24 October 2006

Communicating at University - Lecture

Colin Beasley Snr Lecturer
Student Learning, Teaching and Learning Centre Murdoch University.

Informal language

  • contractions

  • hesitation filler

  • personal pronouns

  • informal vocabulary

  • unqualified statements


Formal language

  • passives

  • formal vocabulary

  • hedges (qualification - "it appears")

  • nominalisation (turning other parts of speech into nouns - eg male and female -> gender)

  • evidence

  • argumentation


Register - adjusting of language according to context

Genre - constraints operating at the level of discourse structure eg. report, essay, sermon, article

Ballard & Clanchy - to be successful at university you must learn the culture of the university - when in Rome, do as the Romans.

Bizzell - bicultural means adding to your repertoire; doesn't have to be something that you take away from one when you're adding another.

No comments: