Page 217 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

LEXICAL CLASSES OF VERBS 203
ties of their meanings (e.g., Change-verbs or Organize-verbs). Then stu- dents need to supply additional verbs from their knowledge to bring the number of verbs in each cluster to 10 (or some other number). It is neces- sary to inform students at the outset that the pairs should be prepared to defend their choices and attributions during the extension portion of this verb practice.
The starting set can include:
analyze investigate perform decline decide research distribute
elaborate distinguish operate structure schedule state balance identify conclude note
run view serve reduce
propose arrange precede fulfill enlarge remove coordinate organize follow debate broaden mention observe work move expand complete
notice decrease
The semantic clusters for categorizing the verbs can include several options, such as those next or some other broader or narrower combina- tions of these:
Change size/amount Organize Differentiate Restate ideas Function Study in depth
It is important to keep in mind that more than one reasonable cluster- ing of verbs is possible when the clusters are based on abstract semantic and lexical constructs such as organize,function, and differentiate. For exam- ple, the verb observe can fit well into the clusters Study in Depth and Re- state Ideas or precede and follow into Organize and Differentiate. However, the teacher can take advantage of this conceptual fluidity and move to the next step of this exercise.
Here is one version of the verbs grouped by meaning (various possible options are listed in parentheses):
Change size/amount
decline (balance) reduce expand (arrange) enlarge broaden
Organize
distribute schedule (balance) (structure)
(identify) (coordinate) (arrange)
Differentiate
(distinguish) (structure)
(identify) (note)
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