Page 135 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

NOUNS ANDTHE NOUN PHRASE 121
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. In teaching ESL to L2 university-bound students, instruction in vo- cabulary and grammar usually take place in courses separate from the teaching of L2 writing. Why were ESL curricula and language work designed like this? If you were in charge of the curriculum de- sign, what course structure would you develop?
2. In your opinion, why did Nation (1990) call vocabulary learning a learning burden? How can learners acquire academic vocabulary in classroom activities? How can these activities be designed to bepro- ductive for learners?
3. Why does the learning of academic vocabulary need to become one of the central foci of classroom instruction? What current L2 teach- ing methodologies match the needs of academically oriented learners?
4. What methodological and research premise underlies the expan- sion of learners' range of nouns by means of contextual lexical sub- stitution?
5. Among the L2 learners' problems with nouns addressed in this chapter (e.g., countable-uncountable nouns, articles, names of lan- guages and people), in your opinion which ones are more impor- tant than others for L2 learners to be aware of? Why?
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT ACADEMIC VOCABULARY AND VOCABULARYTEACHING
Vocabulary Teaching
Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (Eds.). (1988). Vocabulary and language teaching. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Coady, J., & Huckin, T. (Eds.). (1997). Second language vocabulary acquisition. Cam- bridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
Dudley-Evans,T.,&St.John, M.j.(1998). Developments inEnglishfor specific purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
Jordan, R. (1997). Englishfor academic purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Milton, J. (1999). Lexical thickets and electronic gateways: Making text accessible by novice writers. In C. Candlin & K. Hyland (Eds.), Writing texts, processes and prac- tices (pp. 221-243). London: Longman.
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press.
Schmitt, N., & McCarthy, M. (1997). Vocabulary description, acquisition, and pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
Academic Vocabulary
Adams, V (2001). Complex words in English. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
TLFeBOOK