Page 282 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

268 CHAPTER 10
complex. In addition to embedding simple noun clauses in the sub- ject or object position of a sentence, students must be able to con- vert wh-question and yes/no question sentences into statement
format when creating noun clauses from question sentences.
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS FOR TEACHING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES
The following four exercises (some with extended activities) are designed to help students improve their use of subordinate clauses appropriate for aca- demic writing.
(1) Reviewing the Reviewer
(a) Students are assigned to read an article, op-ed piece, or book/movie re- view. Their task is to assess the writer's position on the issue discussed in an article or evaluate the review. The first step is to identify the article writer's position conveyed in citations of the opinions and arguments of others, agreement/disagreement with these opinions/arguments, and points that the writer chooses to emphasize. In addition, students focus on reporting verbs and their contextual meanings by means of which the writer's position is established.
The reporting verbs and evaluative adjectives (see also Suggestions for Teaching in chaps. 8 and 9) can be organized into several groups such as positive-negative, supporting-rejecting, or neutral. As the next step, stu- dents can be asked to add their own items to supplement the lists (e.g., Posi- tive Reporting Verbs, Positive Evaluative Adjectives, Negative Reporting Verbs, or Negative Evaluative Adjectives). Students can work in pairs to con- struct the lists.
Another option is to supply students with starter lists from which they can begin making their own:
Positive Reporting Verbs agree
confirm
assert
Negative Reporting Verbs deny
claim
allege
Neutral Reporting Verbs maintain
demonstrate
note
When the lists are completed in pairs or individually,students write an evaluation of the article, op-ed piece, or review they read or another arti- cle/review. This tasks can be assigned several times throughout the term or a couple of times per week provided that students continue to build on the items already included in their lists.
TLFeBOOK