited from their ancestors Every day, approximately 14% of newborn infants

were afflicted by some sort of inherited physical or mental problems when they were born The diseases dealing with genes are very hard to know who will in-herit it Gene therapy is a medical procedure that treats a disease by replacing a faulty gene Though many people thought that gene therapy has some side ef-fects, I believe that gene therapy will be important to us for our future Nowa-days, scientists are trying to solve the problem of AIDS Gene therapy

researchers are trying to find a cure for the disease that many infants inherited from their mothers when they were born There are many developments that

were occurred in gene therapy recently that will bring the world around.

(Extracted from a student assignment on the influence of technol-ogy on health care.)

3 As discussed earlier in the chapter, the progressive and perfect tenses are rare in academic writing, and, for example, the perfect pro-gressive is hardly ever encountered In your opinion, why is the teach-ing of these tenses so common in L2 grammar instruction? Can

similar observations also be true about other English constructions?

4 When it comes to tenses and the active and the passive voices, do you think that the findings of corpus analyses of academic writing in English can be applied to L2 student writing? Why or why not? If the findings of corpus analyses cannot be useful in L2 classroom, what

should the basis of ESL and EAP curricula be?

5 The information in this chapter explains that many passive con-structions in English are idiomatic and have to be learned Can you

come up with a few examples of passive constructions that you believe

to be idiomatic or derived and explain your determination? A few ex-amples are provided

(a) The importance of small business to the U.S economy cannot be overstated

(b) The speaker was long winded, and the listeners were quickly lost in his citations of numbers

(c) Once the production plans are made for the next business cycle, they are continually altered in response to the new information

FURTHER READINGS ABOUT VERB TENSES

AND VOICE AND TEACHING

Carlson, G., & Tanenhaus, M (1984) Lexical meanings, structural meanings, and

concepts In D Testen, V Mishra, & J Drogo (Eds.), Papers from the Parasession on

Lexical Semantics (pp 39-52) Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Chafe, W (1994) Discourse, consciousness, and time Chicago: University of Chicago

Croft, W (1998) The structure of events and the structure of language In M.

Tomasello (Ed.), The new psychology of language (pp 67-92) Mahwah, NJ:

Law-rence Erlbaum Associates.

DeCarrico, J (1986) Tense, aspect, and time in the English modality TESOL Quar-terly, 20(4), 665-682.

Deitrich, R., Klein, W., & Noyau, C (1995) The acquisition of temporality in a second language Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DeLancey, S (1985) Agentivity and syntax Chicago Linguistic Society, 21, 1-12.

Hinkel, E (1997) The past tense and temporal verb meanings in a contextual

frame TESOL Quarterly, 31(2), 289-313.

Hinkel, E (2002) Why English passive is difficult to teach (and learn) In E Hinkel

& S Fotos (Eds.), New perspectives on grammar teaching (pp 233-260) Mahwah,

NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Levin, B (1993) English verb classes and alternations Chicago: University of Chicago

Press.

Master, P (1991) Active verbs with inanimate subjects in scientific prose English for Specific Purposes, 10(1), 15-33.

Matthiessen, C (1996) Tense in English seen through systemic-functional theory.

In M Berry, C Butler, R Fawcett, & G Hwang (Eds.), Meaning and form: Systemic functional interpretations (pp 431-498) Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Owen, C (1993) Corpus-based grammar and the Heineken effect:

Lexico-gram-matical description for language learners Applied Linguistics, 14(2), 167-187.

Thompson, P (2000) Citation practices in PhD theses In L Burnard &T McEnery

(Eds.), Rethinking language pedagogy from a corpus perspective (pp 91-101)

Frank-furt: Peter Lang.

Vassivela, I (2001) Commitment and detachment in English and Bulgarian

aca-demic writing English for Specific Purpose, 20, 83-102.

Appendix to Chapter 7

DISCOURSE-DRIVEN SENTENCE STEMS WITH THE PRESENT

PERFECT TENSE

The increasing interest in xxx has heightened the need for / to

Recently, there has been growing interest in

The possibility of has generated wide interest in

The development of xxx has lead to the hope that

The xxx lias been / become a favorite topic for analysis /discussion / examination

Knowledge of xxx has become an important aspect of

The xxx has been extensively studied in recent years.

Many educators/scientists/analysts have recently turned to

The relationship between xxx andyyy has been investigated/studied by many researchers.

Many recent articles/reports have focused on

(From Swales & Peak, 1994)

Lexical Classes of Verbs:

Meanings and Text Functions

OVERVIEW

• The most essential academic verbs

• 350 foundational verbs

• Text functions and syntactic properties of lexical verb classes

• Activity verbs

• Reporting verbs

• Mental/emotive verbs

• Linking verbs

• Logical-semantic relationship verbs

Verbs represent one of the most important elements in sentences and text construction (Quirk et al., 1985) In the teaching of ESL grammar, a great deal of attention is typically devoted to such features of the verb phrase as tenses, aspects, and auxiliary fronting (for verb tenses and their uses, see chap 7) In addition to these syntactic properties of verbs, verb meanings and textual functions play a prominent role in the construction of academic text This chapter covers the functions and uses of lexical classes of verb and their specific textual meanings and implications As with nouns, the promi-nent role of verbs in academic writing and text cannot be underestimated Because L2 writers' academic prose often appears to rely on severely re-stricted vocabulary range, learners need to be taught the functions and uses

of a wide range of verbs, without which their writing appears constrained and repetitious As mentioned earlier in this book, it may not be possible to express many ideas within the confines of a 500-word repertoire To help L2 writers expand their range of accessible academic verbs, they need to be ex-plicitly and persistently taught

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