UnderstandingWordsUnit1Thescenarioofinstructionprovidedasfollowsisdesignedjustforreference.Theteacherissupposedtocombineillustratingthefocusedpointswithdoingthegivenexercisesintheunit.Unit1Classroomteachingiscompletelypresupposedonpre-readingthetextoutsideclassroom.I.Lead-inHowdopeoplecommunicatewitheachother?Mainlybythemeansofspeechandwriting.Howdopeoplecommunicatethroughwriting?First,choosewordstoexpresstheirideasintheirwriting.Second,arrangethewordsintosentencesaccordingtogrammar.Third,linkthesentencesintoatext.Sotheknowledgeofwordsandgrammarisessentialforlearninghowtowrite.WhatdoyouknowaboutEnglishwords?Givesomeexamplesofwordsfromthetext.Lookatthewordstakenfromthetext:

student,secondary,attend,school,five,year,for.Makeupasentencewiththesewords.Wrong:Studentattendsecondaryschoolforfiveyear.Right:Astudentattendssecondaryschoolforfiveyears.

Students

attendsecondaryschoolforfiveyears.Explainwhy.Inthisunitorinthisbook,wewilllearnhowtousewordsaccuratelyandappropriatelyinwriting.

I.Lead-inActivatingknowledgemeansmakingwordknowledge

lyinginthemindsofstudentsstartworking.II.ActivatingKnowledgeTherearemanykindsofwordsinEnglish.Doyouknowhowtoclassifythem?Twocategories:contentwordsandfunctionwordsintermsoftheirfunctionsinsentences.(e.g.educationandbut)WordsinEnglishcanalsobeclassifiedinotherways.Formalwordsandinformalwordsintermsoflevelsofformality.(e.g.commenceandbegin)Synonymousandantonymouswordsintermsoftheirsenserelations,i.e.theirrelationsinmeaning.(e.g.bigandlarge;bigandsmall)Wecanusewordsavailableinthelanguagesystemtoformnewwordsinwriting.Howmanywayscanbeusedtoformnewwords?Forexample,Conversion:awaytochangeoneclassofwordstoanother.e.g.Lookatthis.(verb)Havealookatthis.(noun)Darivationisanotherwaytoformnewwords.(educate→education)(WewillcontinuewithwordformationinUnit2.)II.ActivatingKnowledgeApplyingknowledgemeansdoingyourwritingpracticebasedontheknowledgeyouhaveacquired.TaskOne

Similarmeaningsofsentencescanbeconveyedbyusingdifferentclassesofwordsorexpressions.Notethatthechangeofwordclasswillresultinchangeinsentencestructure.e.g.Somethingexplodedlastnight.Therewasanexplosionlastnight.III.ApplyingKnowledgeTaskTwoandTaskFour

Chinesewordsdonothaveinflectionsorchangesinformswhenusedinwriting,butEnglishwordsdo.NotethatmajorityofnounsandverbsinEnglishchangeinformwhenusedinsentences,becausenounsareinflectionalinnumber(singularorplural),andverbsmustkeepconsistentwithnounsinpersonandnumberwhenthesenounsareusedassubjectsinsentenceswithreferencetopresentandpasttime.e.g.JohnstudiesChineseatcollege,buthestudiedEnglishinhighschool.III.ApplyingKnowledgeTaskThreeFormalEnglishwordsareusedin“serious”situations,forexample,inofficialdocuments,articles,newsreports,businesslettersorofficialspeeches.InformalEnglishwordsareusedineverydayconversations,personalletters,emailsortextmessages.Notethatformallanguageandinformallanguageareassociatedwithparticularchoicesofgrammarandvocabulary.e.g.Thepatientgotoverhisillness.(Informal)Thepatientrecoveredfromhisillness.(Formal)Itwas,like,fivebucks,soIwaslike“okay”.(Informal)Asthepriceoffivedollarswasreasonable,Idecidedtomakethepurchasewithoutfurtherthought.(Formal)III.ApplyingKnowledgeIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingWritingthroughexperiencingandreadingmeansinvolvingstudentsinwritingpracticebasedontheirpersonalexperienceandwhattheyhavelearnedfromthetext.IV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingRewriting

involvesthinkingaboutwhereandhowthewrongorinappropriatechoiceofwordsoccursinthegivenpassageafterreading.Forexample,thispassageshowstheinappropriateuseofpersonalpronounsyouandwe,whichcanmakeareferencetopeopleingeneral,butitwouldbeconfusingtouseeitheryouorweatthesametimeinthesamecontext.Thepersonalpronounsweandyoucanrefertothespeakerandthehearerrespectivelyininteraction.Therightchoiceofthesetwopronounsmakesadifferenceinmeaning.e.g.Weshouldnotdothat,Bob.(soundspolite)Youshouldnotdothat,Bob.(soundsimposing)IV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingLinkwordsarenecessarytoconnectoneideawithanotherinorganizingamessageintoatext.e.g.A:IwentshoppinglastSunday.Thewinterwascomingsoon.Idid'thaveshoessuitableenoughtokeepmyfeetwarm.B:IwentshoppinglastSundaybecausethewinterwascomingsoonandIdidn'thaveshoessuitableenoughtokeepmyfeetwarm.Incomparison,Bisbetterbecauseitislogicallyconnectedbythelinkword

because.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingIV.WritingThroughExperiencingandReadingWritingThroughExperiencingandReadingGuidedwritinginvolvesstudentsinwritingashortpassagebasedonTextAwiththewordsandexpressionsgiven.StudentsneedtoreadTextAmorecarefullyandgetageneralideaoftheAmericanhighereducationsystembeforecompletingtheassignmentasasummary.Studentsshouldthinkabouthowtostartwithatopicsentence,howtoendwithaconcludingsentence,andwhat