Unambiguous Graphics: making entrylevel ESP materials

1
Unambiguous Graphicsmaking entry-level ESP
materials
March 19, 2005

• Lawrie Hunter
• Kochi University of Technology
• http//www.core.Koch-tech.ac.jp/hunter/
• lawrie_hunter_at_kochi-tech.ac.jp

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PRINCIPLE Learners need to have a clear
situating of what they are doing.

• This calls for a
• simple, structured characterization
• of language and communication.

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• a simple, structured characterization
• of language and communication
• Separate
• information
• from
• persuasive/poetic rhetoric

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Some people say that gasoline is better than
diesel. Lets take a look at some statistics.
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Some people say that gasoline is better than
diesel. Lets take a look at some statistics.

• rhetoric

information
Some people say that gasoline is better than
diesel. Lets take a look at some statistics.
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• Reducing Shannon-Weaver noise
• noise
• factors which decrease the quality
• of the reception of a message
• www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/introduc
  tory/fidelity.htm

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Task design (interface design)
LEARNER
info
language
LEARNER
language
info
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Task design question 1
How to quantify information?
info
info
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KUTs genres
At KUT, we have built our curriculum around these
genres (a.k.a. text types) Description Classifi
cation Comparison Sequence Cause-effect
inference Pro-con -a composite genre

• Critical Thinking
• Asahi Press 2001
• 2nd year textbook
• 6 units (6 genres)
• in 2 quarters

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KUTs genres

• The learning process used in this book
• Each of the 6 units in this book follows the same
  teaching/learning pattern
• INPUT the learners are exposed to the target
  vocabulary and phrases required for expression of
  the ideas which are basic to the genre in the
  unit. For input, the learners listen to
  explanations of the genre by the teacher,
  practice speaking and listening to sentences from
  the genre, and read various explanations of the
  genres language and language structure
• USAGE PRACTICE in each unit there are a
  succession of activities and tasks which allow
  the learner to practice using the language
  required for the genre. It is important to
  emphasize to the learners that the activities and
  exercises are necessary to prepare the students
  for the final large task at the end of each unit.
  The activities and tasks may be performed in
  several different modes for example, as in-class
  activities (individual or group) or as written
  homework. This flexibility is important for the
  teacher, allowing for a variety of timings and
  paces.
• AUTHENTIC TASK the tasks at the end of the units
  are designed to be non-linguistic tasks, based in
  the real world. In some chapters the learners are
  asked to arrange information in certain
  structures in other chapters the learners are
  asked to solve real-world type problems. These
  tasks may be done individually or in groups of 2,
  3 or 4 learners.
• EXPRESSION the language aspect of the authentic
  tasks lies in the expression of the product of
  the task. In this book the tasks are written
  tasks, but they may also be done as pair or group
  presentations. The presentation approach is
  explained in detail in the teacher's guide.

• Critical Thinking
• Asahi Press 2001
• 2nd year textbook
• 6 units (6 genres)
• in 2 quarters

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KUTs genres
The learning process used in this book Each of
the 6 units in this book follows the same
teaching/learning pattern
INPUT
USAGE PRACTICE
AUTHENTIC TASK

• Critical Thinking
• Asahi Press 2001
• 2nd year textbook
• 6 units (6 genres)
• in 2 quarters

EXPRESSION
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Task design question 2
How to represent information?
info
info
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KUTs genres
Thinking in English KUT Press 2004 A mapping
workbook, companion to CT 6 units (6
genres) Extends CT to 4 quarters

• Critical Thinking
• Asahi Press 2001
• 2nd year textbook
• 6 units (6 genres)
• in 2 quarters

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• Hunters infomaps stem from
• Mohan's (1986) knowledge structures

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• Hunters infomaps stem from
• Mohan's (1986) knowledge structures

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Hunters infomap links
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Hunters infomap links
Description
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Hunters infomap links
Classification
Description
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Hunters infomap links
Classification
Description
Degree comparison
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Hunters infomap links
Classification
Description
Attribute comparison
Degree comparison
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Hunters infomap links
Classification
Description
Attribute comparison
Degree comparison
Sequence
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Hunters infomap links
Classification
Description
Attribute comparison
Degree comparison
Cause-effect
Sequence
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Hunters infomap links
DESCRIPTION
My friend
Canadian
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English teacher
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Hunters infomap links
CLASSIFICATION
Cars
station wagons
sedans
coupes
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Hunters infomap links
COMPARISON (relative)
lt
Calcutta
Tokyo
big old
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Hunters infomap links
COMPARISON (by attribute)
new
3 years old
Ms car
Ks car
red
white
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Hunters infomap links
SEQUENCE
insert bank card
follow the directions
find an ATM
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Hunters infomap links
SEQUENCE structure signals
Then
First
and
insert bank card
follow the directions
find an ATM
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Hunters infomap links
SEQUENCE
Then
First
and
toast two slices of bread
tear some lettuce
slice a tomato
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Hunters infomap links
CAUSE-EFFECT
be late for school
bus was cancelled
rain
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please study here
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Uses of Iconic Graphics
as is
e.g. in .ppt
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Uses of Iconic Graphics
as is
e.g. in .ppt
Of course iconic graphics can -reduce
noise -enhance info accessibility -reduce
cognitive load
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Uses of Iconic Graphics
as is
no big deal
e.g. in .ppt
But PLAIN ENGLISH can do that. www.plainenglish.c
o.uk/ There is more potential to the notion of
iconic graphics.
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Uses of Iconic Graphics
as markers of position in information structure
as is
no big deal
e.g. in .ppt
Reading text while referring to an info structure
sign is empowering in a synergistic way.
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Learner tasks with info mapping
summarizing
writing from maps
mapping text
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Learner tasks with info mapping
writing from maps
summarizing
mapping text
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Learner tasks with info mapping
writing from maps
summarizing
mapping text
in mapping tasks, limit the number of nodes
forces learners to identify main structures
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Ocean thermal energy could be the wave of the
future Noriyuki Yoshida The Daily Yomiuri 01 01
23 ______________________________________________
_______________________________ __________________
__________________________________________________
_________ The experiment uses technology
developed by Prof. Haruo Uehara and researchers
at the science and engineering department of Saga
University. It is hoped that the test will
produce 1,000 kilowatts of electricity, and it is
expected that the technology will provide
cost-efficient, environmentally friendly energy
in the 21st century. _____________________________
________________________________________________ _
__________________________________________________
__________________________ Thermal and nuclear
power plants boil water into steam, which rotates
turbines to generate electricity. The basic
mechanism of the OTEC is the same, but instead of
water, the OTEC process uses ammonia, which is
more energy efficient because it evaporates at a
much lower temperature than water. ______________
__________________________________________________
_____________ ____________________________________
_________________________________________ First,
liquid ammonia is heated with water of 20 C to 30
C drawn from near the surface of the Indian Ocean
and converted into steam. Then the ammonia steam
rotates turbines and generates electricity.
Finally the steam is cooled with 6 C deep-sea
water and converted back to liquid. _____________
__________________________________________________
______________ ___________________________________
__________________________________________ In
thermal power generators, the temperature
difference between water and steam is about 500
C, which means the steam is packed with energy.
But the temperature difference in the OTEC system
is only about 20 C, so the energy from the
ammonia steam is relatively low. To overcome
this, OTEC utilizes a process developed by Uehara
to improve the heating and cooling of the ammonia
and use water as a solvent. _____________________
__________________________________________________
______ ___________________________________________
__________________________________ The OTEC
system's heat efficiency rate (the percentage of
generated power compared to the total energy
poured into the system) has reached a high of 5.2
percent under the Uehara Cycle. This is much
lower than 40-percent level in thermal power
generation and the 50 to 60 percent efficiency of
power generation using a combination of thermal
systems and gas. ________________________________
_____________________________________________ ____
__________________________________________________
_______________________ Uehara said, "Because the
source of heat is seawater, the energy cost is
zero. The overall costs of the power generation
processes are not much higher than those of
thermal generation and other forms," he said.
e.g. Take a tech article, remove topic and
conclusion sentences from each paragraph, have
learners map the article with 15 nodes or fewer.
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Use the infomap links to map the text.
Classification
Description
Degree comparison
Attribute comparison
Contrast
!
Sequence
Cause-effect
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Power generating systems
General process
Make steam
Rotate turbines
Generate electricity
Boil a liquid
hunter systems
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Power generating systems
General process
Make steam
Rotate turbines
Generate electricity
Boil a liquid
fossil or N-heat
seawater heat
Compare ordinary process and OTEC process
boil NH3
boil H2O
OTEC plants
older type plants
steam 20C
steam 500C
low power
high power
zero energy cost
high energy cost
hunter systems
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Power generating systems
General process
Make steam
Rotate turbines
Generate electricity
Boil a liquid
fossil or N-heat
seawater heat
Compare ordinary process and OTEC process
boil NH3
boil H2O
!
OTEC plants
older type plants
!
steam 20C
steam 500C
!
low power
high power
zero energy cost
high energy cost
!
hunter systems
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Thank you for your retention. And thanks in
advance for trying this concept.
You can download this .ppt from http//www.core.ko
chi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/espgraphics/
Lawrie Hunter Kochi University of
Technology http//www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter
/ lawrie_hunter_at_kochi-tech.ac.jp
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a classification map
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Genres

• allow us to talk about
• the type of information
• conveyed in any given utterance.
• This is the starting point for the L2 learner.

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Systemic Functional Linguistics

• SFL talks about these genres
• Narrative construct a pattern of events
• Procedure tell how to do something
• Information report present information
• Explanation tell how and why things occur
• Exposition argue a case
• Discussion look at sides of an issue

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KUTs genres

• ... reflect information types
• (Mohan's (1986) knowledge structures)
• rather than speech act types such as SFL's text
  types.
• This allows us to use Hunter's information
  mapping
• as the graphic embodiment of
• what we are hearing/saying/reading/writing.

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Hunters REGISTERS

• allow a separation of language domains
  according to intention and situation
• Do this once genres are established
• Do this once genres are mastered

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Hunters REGISTERS

• Here are the ad hoc (but definable) registers I
  talk about with my students

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Hunters REGISTERS

• The registers of the non-technical world
• Casual
• Informal
• Formal

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Hunters REGISTERS

• The registers of the non-technical world
• Casual
• Informal
• Formal

• The registers of the technical world.
• Casual technical
• used in discussion of technical matters with
  engineer peers
• Informal academic (used in presentations)
• Formal academic (used in research papers and
  theses)

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MOVES

• MOVES are characterizations of
• the purpose of a given utterance.
• The study of moves is called pragmatics.

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• In Hunter's graduate technical writing course,
• MOVES include
• Attributing (a statement to a source, including
  other researcher, common knowledge...).
• Identifying an example/archetype.
• Generalizing
• Summarizing
• Reporting
• Inferring
• Claiming
• Demonstrating
• Establishing
• Proving
• Deducing
• Predicting
• Concluding

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Claim Information maps, with textured
links that represent information
relationships, are a good enough mapping of
information structures in language and as such
can enhance L2 performance and reduce cognitive
load even in L1.
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This presentations focus integrating
information symbolsfor iconic representation

• To support the second language reader,
• our information representation should be
• -unambiguous
• -specific (granular enough)
• -non-fuzzy
• - iconic if possible

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Claim Hunters infomap links are iconic.

i.e.They are granular enough, and their
mapping coverage is sufficient to constitute a
pattern language.
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A pattern language?
...our lives consist mainly of patterns of
events, and that architecture which supports
these patterns helps us feel more alive and
whole. Christopher Alexander
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A pattern language?

• The language, and the processes which stem from
  it, merely release the fundamental order which is
  native to us. They do not teach us, they only
  remind us of what we know already, and of what we
  shall discover time and time again, when we give
  up our ideas and opinions, and do exactly what
  emerges from ourselves.
• Christopher Alexander,
• The Timeless Way of Building

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Butarent there already mapping systems whose
links have iconic status?

• How about
• Mind mapping?
• Reason.ables argument mapping?
• Rhetorical structure theory maps

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• Tony Buzans mind mapping?

• Not iconic
• -the links are all associations
• -i.e. zero granularity

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• Reason!able argument mapping?

Reason!able makes software for mapping arguments.
This design surpasses Horns Argument Mapping in
granularity the links are labeled to indicate
the rhetorical device represented by the link.
www.goreason.com

• But a text label cannot achieve iconic status.

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• RST (rhetorical structure theory)
• mapping

Bill Manns Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST)
uses various sorts of "building blocks" to
describe texts. The principal block type deals
with "nuclearity" and "relations" (often called
coherence relations in the linguistic
literature.)
www.sil.org/mannb/rst/
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• RST (rhetorical structure theory)
• mapping

Bill Manns Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST)
uses various sorts of "building blocks" to
describe texts. The principal block type deals
with "nuclearity" and "relations" (often called
coherence relations in the linguistic
literature.)
www.sil.org/mannb/rst/

• But that is at the level of moves,
• and here we are talking about genres.

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• Hunters infomaps
• Based on experience
• When confined to the technical registers,
• 1) this system is granular enough
• and
• 2) has good enough coverage (80)
• of the information structures
• in technical document content
• to be a graphical pattern language.

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This system has good enough coverage
(80) of the information structures in
technical document content to be a graphical
pattern language.
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Thank you for your retention. And thanks in
advance for trying this concept.
You can download this .ppt from http//www.core.ko
chi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/espgraphics/
Lawrie Hunter Kochi University of
Technology http//www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter
/ lawrie_hunter_at_kochi-tech.ac.jp