Page 132 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

118 CHAPTER 5
(c) For advanced students, this technique can be used with excerpts from introductory texts in the disciplines or literature on any topic that the teacher considers to be useful and appropriate. As intermediate learners, students can work in groups or complete the assignment as homework, followed by a substantial class discussion of their lexical choices. For example,
• Whyisaparticularwordappropriate/inappropriate inthissentence?
• What better word can be found?
• Why is another choice of a word better?
• How many parts does a particular word consist of?
• What are they?
• Is this word a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb, and how do we
know?
• What lexical substitutions for this word can we think of?
• Are some better than others and why?
Lexical Substitution Exercises
Restatement and paraphrase are often considered to be essential academic tasks. However, many NNS students lack the necessary lexical and reading skills to restate an idea. Teaching restatement by means of lexical substitu- tions is simpler than paraphrasing, and lexical restatement can be practiced even with high beginners. For example,
Task 1. Please replace the underlined nouns with other nouns (or phrases) with similar meanings.
1. Education abroad is rapidly expanding due to an increasing number of ad- venturous students who take advantage of going abroad to explore their eth- nic roots.
[education—studying, going to school, learning; abroad—in a foreign country; expanding—growing, becoming popular; roots—origins, family history]
2. Several factors play an important role in this trend, [facts, points, ideas]
3. Colleges and universities in England remain the top destination for U.S. students.
[choice, place, location, goal]
Paraphrase practice is a little more complex and requires examples for students to complete it successfully. However, if the lexical substitution work takes place prior to restatement, students will have little trouble.
Task 2. Please explain in your own words and in one sentence what these three sentences say together.
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