Literacy Secretariat Literacy is everyone’s business

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• Nominalisation

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Purpose of Nominalisation

• Nominalisation helps achieve a higher degree of
  abstraction and technicality.
• Nominalisation is significant in constructing a
  distant and abstract world that can be reflected
  on.
• Nominalisation is one of the language choices
  that enables movement towards highly written
  texts.

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Creating nominalisations

• Nominalisations are nouns often formed from verbs
  (e.g. discover gt discovery, achieve gt
  achievement, present gt presentation, permit gt
  permission).
• describers (e.g. brave gt bravery, wide gt width,
  tense gt tension),
• conjunctions (e.g. because gt cause, whereas gt
  difference, if gt possibility)
• preposition (e.g. during gt duration).

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Creating nominalisations

• From Verbs
• Many verbs can be changed into nominalisations by
  changing the end of the verb
• eg. divide gt division, pay gt payment, sing gt my
  singing
• Some do not need change
• eg. his diet, the struggle

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Nominalisation in Schooling

• Nominalisations are used in written and
  multimodal texts and in teacher talk across all
  learning areas and in each band.
• - Across curriculum (e.g. attention,
  assessment, co-operation, intelligence,
  behaviour)
• - Mathematics (e.g. length, division)
• - Science (e.g. sight, reproduction)
• - Society and Environment (e.g. relief,
  invasion)

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Some common nominalisations in Maths
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Some common nominalisations in Maths
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Some common nominalisations in the Arts
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Some common nominalisations in the Arts
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Understanding Nominalisation
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Understanding Nominalisation
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Understanding Nominalisation
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Rewriting an example

• Step 1 Identify the verbs
• Students who complete what the school requires
  can graduate. When they receive their
  certificate, they can apply for work.

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Rewriting an example

• Step 1 Identify the verbs
• Students who complete what the school requires
  can graduate. When they receive their
  certificate, they can apply for work.

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Rewriting an example

• Step 2 Nominalise these verbs
• Complete gt
• Require gt
• Graduate gt
• Receive gt
• Apply gt

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Rewriting an example

• Step 2 Nominalise these verbs
• Complete gt Completion
• Require gt Requirement
• Graduate gt Graduation
• Receive gt Receipt
• Apply gt Application

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Rewriting an example

• Step 3
• Try to rewrite the text using all nominalisations

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Rewritten example

• Completion of the schools requirements can lead
  to graduation. Upon receipt of their certificate,
  students can make an application for work.
• What other steps were required to rewrite the
  text?

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Other changes

• Change of verb gt can lead to
• Change of foregrounding gt Completion of the
  schools requirements
• Longer noun groups gt receipt of their certificate

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Some considerations

• The syntax of the sentence need to change to
  accommodate the nominalisations (eg. new verb)
  and as a result the meaning of the sentence may
  change
• It is sometimes necessary to build students
  synonyms for common verbs and describers before
  they can nominalise them
• Not all verbs/describers need to be nominalised
• The appropriate level of nominalisation for the
  job

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Building vocabulary prior to nominalisation

• She did well in the play.
• She performed well in the play.
• Her performance in the play was excellent.
• Her excellence was shown in her performance.
• Her excellence was evident in her performance.
• Evidence of her excellence was seen in her
  performance.
• (At what point does nominalisation become
  cumbersome and inappropriate?)

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Building vocabulary prior to nominalisation

• He took away the rubbish, because it had to be
  done.
• He took away the rubbish, because it needed to be
  done.
• He removed the rubbish, because it was necessary.
• The removal of the rubbish was a necessity.

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Understanding Nominalisation

• Text A (Spoken comments at a committee meeting)
• Hazel I reckon we can replant the trees
  along the side of the oval nearest to the main
  road. It is very noisy on that side and the trees
  will make it better. Ill ask the council to see
  if we can borrow some of their gear to use on the
  day.
• Vy My husband said we can use his truck
  if we want to. I can see if my uncle can also
  lend us some tools.

• Text B (Written minutes of the meeting including
  some of the possible nominalisations)
• A proposal was made by Hazel that the
  revegetation occur along the side of the schools
  oval nearest to the main road so that there is a
  reduction in noise.
• Hazel will make a request to borrow
  equipment from the council.
• Vy made the offer to use her husbands
  truck and will investigate the possibility of
  borrowing equipment from her uncle.

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Text B on the Register Continuum
Text B
Text B
Text B
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Nominalisation changes packaging of information

• Texts with lots of nominalisation appear dense
  and difficult to read because
• Abstractions are named
• Noun groups are complex
• Relating verbs are used (e.g. contains, are,
  involves)
• Actors are removed

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Unpacking nominalisations

• It is important to be able to unpack noun
  groups containing nominalisations
• How could you explain the information below
  without using nominalisation?
• How many sentences does it take?
• The dramatic increase of illegal logging in
  rainforests is of international significance. The
  reduction of suitable habitat is causing the
  extinction of some species and a general
  reduction of biodiversity.

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Nominalisation and genres

• Nominalisation is an important resource for
  successful development of factual genres
• Used to introduce technical terms in explanations
  or reports
• eg. Heat from the sun causes liquid water to
  become water vapour. This process is called
  evaporation.

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Nominalisation and genres

• Used to foreground the theme of the
  sentence/clause
• eg. When the sun heats the water, it evaporates
  into steam. Evaporation causes the steam to rise,
  cool and condense. Condensation into clouds makes
  the water droplets heavy and they fall to the
  ground. This is precipitation. Precipitation can
  be rain, snow or hail.

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Nominalisation and genres

• Used to organise research and writing
• Report eg. Location, Population, Economy
• Explanation eg. Causes, Effects, Consequences
• Exposition eg. Arguments, Reasons, Factors, Issues

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Nominalisation across the ESL Scales
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Professional Learning

• The Teaching ESL Students in Mainstream
  Classrooms (TESMC) course and the How Language
  Works course both raise teacher awareness of the
  importance of nominalisation in schooling and
  build their capacity to explicitly teach it
• ESL Regional Consultants also offer training

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