Page 112 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

98 CHAPTER 5
and 11). A study based on a large corpus of L2 academic essays has shown that even advanced L2 writers employ lexical substitutions significantly less frequently than first-year NS students simply because NNSs rely on a se- verely restricted lexical repertoire. NNS students who have taken the TOEFL are familiar with lexical replacements (e.g., The word substitution in line/paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to (1) replacement, (2) restitution, (3) recon- struction, (4) replication).
To write papers in the disciplines, students need to know key terms used in each domain of studies such as economics, physics, or history. Usually dis- cipline-specific terms are heavily emphasized in courses, lectures, and text- books, and most students learn them as a part of their coursework. However, even in discipline-specific papers, increasing the vocabulary asso- ciated with nouns can be essential. The following excerpt comes from an as- signment in basic physics:
(2) Density is an important unit and usually used in measuring and calculating
amount of material. Density is the mass of a specific compound divided by its volume,
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such as the density of water is 1 g/cm . However, when different subunits represent den-
sity, the amount of density becomes different.
Although the term density isused to refer to a particular property of a ma- terial, its repetition can be avoided by means of pronouns and sentence combining (e.g., the first sentence in this excerpt can easily be combined with the second; see chap. 6, Pronouns; and chap. 10, Subordinate Clauses). In addition, however, the word amount is also repeated, and the redundancy can be avoided:
Amount—computation result, ratio, value.
However, as with uses of dictionaries, the teacher needs to preselect ap- plicable and contextually appropriate lexical items that can meet students' needs without pitfalls. The following example is extracted from an assign- ment in an economics course:
(3)Thereareatleast2900companieslistedontheNewYorkStockExchange, 1000 companies on the American Stock Exchange, 2700 companies traded on the over-the-counter, to name afew. This is only publicly traded companies in the U.S., not to mention theforeign companies. With so many options at hand, how should we decided which company to be our best shot ? ... A lot of ratios could be used to measure the com- pany's profitability. The combined use of these ratios can not only tell us if the company is making money but alsogive us some information such as the expenses and the number of outstanding shares inside the company. ... You are rich because others are poorer than you. If every company in the world makes more than two million dollars this year and
your company only makes one million dollars. Your company is still profitable but it is not worth investing.
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