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Academic English- Classifying Functions

A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Classifying and ranking strong and weak academic language

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Lesson Plan Content:


Classifying Academic English functional language

Instructions for teachers

Card matching stage

Photocopy and cut up one copy per group of 2-4 students. Students try to first classify them into categories and them put them into order. You can give hints if they get stuck:

  1. There are six categories.
  2. The greatest number of cards in one category is 14 and the smallest number of cards in one category is 9.
  3. The actual number of cards in each category is 14, 14, 13, 12, 12 and 9.
  4. One example of each: almost no + 13 more, very different + 13 more, explode + 12 more, almost never + 11 more, will definitely + 11 more, a great benefit + 8 more
  5. There are no more than two which mean the same thing.
  6. The doubles of each category are: four (almost no + 13 more), seven (very different + 13 more), six (explode + 12 more), three (almost never + 11 more), four (will definitely + 11 more), three (a great benefit + 8 more)

 

Testing each other stage

After checking their answers with the suggested answers above and/ or as a class, students can further test each other in groups, for example:

  • Seeing if their partner can remember a phrase which has the same meaning
  • Seeing if their partner can remember a phrase which comes between two other phrases
  • Seeing if their partner can remember a phrase which comes next in a sequence
  • Seeing if their partner can remember the one phrase of that kind which they don’t say
  • Seeing if their partner can remember collocations, e.g. “Continue beep the same level” or “Decline something”

 

Communicative practice

They can then take turns trying to make statements which their partner accepts are true with phrases on the cards. If their statement is accepted, they can take the card and score one point. The same card can’t be used more than once.

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Cards to cut up/ Suggested answers

(with the same meaning on the same line)

absolutely identical

exactly the same

 

practically the same

nearly identical

 

very similar

only slightly different

 

quite similar

 

fairly similar

very different

 

a great difference

 

an absolutely huge difference

 

an immense difference

completely different

 

totally different

 

 

by far the greatest positive point

 

an overwhelming advantage

the main argument in support

 

 

a very substantial plus

 

 

a great benefit

 

a major selling point

 

a substantial argument for

a considerable benefit

 

a significant positive aspect

 

 

 

will definitely

 

 

will almost certainly

 

 

is likely to

will probably

 

may

might

 

could perhaps

could potentially

 

is unlikely to

 

probably won’t

almost certainly won’t

 

 

definitely won’t

 

 

 

almost always

 

 

usually

 

most of the time

 

very often

 

 

 

often

 

 

sometimes

 

 

 

occasionally

 

 

rarely

seldom

 

 

 

hardly ever

 

very rarely

 

almost never

 

 

 

almost all

 

 

the vast majority

 

 

most

 

 

very many…

 

 

many…

 

a large number of…

 

quite a lot of…

 

a fairly large number of…

some

 

 

a few

 

 

very few

 

a small minority of…

almost no

a tiny minority of…

 

 


explode

 

take off

climb

 

expand

creep up

 

 

continue at the same level

 

remain constant

dip

fall slightly

 

decrease rapidly

fall sharply

 

decline dramatically

plummet

 

 

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