Page 109 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

Nouns and the Noun Phrase
OVERVIEW
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Noun groupings and substitutions to expand vocabulary Vocabulary in academicwriting
380 essential nouns in academic texts Required elements of the noun phrase
o Articles
o Count and noncount nouns
Different meanings of singular and plural noun forms
The importance of gerunds and nominalizationsin academic text Compound noun phrases
Strategies for teaching nouns and teachingactivities
Most people who have learned a foreign language and attempted to use it for their daily tasks are painfully aware of how an insufficient repertoire with regard to nouns and verbs can become a severe handicap in practically any interaction—even trying to place an order in a restaurant. In academic texts, when students need to demonstrate their understanding of assign- ments and readings, and in addition explain their ideas on the subject mat- ter, the shortfalls in their lexical repertoire often turn into great obstacles.
Both in reading and writing, many learners are faced with either having to look up numerous words in a dictionary or make do with the lexicon ac- cessible to them. If they elect to look up words, translating dictionaries often provide "matching" items that can render a student's text incomprehensi- ble, while working with English-English dictionaries may take an inordi- nate amount of time—again due to the simple fact that one needs to have a solid lexical foundation in place to be able to understand distinctions be- tween partial synonymsprovided in dictionary entries.
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