Spoken-like writing
The
writing that young students are engaged in is more often than not based
on actual experiences with the language being familiar because it is
mostly every-day vocabulary that is used, personal pronouns, sensing and
action verbs. The active voice is obvious (somebody/something doing
something e.g. Lions chase their prey).
Formal, knowledgeable writing
As
writers progress into later primary and secondary schooling their
writing leans towards generalized, more abstract ideas, making
increasingly complicated connections between ideas. They use precise
terminology when explaining abstract ideas. Writing an historical
composition, writers objectively recount events and they continually
evaluate the causes and effects in an unemotional manner (see examples in Themes (last two paragraphs).
The
language in formal writing is not the everyday parlance; more indirect
expressions are emphasized. This oblique type of writing is accomplished
by the use of nominalisation (noun groups), pronouns are removed from the Theme position, instead noun groups and adverbs/adverbial phrases are placed at the beginning of clauses, passive voice using auxiliary (relating) verbs are apparent e.g. The colony was plagued..., specialized and more sophisticated vocabulary is
used, Although these language aspects are segregated in the below
discussion, each is part of the other; they work as a whole.
Note of interest: From Wikipedia - In systemic functional grammar (SFG), a nominal group is a group of words which expresses an entity. A "nominal group" is widely regarded as synonymous to noun phrase in other grammatical models,[1][2] although [Michael] Halliday [author of texts about functional grammar] and some of his followers draw a theoretical distinction between the terms group and phrase. He argues that 'A phrase is different from a group in that, whereas a group is an expansion of a word, a phrase is a contraction of a clause'.[3] Halliday borrowed the term 'group' from the linguist/classicist Sydney Allen. [4]
I
am of the opinion that either’ group’ or ‘phrase’ can be used providing
consistency is the order of the day. I will be using the term‘group’ in this article.
Nouns are formed as a result of nominalization of verbs, for example, the replacing of a verb (‘settled’) with a noun/noun group (a single topic or event) (’the settlement’). Noun forms of verbs become a concept (an abstract thing) rather than an action. The intention of nominalization is to make writing, especially the writing of non-fiction texts, more impersonal, factual and valid. Extended clause/clauses are repackaged into a noun group condensing ideas which makes the writing more precise. ‘The people who first came to Australia...’ is made more succinct, ‘’Early settlers...’ ‘ These settlers had a bad influence ... ’ becomes ‘Irresponsible settlers ...‘ ‘It was wonderful that people inhabited...’ becomes the noun group ‘The colony was inhabited....’
The noun group can include adjectives that are factual ...classify, ‘The first colony...’ describe, ‘Arduous toil was experienced...’, moving the language to a more sophisticated, generalized level e.g. ‘The immigrant group,..’
Referring to statements made by specialist writers would be expressed as a noun group, ‘The comment by the forthright professor...’
I remember teaching children that changing verb endings ‘ed’ (e.g. combined) would change the word into a noun when ‘tion’ is added (combination). Little did I realize at the time that it was called nominalization and how nominalization functioned in writing.
The Theme is the focus of the writing. Students decide what the focus is - what is the Theme to be discussed ? The Theme is announced at the beginning of a clause. Especially, noun groups as paragraph openers guide the information that follows on,
Not only are noun groups (e.g. ‘The logging of rain forests’)
written at the beginning of clauses but also adverbial phrases time,
place (when and where action happened), in what manner etc. can be placed in the Theme position. Adverbs /adverbial phrases introduce cause and effect ‘When colonists arrived...’ and adverbs ‘Furthermore’. Prepositional phrases (In addition)
are also placed in the theme position. The emphasis of noun groups,
adverbials and prepositions placed in the Theme position achieves
cohesiveness, relationships between concepts and ideas, cause and
effect, examples, definitions, descriptions, supporting evidence tend to naturally flow on, For example,
Colonisation of Australia (noun group) began in 1788. Rather (adverb) than relying on slavery (prepositional phrase), convict labour (noun group) was exploited (auxiliary verb) by England (prepositional phrase) as (conjunction) a cheap and economically viable alternative (noun phrase).
Alternatives to the personal ‘My opinion is ...’, the Themes of critical writing are made more impersonal:
The crux (noun phrase) of the argument (noun phrase) is... OR
The assumption... A disagreement arose... An alternative may be...Opinions may lean towards... and expressing reasons, As a result of...The active nominative is the person or thing doing the action, whereas passive is the person/thing receiving the action.
The emphasis being on what was the effect not who is responsible.
“Improvised instruments were played...’ (passive voice). ‘ Many convicts were sentenced ...’ (passive voice, the effect)
rather than ‘the colonial children played with sticks and stones.’ (active voice, subjects doing the action)
Instead of writing action verbs (‘They disagreed...’), the passive voice structure depersonalizes writing.
Auxiliary (relating) verbs (e.g. ‘was’, ‘is’, ‘are’, ‘were’) help form tenses of other verbs ‘were played’, ‘were sentenced’. They follow the noun group; they do not express exactly an action.
None of the above language structures can be achieved without an extensive vocabulary. Technical, specialized nouns/noun groups and other more sophisticated vocabulary relating specifically to the topic is more applicable to the writing, e.g. ‘established’ would be written instead of ‘found’.
Each
student has easy access to the thesaurus, either hand-held or on-line.
Vocabulary is introduced and tightly defined within the particular
discipline (e.g. history or science).They must know the particular
subject matter (field) extremely well. When a certain writing genre is
required, the text structure is known. A wide knowledge of language
structures, for example, modals, instead of ‘might’ write ‘probability’, instead of ‘sometimes’ write ‘occasionally’.
Using a different word that relates to the topic ‘colony’, , ,
‘colonialism’, ‘colonist’, ‘settlers’ (all nouns), ‘colonial’
(adjective) ‘colonize’ (verb) would have a place in writing about early
Australia. Terminology like this creates a cohesive tie and keeps
writing interesting.
More precise, descriptive verbs ‘travelled’ replace ‘went’, ‘arrived’ replaces ‘came’, ‘transported’ replaces ‘moved’.
TEACHING PRACTICES
I know
it is not easy moving students from speech-like writing to formal,
abstract writing. Teachers have to be well-versed in this type of
language structure. Finding
good published texts that show noun groups, theme positioning and
passive voice are easy to find. I quickly googled ‘colony, Australia’
and this piece had all the elements for modelling mainly noun groups. (Note: I have not highlighted all the language aspects I need the help of students!)
History of Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
Main article: Timeline of Australian history
The History of Australia (noun group, beginning of clause) refers (verb) to the history (preposition/noun group = prepositional phrase) of the area and people of Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians (noun group, beginning of clause) are believed (auxiliary verb) to have first arrived on the Australian mainland by boat from the Indonesian archipelago between 40,000 to 60,000 years ago.
The first uncontested landing (noun group, beginning of clause) in Australia by Europeans was by the Dutch navigator Willem Janzoon (prepositions/noun groups = prepositional phrases) in 1606 (preposition/noun= prepositional phrase). European explorers (noun phrase, beginning of clause) followed intermittently until, in 1770 James Cook charted the East coast of Australia...
Gold rushes and agricultural industries (noun group, beginning of clause) brought prosperity...
Students
do not make the change in one or two experiences in the classroom.
Before students independently write an abstract report, say, the teacher
provides lots of varied concrete experiences.
There is no doubt that focussed discussions are a key to children learning about the relationships of language and writing. Deconstruction of good published models and Joint construction
of texts allow students to verbalize their knowledge, ask questions to
clarify their thinking and generally discuss how it all fits into their
writing. During these encounters emphasis is directed to the beginning
of clauses,
the theme; they see how verbs are changed into noun/noun groups, the
difference between the active voice and the passive voice. Their
knowledge about adverbs/adverbial phrases and prepositional phrases
grow. Practise (pre-skilling) occurs when students are involved in concrete activities. They reorder cut up sentences and clauses. They may be shown images to discuss and develop formal sentences with partners.
As their field knowledge grows during visits to
museums, viewing artefacts, reading and technology access they record
key ideas and their relationships (connect ideas) when drawing and
labelling concept maps. These maps (plans) will have nouns and
noun groups, adverbial phrases as the key ideas. As students write and
re-draft they ask themselves questions, “What is the topic/main idea
/focus that I am writing about?” “Have I turned the verb into a noun
group – a thing rather than an action?” “Have I placed the main ideas at
the beginning of the clauses?” “ Have I used cohesive devices such as
nominalisation, adverbs and preposition phrases to move the information
along?”
Knowing
meanings of vocabulary relating to the topic and writing more
sophisticated verbs continually grow. Class glossaries are displayed or
new and specialized vocabulary is recorded in journals.
ONLY UNTIL A LONG TERM STUDY ABOUT NOMINALIZATION, PASSIVE VOICE AND FIELD/NEW VOCABULARY HAS BEEN DONE ARE CHILDREN READY TO WRITE SCHOLARLY COMPOSITIONS. REMEMBERING SOME CHILDREN LEARN QUICKLY, OTHERS ARE SLOWER TO LEARN THIS TYPE OF ABSTRACT WRITING. APPROPRIATE CHALLENGE AND SUPPORT IS ALWAYS THERE FOR EVERY STUDENT, NO MATTER WHAT STAGE THEY ARE AT.
