Page 119 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

NOUNS ANDTHE NOUN PHRASE 105
duction. The reason is that, in general, rules are not intended to account for specific occurrences of articles, but rather are designed to serve as overarch- ing guidelines. In the case of employing plural nouns instead of singular and, thus, avoiding at least some of the problems associated with article use, students usually appreciate a tip that they can easily put into practice. The ambitious goal of attaining a broad-based L2 proficiency and near-native performance is usually not the students', but the teachers'.
NONCOUNT AND IRREGULAR NOUNS
Although noncount nouns in English are relatively few, they can play an im- portant role in making text appear idiosyncratic because they are very com- mon in academic texts (see the list of frequent nouns). Many L2 grammar books provide lists of these nouns divided according to their semantic classes (e.g., groups made of similar items, mass nouns, abstractions, or names of recreational activities—baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, camping). Although these semantic divisions seem to be logical and organized to NSs, to L2 learners they do not always make sense. For instance, why should bag- gage, clothing, and furniture items, which one can easily count, be noncount, and what could possibly be the difference between baggage and bags? The trouble with noncount nouns is that in English their singularity or plurality is often simply lexicalized and cannot be explained logically.
Most lists of noncount nouns are organized based on their semantic categories (e.g., whole groups made up of similar items—Fluids, Solids, Abstractions, Languages, Recreations, Activities, and Natural phenomena). However, to know that homework, slang, vocabulary, news, advice, music, laughter, and wealth represent abstract phenomena, one needs to have a relatively good vocabulary range. For this reason, the organization of noncount nouns exemplified next is organized structurally and based on explicit and overt noun markers such as suffixes.
Although current and popular methodologies for L2 teaching dis- dain rote memorization and frown on attempts to assign lists to be memorized, unfortunately there may be few means to learn academic vocabulary outside of memorization, followed by extensive contextualized practice. Those who have successfully attained L2 pro- ficiency sufficient for success in academic reading and writing in any L2 (particularly one without L1 cognates) are familiar with the te- dious work entailed in learning lists of exceptions to almost all rules provided by instructors.
An important consideration in learning noncount and other irregular nouns is that the actual list of those necessary for producing academic texts is small. For instance, students who do not plan to enroll in veterinarian
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