Everywhere you go, there they are: Mining grammar and vocabulary in

source materials for academic writing tasks

Jan FrodesenUC Santa Barbara

What is language mining?

• Searching for/ extracting authentic examples of language use (grammar and vocabulary) in written or spoken texts for specific instructional purposesMaterials developmentClass activitiesHomework tasks

What purposes can “mining” serve?

“Mining” offers authentic language use for many instructional purposes:• Highlighting theme-based vocabulary needed for writing tasks • Developing general academic vocabulary• Creating awareness of register differences in language use (e.g.,

“everyday” English vs. academic English)• Providing language structures to teach functional writing purposes

(e.g., cohesive devices, reporting research)• Providing templates for developing paraphrase and summary skills• Creating awareness of vocabulary and grammar interactions and

ways in which vocabulary choices affect grammatical ones

How do you “mine” a text?

• Start with the texts, not with the structures• Skim texts (readings/transcripts of oral speech) to see what features

are prominent (e.g. reporting verbs, classifier nouns, specific verb tense, noncount nouns, sentence fragments) and patterned

• Select ones that best fit your students’ writing and language development needs – immediate and long-term

• Consider how the language items selected might be used in an exercise that you will create to hand out or post? for a text analysis (reading) activity in class? for a guided homework assignment?

Sources for this presentation

Composition unit materials on digital technology/digital literacy being developed by ESL and Basic Skills writing instructors at Santa Monica College, UCLA, UC-Irvine and UC-Santa Barbara*

– Transcript of Digital Nation (PBS video), available online– Four readings (two from The New York Times, two from– The Chronicle of Higher Education)

* Full references and URL information can be found at the end of this presentation.

“Mining topics” for this presentation

• Informal register • Collocations (Verb/Verbal/Adj + Prep)• Reporting verbs and phrases• Hedging words• Reference words and phrases for cohesion

Format of presentation

• Definitions/explanations of structure• Rationale• Data examples from “mining” texts• Guided activities

Informal register

• Definition: Words, phrases, and grammar structures that are frequently found in everyday English, e.g., conversation, informal oral interviews, written texts such as e-mails but are less appropriate for academic writing contexts.

• Rationale for focus: Both U.S.-educated and international multilingual writers have difficulty distinguishing register differences and may use informal forms inappropriately in academic writing.

Informal register

• Text examples (Source: Video Nation transcript) These young teenagers on the phones and on the computers.

Like when I was growing up, it wasn’t like that. So it really hit me one night not that long ago… And I don’t know

it just kind of snuck up on us. The point is to be our most creative selves, not to distract

ourselves to death. He’s pretty confident that his multitasking is successful. There’s always gains and losses But [these students] have done themselves a disservice by

drinking the Kool-Aid and believing that a multilearning environment will best serve their purposes.

Informal register

• Text examples (Digital Nation) My papers, my first draft, it’s always like “All right,

paragraph one, awesome. Two, awesome. Three, awesome. I don’t see the connection.” And in my head, well, I was probably thinking about something else then or I wasn’t looking at the big picture. It was just short term, short term, short term.

Informal Register

• Activities Underline examples of informal register; ask students

to: 1) delete words that don’t need to be there (e.g., filler words like, just); 2) provide more academic words or phrases for others.

Ask students to identify fragments and expand them (Choose ones that can be reasonably expanded)

Look at conversational vs. stylistic repetition in writing

Informal Register

• Activities Ask students to find more examples of informal words,

phrases and grammatical structuresAssign students to look up informal expressions on the

internet for homework (e.g., “drinking the Kool-Aid) and give brief reports on their meanings.

Collocations

• Definition: Collocations are words that frequently co-occur; common collocations include verbs or adjectives that are often followed by particular prepositions.

Examples: contribute to, prevent from, adept at, familiar with

• Rationale for focus: They are very frequent in academic writing; student writers need to use them in all kinds of writing, and they often have problems using them correctly.

Collocations

• Text examples (Digital Nation transcript)Verb/participle/verbal + adjective In Asia, there’s a recognition that teenagers,

many teenagers, are addicted to videogames. It was sobering to see row after row of kids glued

to these screens. I think we are behind the Asians in terms of

focusing on that problem.

Collocations

• Text examples (Digital Nation transcript) Adjective + preposition It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every

aspect of multitasking. The experiment looks simple… but it’s rife with

traps in the forms of distractions. Are folks getting a little afraid of technology?

Collocations

• Activities As a diagnostic, give students the sentences with the

prepositions deleted and ask them to fill them in (individually or groups)

Sort collocations according to register differences (formal, informal, neutral) if examples

Have students start a collocation notebook or file to list ones they would like to use in their own writing

Reporting verbs and phrases

• Definition: Reporting verbs are verbs used to cite another’s work, whether as a summary, paraphrase or quotation

Examples: state, emphasize, maintain, conclude

Reporting phrases are often introductory phrases Examples: According to, from the perspective of,

as X sees it, in X’s opinion

Reporting verbs and phrases

• Rationale for focus: Academic English uses a great variety of reporting verbs whose functions and meanings are complex and should be learned in context. Student writers often don’t have a large repertoire of these verbs or may use them inappropriately. Introductory phrases are useful as alternate ways of referencing sources.

Reporting verbs and phrases

• Text examples (Source: Plagiarism Lines Blur, NYT) Susan D. Blum set out to understand how students view

authorship… Ms. Blum argued that student writing exhibits much of

the same qualities of pastiche that drive other creative behaviors today

She contends that undergraduates are less interested in cultivating a unique and authentic identity than in trying on many different personas..

In the view of Ms. Wilesnky, … plagiarism has nothing to do with trendy academic theories.

Reporting verbs and phrases

• ActivitiesGroup and discuss reporting verb meanings and

strength of claims (weak-neutral-strong)Identify the complement structures that follow

reporting verbs (e.g., that-clauses, noun phrases)Classify verbs based on whether they are ‘saying’

verbs (e.g., argue, contend, note, suggest) or ‘doing” verbs (e.g., gave reasons, studied effects)

Reporting verbs and phrases

• ActivitiesRewrite sentences with reporting verbs using

introductory reporting phrases for ‘saying’ verbs Think of synonyms for the classifier words (e.g.

view, perspective, opinion) in introductory phrases

Hedging words

• Definition: Words and phrases that limit claims or generalizations Examples: modals (may, could), probability adverbs

(possibly, probably), frequency adverbs (sometimes, usually), uncertainty verbs (seem, appear), quantifiers (some, many)

Hedging words

• Rationale for focus: There are many options writers have for hedging assertions. L2 writers often don’t qualify generalizations appropriately. Modals in particular may be challenging; they are used in different ways in different disciplines.

Hedging words

• Text examples (Source: Literacy Debate, NYT) The web inspires a teenage like Nadia, who might

otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

Those who prefer staring at a television or mashing buttons on a game console, they say, can still benefit from reading on the internet.

Some traditionalists warn that digital reading is the intellectual equivalent of empty calories.

Hedging words

• Text examples (Source: Literacy Debate, NYT) Often …writers on the internet employ a cryptic argot… And many youths spend most of their time on the

Internet playing games or sending instant messages.

Hedging words

• Activities Cluster hedging examples based on grammatical

types (modals, quantifiers, etc.)Ask students to add examples to each of the

categories in clustersRank hedging examples based on how they limit

claims (e.g., most vs. many; can vs. might)Have students add hedges to claims that lack

qualifiers; ask them to try several ways

Reference words and phrases

• Definition: A grammatical system including pronouns, demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those), demonstrative adjectives + NP, definite article the + NP, such + NP used to refer to preceding content (called the referent) in a text.

Reference words with NPs

Reference Form Noun Phrase Examples

this this critical issue

that that outdated notion

these these two competing hypotheses

those those earlier considerations

such such unjust accusations

the + noun phrase the first topic that was discussed

another another important question

other/the other other significant factors/ the other concern

Reference words and phrases

• Rationale for focus: To understanding how reference forms are used, we need to see them in contexts as reference choices are discourse-based.

Reference forms are a finite set, but they combine with other grammar/vocabulary such as classifier phrases + modifiers in diverse and complex ways.

Learning about them as cohesive devices to connect ideas is much more meaningful than learning them as simply grammatical forms.

Reference words and phrases

• Text examples (Sources: Online Literacy is a Lesser Kind, Generational Myth) Yes, it’s a kind of literacy, but it breaks down in

the face of a dense argument Those conclusions apply to middle-school and

high school programs. Such discussion also risk ignoring the different

ways young people use digital tools.

Reference words and phrases

• Text examples (Sources: Online Literacy is a Lesser Kind, Generational Myth) Nevertheless, the results bear consideration by

those pushing for more e-learning on campus. All this mystical talk about a generational shift

and all the claims that kids won’t read books are not true.

Reference words and phrases

• Activities Give students sentence with reference forms. Ask them

to identify and write down the referent.Find two or more references to a single referent in a

text. Have students underline the reference forms. Discuss how the forms vary in progression. Do they get longer? Shorter?

Discuss motivations for longer reference phrases. Why are modifiers needed?

Consider expansions for reference forms used, e.g. those + NP instead of pronoun those.

Reference words and phrases

• Activities Guided paraphrase activity: Give students

sentences with reference forms to paraphrase. Show them how to retrieve needed information from the preceding context to write the paraphrase.

Reference words and phrases

• Activities Guided paraphrase activity:

Examples: Original: Only 6 percent of them said that

college students come into their classes very well prepared in writing.

Paraphrase: Most professors said that…

Source materials

Source materials• Digital Nation transcript, PBS:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation• Generational Myth, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Chronicle of Higher Education,

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i04/04b00701.htm From the issue dated 9/19/2008• Literacy Debate: Online, RU Really Reading? Motoko Rich, New York Times, July 27,

2008• Online Literacy is a Lesser Kind, Mark Bauerlein, The Chronicle of Higher Education,

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i04/04b01001.htmFrom the issue dated September 19, 2008

• Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age, Trip Gabriel, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?_r=1&ref=plagiarism&pagewanted=print From the issue dated August 1, 2010