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How specific should we be?

How specific should we be?. Louis Rogers. www.macmillanskillful.com /. Specificity Vs. Transferability. Current practice General academic v ocabulary Beyond individual words Practicalities The broader picture. Current practices. Current practices.

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How specific should we be?

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  1. How specific should we be? Louis Rogers

  2. www.macmillanskillful.com/

  3. Specificity Vs. Transferability • Current practice • General academic vocabulary • Beyond individual words • Practicalities • The broader picture

  4. Current practices

  5. Current practices • How similar are different genres and disciplines? • Academic writing - 15,559 Results • How do these style guides present academic writing? • Bennett’s survey

  6. Current practices • Barrass, R. Scientists must write: A guide to better writing for scientists, engineers and students. • Brown, R, B. Doing your dissertation in business and management: The reality of researching and writing. • Fabb, N and Durant, A. How to write essays and dissertations: A guide for English literature students. • Kneale, P. Study skills for geography students: A practical guide. • Northedge et al. The sciences good study guide. • Strong, S.I How to write law essays and exams.

  7. Current practices • General principles • Text structure • Grammatical issues • Lexical features • Other features

  8. Current practice • Large degree of consistency • Evidence, caution and restraint, incorporation of sources • Formal, technical, objective • Structure – IMRD / IDC • Impersonal

  9. General Academic Vocabulary

  10. General Academic Vocabulary • The Academic Word List (Coxhead) • 4 discipline areas • 3.5 million word corpus • 570 word families • West’s 1953 General Service List

  11. General Academic Vocabulary • 75% = 2000 most frequent words • 10-15% = academic vocabulary • 10-15% = specialist vocabulary

  12. General Academic Vocabulary Job Examine Quantitative Qualitative Omission Persuasion Classification Determine

  13. General Academic Vocabulary • Multi-meaning words • Volume Attribute • Is one core list possible? • Moving beyond individual words • General Service List + AWL • Address, control, means • Address-issue, control-group, by-means

  14. Beyond individual words

  15. Collocations • Hyland 2008 • Electronic Engineering • Biology • Business Studies • Applied linguistics • 4 word bundles • 50 most frequent • On the other hand, as well as the, in the case of, at the same time, the results of the • Half on one list only

  16. Collocations • Function of collocations • Research-orientated = location, procedure, quantification, description, topic At the same time, the purpose of, a wide range of, the size of the, the currency board system • Text-orientated = transition, results, structure, framing In addition to the, it was found that, in the next section, with the exception of

  17. Collocations • Participant-orientated = stance, engagement It is possible that, as can be seen

  18. Collocation • Sciences = research-orientated • Social sciences = text-orientated • 90% Vs. 80% and 9% Vs. 17% • Chunks not transferable • Functions are transferable • Relative weight of assessment type

  19. Collocation • Hyland and Tse (2007) • marketing strategy • learning strategy • coping strategy • Durrant (2009) • Life Sciences, Science and Engineering, Social-Psychological, Social-administrative, Arts and Humanities • 1000 two-word collocations across all 5 areas

  20. Collocation • Three quarters grammatical • Reporting pattern ‘verb + that’ • Argue, assumer, conclude, confirm, demonstrate, emphasize, hypothesize, imply, indicate, note, predict, reveal, show, speculate, suggest, suppose • Frequency and pattern combined • Transferability of use not investigated • Based on, associate with, note that, defined as, relationship between, effects on, indicate that

  21. In favour of specificity • Strong evidence for disciplinary differences • Broad or subtle? • Nation - theory is theory no matter what the discipline • Are grammatical collocations and functions more transferable? • Implications for institutions and teachers

  22. Practicalities • Time for research • Contact with academics • Time for materials development • Financial constraints

  23. Practicalities • Broad ESAP • Combined degrees • Accountancy with; Management, Divinity, Law, IT, Economics, Spanish, Biology, Broadcast media, Geology, Psychology, HR, Finance, Leadership Mandarin, Logistics, and Maths • EAP teacher knowledge

  24. Practicalities • Variability of specialist areas • Management and Business Consistent areas - Finance, Accounting, Statistics and Organisational Behaviour Differences – Economics, Marketing, Computing, Enterprise, Law, Foreign Languages • Challenge in defining genres

  25. The bigger picture • ‘An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.’ Nicholas Murray Butler • Bachelors, Masters, PhD • The interdisciplinary nature of the Colleges as a major stimulus to teaching and learning

  26. The bigger picture • Highly flexible programme • Extensive choice of subjects • Acquire transferable skills • Highly flexible undergraduate learning environment • Cater for a variety of different student interests and career aspirations • Develops analytical, quantitative, computing, presentation and other transferable skills

  27. The bigger picture • Progression through years • Sandwich degrees • Placements • Knowledge economy

  28. Implications • Skills to deal with a wide range of texts • Purpose, audience, aims • Ability to identify patterns • Critically analyse these features • Mixed backgrounds, experiences, disciplines allows for better analysis

  29. Conclusion • Is there a core academic vocabulary? • Are the differences significant enough? • How specific can we be? • How specific should we be?

  30. www.macmillanskillful.com/

  31. Bibliography • Anthony, L. (2011). Products, processes and practitioners: A critical look at the importance of specificity in ESP. Taiwan International ESP Journal. Vol 3:2 1-8 • Bennett, K. (2009). English academic style manuals: A survey. English for specific purposes. 8 p43-54. • Biber, D, Conrad, S and Leech, G. (2002). Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman: Harlow. • Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34: 213-238. • Coxhead, A. (2011). The Academic Word List 10 Years On: Research and Teaching Implications. TESOL Quarterly, 45: 355-361

  32. Bibliography • Dovey, T. (2006). What purposes specifically? Re-thinking purposes and specificity in the context of the ‘new vocationalism’, English for Specific Purposes, 25(4), 387-402. • Durrant, P. (2009). Investigating the viability of a collocation list for students of English for academic purposes. English for specific purposes. 28 p157-169. • Eldridge, J. (2008). “No, There Isn’t an ‘Academic Vocabulary’ but…” TESOL Quarterly, 42: 109 – 113 • Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2007). Is there an “Academic Vocabulary”?. TESOL Quarterly, 41: 235 – 253.

  33. Bibliography • Hyland, K. (2008). As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for specific purposes. 27 p4-21. • James, M.A. (2009). “Far” transfer of learning outcomes from an ESL writing course: Can the gap be bridged? English for Specific Purposes. 18 69-84 • Jordan, R, R. (1998). English for Academic Purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Ramoroka, B, T. (2012). Teaching Academic Writing for the Disciplines: How far can we be specific in an EAP writing course? English Linguistics Research. 1:2 available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/elr.vln2p33

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