Coherence and cohesion in academic discourse: The role of vocabulary Norbert Schmitt

Coherence and cohesion in academic discourse: The role of vocabulary Norbert Schmitt 1

Developing LSP Word Lists • “Technical vocabulary ‘is dependent for a full appreciation of its meaning on the meaning of the other terms in the cluster of which it is a member.’” (Godman and Payne, 1981:37 in Coxhead and Nation, 2001)

An ESP Text (Wang, et al., 2008) • Technical Vocabulary only wounds wound healing. wounds wounds pressure ulcers leg ulcers. wounds clinical Pressure ulcers ischemia necrosis hospitalized mobility Leg ulcers etiologies. ulcers dysfunction backflow blood. blood macromolecules dermis, nutrients

Medical + AWL • Plus AWL Vocabulary Chronic woundschallenge wound healing. wounds involve area, incidenceimpacts. chronicwoundspressure ulcers leg ulcers. estimated affectclinicalannually. ischemianecrosis, hospitalizedmobilityimpaired. Leg ulcers varietyetiologies. Venousdysfunction veinsbackflowvenousblood. Venousbloodmacromoleculesdermis barriersnutrients

Complete Medical Text Chronic wounds represent a different kind of challenge for wound healing. These wounds do not usually involve a large surface area, but they have a high incidence in the general population and thus have enormous medical and economic impacts. The most common chronicwounds include pressure ulcers and leg ulcers. In the United States alone, these wounds are estimated to affect more than 2 million people with total clinical treatment costs as high as $1 billion annually. Pressure ulcers, characterized by tissueischemia and necrosis, are common among patients in long-term care settings, but patients hospitalized for short-term care settings are also at risk if mobility is impaired. Leg ulcers can have a variety of etiologies. Venous ulcers are the most common, often resulting from dysfunction of valves in veins of the lower leg that normally prevent the backflow of venousblood. Venous congestionleads to leakage of blood and macromolecules into the dermis, which can act as physical barriers to diffusion of oxygen and nutrients from the

Vocabulary Levels Test(Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001)

Cohesion Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

Cohesion and Vocabulary McCarthy, M. (1990) Vocabulary. Oxford: OUP.

Cohesion and Vocabulary • Develops a web of related meanings which flow through the discourse and connect it • Lexical ‘chains’

Cohesion and Vocabulary William Tweddle Queen Mary, University of London http://aeo.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/Files/Cohesion/Cohesion.html

Cohesion and Vocabulary

Teaching Vocabulary and Cohesion • Although cohesion and vocabulary are inextricably linked, they are sometimes taught in a disconnected manner

Writing Academic English Oshima & Hogue (1999) Longman

Cohesion and Vocabulary in Assessment • Are vocabulary and cohesion any better integrated in assessment criteria? • Is vocabulary mentioned in Cohesion criteria? • Is the usage in cohesion mentioned in Vocabulary criteria?

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Cohesion and Vocabulary in Assessment • Let’s try these scoring criteria with some real text extracts • Did you rate the cohesion separately? The vocabulary separately? Or was it a more holistic mix? • Would it be useful to have some cross-mention between the cohesion and vocabulary criteria? If so what?

Cohesion and Vocabulary • Proficient academic writing • Schmitt, N. and Schmitt, D. (2014). A reassessment of frequency and vocabulary size in L2 vocabulary teaching. Language Teaching, 47, 4, 484 - 503. • 266 words

We can also look at the frequency issue from the very practical standpoint of the amount of vocabulary a speaker needs to function in English. In terms of high-frequency vocabulary, this relates to the ability to use English at the basic, but still useful, end of the proficiency continuum (we will address higher levels of proficiency in our discussions of low- and mid-frequency vocabulary later). Little work has been done on the lexical requirements for the productive skills (speaking and writing), but a few studies have been carried out on reading and listening. If learners wish to read a wide range of authentic novels or newspapers without assistance, then Nation (2006) calculates that it takes knowledge of the most frequent 8–9,000 word families to cover 98%6 of this type of text, based on his wordlists derived from the British National Corpus (BNC). Note that this does not mean a total vocabulary size of 8–9,000 word families, but good knowledge of the word families up to these specific frequency bands: a learner’s total vocabulary size may include some word families beyond these bands. If we allow for lower comprehension expectations and use a less stringent coverage figure of 95%, this would still entail knowledge of word families up to the 4–5,000 frequency bands, plus proper nouns (Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski 2010). Even this lower figure would appear well beyond any reasonable definition of high-frequency vocabulary, so it seems that reading a range of authentic texts is not possible with high-frequency vocabulary alone. However, reading would still be possible using graded readers (see section 2.4 below).

We can also look at the frequency issue from the very practical standpoint of the amount of vocabulary a speaker needs to function in English. In terms of high-frequencyvocabulary, this relates to the ability to use English at the basic, but still useful, end of the proficiency continuum (we will address higher levels of proficiency in our discussions of low- and mid-frequency vocabulary later). Little work has been done on the lexical requirements for the productive skills (speaking and writing), but a few studies have been carried out on reading and listening. If learners wish to read a wide range of authentic novels or newspapers without assistance, then Nation (2006) calculates that it takes knowledge of the most frequent 8–9,000 word families to cover 98%6 of this type of text, based on his wordlists derived from the British National Corpus (BNC). Note that this does not mean a total vocabulary size of 8–9,000 word families, but good knowledge of the word families up to these specific frequency bands: a learner’s total vocabulary size may include some word families beyond these bands. If we allow for lower comprehension expectations and use a less stringent coverage figure of 95%, this would still entail knowledge of word families up to the 4–5,000 frequency bands, plus proper nouns (Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski 2010). Even this lower figure would appear well beyond any reasonable definition of high-frequencyvocabulary, so it seems that reading a range of authentic texts is not possible with high-frequencyvocabulary alone. However, reading would still be possible using graded readers (see section 2.4 below).

Cohesion and Vocabulary • 3 example texts • Students preparing to go into a UK School of Management • Outline and evaluate some of the strategies supermarkets use to increase their market share

Conversely, sales promotion approach enables supermarkets to offer customers ongoing promotions and sale prices could be exciting for many. Furthermore, once EDLP is established into a store, customers would suspect the quality of products and the company would find challenging to introduce of low-priced and high-quality line of products to maintain low prices. Heil also believes that being the lowest-priced supplier among competitors may cause the perception of lower-quality products. JC Penny's sales, for example, plummeted after replacing its long-running promotional pricing approach with EDLP strategy since many purchasers worried about its product quality, according to Bloomberg (2011). Finally, the company amongst its discounters may confront a price war, struggling to lower their prices and to attack their competitions while remaining profitable. If the prices fall to absolute bottom price and can still be beaten by the rivals, the firm will lose their competitive edge.

Conversely, sales promotion approach enables supermarkets to offer customers ongoing promotions and sale prices could be exciting for many. Furthermore, once EDLP is established into a store, customers would suspect the quality of products and the company would find challenging to introduce of low-priced and high-quality line of products to maintain low prices. Heil also believes that being the lowest-priced supplier among competitors may cause the perception of lower-qualityproducts. JC Penny's sales, for example, plummeted after replacing its long-running promotional pricing approach with EDLP strategy since many purchasers worried about its product quality, according to Bloomberg (2011). Finally, the company amongst its discounters may confront a price war, struggling to lower their prices and to attack their competitions while remaining profitable. If the prices fall to absolute bottom price and can still be beaten by the rivals, the firm will lose their competitive edge.

Conversely, sales promotionapproach enables supermarkets to offer customers ongoing promotions and sale prices could be exciting for many. Furthermore, once EDLP is established into a store, customers would suspect the quality of products and the company would find challenging to introduce of low-priced and high-quality line of products to maintain low prices. Heil also believes that being the lowest-priced supplier among competitors may cause the perception of lower-qualityproducts. JC Penny's sales, for example, plummeted after replacing its long-running promotional pricing approach with EDLP strategy since many purchasers worried about its product quality, according to Bloomberg (2011). Finally, the company amongst its discounters may confront a price war, struggling to lower theirprices and to attack their competitions while remaining profitable. If the prices fall to absolute bottom price and can still be beaten by the rivals, the firm will lose their competitive edge.

Loyalty is known as the consumers’ disease, supermarkets all over use this strategy to keep more customers shopping with them, without the possibility of looking and comparing with other competitors. This strategy helps these supermarkets to be able to increase their market share. The use of loyalty cards to reward loyal customers by allowing them to accumulate points every other time they shop and later redeem the points through a reward system. Tesco supermarket have their own loyalty cards known as the Tesco Clubcard Credit Cards that provides customers with a point for every 8 pound they spend. For Sainsbury, they provide their customers with nectar cards, which also allow the customers earn points from every pound they spend. Further Sainsbury allows its consumers to be able to redeem the points through online avenues. Morrison’s Match & More Cards allow shoppers to collect points when they do their shopping and also when they recharge the card. The gaining of points when shoppers recharge, earned Morrison’s a large customer base to increase its market share.

Loyalty is known as the consumers’ disease, supermarkets all over use this strategy to keep more customers shopping with them, without the possibility of looking and comparing with other competitors. This strategy helps these supermarkets to be able to increase their market share. The use of loyaltycards to reward loyal customers by allowing them to accumulate points every other time they shop and later redeem the points through a reward system. Tesco supermarket have their own loyalty cards known as the Tesco Clubcard Credit Cards that provides customers with a point for every 8 pound they spend. For Sainsbury, they provide their customers with nectar cards, which also allow the customers earn points from every pound they spend. Further Sainsbury allows its consumers to be able to redeem the points through online avenues. Morrison’s Match & More Cards allow shoppers to collect points when they do their shopping and also when they recharge the card. The gaining of points when shoppers recharge, earned Morrison’s a large customer base to increase its market share.

Loyalty is known as the consumers’ disease, supermarkets all over use this strategy to keep more customers shopping with them, without the possibility of looking and comparing with other competitors. This strategy helps these supermarkets to be able to increase their market share. The use of loyaltycards to reward loyal customers by allowing them to accumulate points every other time they shop and later redeem the points through a reward system. Tesco supermarket have their own loyaltycards known as the Tesco Clubcard Credit Cards that provides customers with a point for every 8 pound they spend. For Sainsbury, they provide their customers with nectar cards, which also allow the customers earn points from every pound they spend. Further Sainsbury allows its consumers to be able to redeem the points through online avenues. Morrison’s Match & More Cards allow shoppers to collect points when they do their shopping and also when they recharge the card. The gaining of points when shoppers recharge, earned Morrison’s a large customer base to increase its market share.

Loyalty is known as the consumers’ disease, supermarkets all over use this strategy to keep more customers shopping with them, without the possibility of looking and comparing with other competitors. This strategy helps these supermarkets to be able to increase their market share. The use of loyaltycards to reward loyal customers by allowing them to accumulate points every other time they shop and later redeem the points through a reward system. Tesco supermarket have their own loyaltycards known as the TescoClubcard Credit Cards that provides customers with a point for every 8 pound they spend. For Sainsbury, they provide their customers with nectar cards, which also allow the customers earn points from every pound they spend. FurtherSainsburyallows its consumers to be able to redeem the points through online avenues. Morrison’sMatch & More Cards allow shoppers to collect points when they do their shopping and also when they recharge the card. The gaining of points when shoppers recharge, earned Morrison’s a large customer base to increase its market share.

Loyalty is known as the consumers’ disease, supermarkets all over use thisstrategy to keep more customers shopping with them, without the possibility of looking and comparing with other competitors. This strategy helps these supermarkets to be able to increase theirmarket share. The use of loyaltycards to reward loyal customers by allowing them to accumulate points every other time they shop and later redeem the points through a reward system. Tesco supermarket have their own loyaltycards known as the TescoClubcard Credit Cards that provides customers with a point for every 8 pound they spend. For Sainsbury, they provide their customers with nectar cards, which also allow the customers earn points from every pound they spend. FurtherSainsburyallows its consumers to be able to redeem the points through online avenues. Morrison’sMatch & More Cards allow shoppers to collect points when they do their shopping and also when theyrecharge the card. The gaining of points when shoppers recharge, earned Morrison’s a large customer base to increase its market share.

Coherence and cohesion in academic discourse: The role of vocabulary Norbert Schmitt