BEHIND THE WORDS

The study of discourse and context has been gaining popularity in recent years such as semantics and pragmatics. One main point of the context is the environment in which a discourse occurs. The book “Discourse and Context in Language Teaching (A Guide for Language Teachers)” by Celce-Murcia & Olshtain recommends language teachers to incorporate an awareness of discourse and pragmatics in their teaching if they wish to implement a communicative approach in their classrooms. The following is a summary of the four main skills which are presented in this book.

Thesis Statement: The Backbone to your Essay A Thesis Statement is a single, specific claim that your essay supports. Also, it determines what kind of paper you are writing and it appears at the end of the first paragraph of your essay. It includes: a topic or subject , your opinion about it and the reasons that support your claim.  First, the topic refers to what your paper will deal with. It must be clear and narrow.  Second, the claim is what you think about the topic. You should research to help you if you do not know much about the subject, Finally, the blueprint of reasons are the three points that will persuade your readers to believe your claim. They can be listed at the end or at the beginning of the Thesis Statement. Another possibility is to list them in the sentence after the Thesis Statement. Later, you will expand on each detail in the body of the essay. To conclude, a Thesis Statement is an arguable statement, it means that some people will agree

                                                    “BREAK THE SILENCE ON RACISM”                                  A minority group may be defined as a group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment and who, therefore, regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination. This group differs from the rest because of their race, religion, or political beliefs. Many countries have minorities that are discriminated against, either officially by law or by common practice . In every region of the world, ethnic minorities are excluded from a sense of national identity, there is no region in which national identification is equal among minority and non-minority groups. However, these gaps are particularly large in some regions, especially in Northern Ireland and Belfast.           Belfast is a city in transition, a divided city, divided by wa

"Academic Writing" is a book which takes students from paragraph structuring to essay writing through a process approach. Also, it teaches learners how to order and link paragraphs into cohesive and coherent essays and to create the various paragraph types that are used in written assignments. Furthermore, it includes work on how to generate ideas, organise material, draft, review and revise written work.  A well-organised and written paragraph consists of several types of sentences. These may be analysed into four general functions. Firstly, the " Paragraph Introducer ", or better known as the Topic Sentence ( TS ), expresses the main idea of the whole paragraph. Secondly, the " Paragraph Developer ", presents a specific example or illustration related to the TS, and also gives details to support it. After that, the " Paragraph Modulator " provides a transition between different sets of ideas. Finally, the " Paragraph Terminator "

PARTS OF AN ACADEMIC PARAGRAPH  • Topic Sentence. It must:  o be effective.  o be interesting.  o give your opinion.  o not be detailed.  • Body. It must:  o have supporting, solid and concrete arguments/ details:  o importance order.  o chronological order.  o directly related back to the main idea.  • Closing Sentence. It must: o be very clear. o restate the Topic Sentence.  o keep the audience thinking. o be related to the following paragraph.  EFFECTIVE ESSAYS ASSIGNMENTS RULES:  • Make a plan.  • Have the title in front of you as you write.  • Use indent or spacing. (NOT BOTH)  • Focus on ONE central idea (Thesis Statement)  • Remain “objective”. • Use linking sentences.  • Create a FLOW.  • Give reasons. • Give examples. • Avoid repetition. • Vocabulary Variety in key words. • Re-read and edit your work. • Read aloud.  EFFECTIVE ESSAYS ASSIGNMENTS TIPS:  • Learning Outcomes Understanding. • Clear Interpretation of the question. • Logi

"Discourse and Context in Language Teaching: A Guide for Language Teachers" is part of the Cambridge Handbooks for Language for Language Teachers series. This book recommends that language teachers incorporate an awareness of discourse and pragmatics in their teaching if they wish to implement a communicative approach in their classrooms. After two introductory chapters on discourse and pragmatics, the authors show how a discourse perspective can enhance the teaching of traditional areas of linguistic knowledge and the teaching of language processing skills. This awareness of discourse is then carried over to curriculum development, assessment, and classroom research. In the following presentation, which is related to listening skill, you will find a variety of schemata and contextual clues to accurately interpret oral messages. Also, you will learn about phonological signals such as stress, pause, and intonation. I hope you enjoy it! Discourse and Context in Language T