Language and Literacy Levels Module 1.2 C: Nominalisation

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Instructions If after reading the glossary, indicators and examples about this language item in the Levels you still need to learn more, it is anticipated that you will work through this PowerPoint at your own pace and without the need to be supported by a trainer. However, depending upon your school's implementation plan, you may be able to or post any questions to your trainer or discuss them with your Professional Learning Community or similar group.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation Nominalisation are formed by changing words that are not things (nouns) into a certain type of thing (noun). For example:  from verbs: reaction from react or departure from depart  adjectives: length from long; eagerness from eager  conjunctions: cause or reason from because; in addition from and

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Purposes 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-like texts.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide What is the “thing”? The clown amused us for a while. What “thing” is this sentence about? The amusement provided by the clown faded. What “thing” is this sentence about? Is it the clown or the amusement?

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide What is the “thing”? The clown amused us for a while. Clown is the “thing”. The amusement provided by the clown faded. Amusement is the “thing”.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation The circus arrived in town with much noise. What “thing” is this sentence about? The arrival of the circus was noisy. What “thing” is this sentence about?

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation The circus arrived in town with much noise. Circus is the “thing”. The arrival of the circus was noisy. Arrival is the “thing”.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Checkpoint If clown, amusement, circus and arrival are all “things”, we can call them nouns (names of things).

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation Let’s now consider two of these nouns: clown and circus. You can detect these nouns with your five senses.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation Reflect for a moment about whether detecting “things” with all your five senses can truly be said about nouns like amusement and arrival. You’ll probably agree that amusement and arrival are a different sort of noun compared to clown and circus. The first two are names of concepts, ideas or phenomenon so there is more to nominalisation than simply changing a non-noun to a noun. Now let’s look at some nominalisations in school.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation in Schooling Nominalisations are only included in the Levels because students are expected to understand them in written and multimodal texts, including teacher talk, from a young age. Students are expected to start using them with ever increasing complexity from about year 3. - Across curriculum (e.g. attention, assessment, co-operation, intelligence, behaviour) - Mathematics (e.g. width, division) - Science (e.g. sight, reproduction) - Society & Environment (e.g. relief, invasion)

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation in Science “Steam is coming off the hot water.” The first sentence might be typical language of a child in year 2 observing some water being heated. The water is evaporating. The second sentence might be the language produced by a child in year 4 who has begun using the topic words “evaporating” instead everyday words to explain the same phenomenon. Evaporation is occurring. The third sentence is what a child at year 7/8 would be expected to write. It includes the nominalisation “evaporation” which has come form the verb “evaporating”.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation in History “People coming here set up towns along the coast.” This is very spoken-like language. The coast was settled by people migrating to Australia. This sentence uses topic words like “coast”, “settled” and “migrating”. Migration to Australia resulted in coastal settlement. The verb “migrating” has been changed into the nominalisation “migration” and the verb “settled” changed into “settlement”. This help the text more written-like.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Nominalisation in the Levels Locate ‘Nominalisation’ in the left hand column in Levels Read the examples across the Levels to see how they progress. At higher levels of schooling children are expected to reflect on their own and others’ viewpoints and ideas and may use nominalisations formed from thinking verbs (eg to consider>consideration, to reflect>reflection, to recall>recollection).

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Fancy a challenge? In the first sentence below “settlement” is a nominalisation but not in the second. Why? Migration to Australia resulted in coastal settlement. Adelaide is a coastal settlement..

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Fancy a challenge? In the second sentence it is not the name of a process but the name of a concrete thing. It could be replaced by other nouns like “city” or “site”.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Checkpoint Nominalisations name concepts, ideas or phenomenon so there is more to nominalisation than simply changing a non- noun to a noun. Students are required to comprehend simple nominalisations in R-2 and begin composing them from year 3 across different learning areas. The use of nominalisations make texts, even spoken ones, more written-like.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Advantages of Nominalisation Once a verb or other type of word is changed into a nominalisation all sorts of grammatical possibilities open up. It becomes less cumbersome to discuss or reflect upon the nominalisation. Compare “It was unfair when the settlers colonised.” with “The unfair colonisation …” Nominalisations as well as concrete nouns can start doing things. Compare “The researchers discovered the cause and then developed a cure” with “The discovery lead to a cure.”

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Purposes of Nominalisation You saw this slide early in the PowerPoint. Hopefully the purposes are even clearer now. 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-like texts.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Optional Extension Activities The remaining slides extend this module by providing opportunities to change isolated words and words within sentences into nominalisations.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Creating Nominalisations Nominalisations are most often formed from verbs (e.g. discover > discovery, achieve > achievement, present > presentation, permit > permission) but they can also be formed from adjectives/ describers (e.g. brave > bravery, wide > width, tense > tension) and from conjunctions (e.g. because > cause, whereas > difference, if > possibility) and from prepositions (e.g. during > duration).

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Creating Nominalisations The next few slides allow you to change words that are either verbs or adjectives/describers into nominalisations from a couple of learning areas. areas

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Complete the table of some common nominalisations in Maths WordNominalisation deep addition distance multiply estimation

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Some common nominalisations in Maths WordNominalisation deepdepth addaddition distantdistance multiplymultiplication estimateestimation

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Complete the table of some common nominalisations in the Arts WordNominalisation perform movement originality exhibition surrealism

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Some common nominalisations in the Arts WordNominalisation performperformance movemovement originaloriginality exhibitexhibition surrealsurrealism

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Understanding Nominalisation Original VersionNominalised Versions They were impressed by how brave she was. She made an impression because she was brave. They were impressed by her bravery. She made an impression with her bravery.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Write a version of the sentence using nominalisations made from the underlined words Original VersionNominalised Versions Jill placed the flowers perfectly on the table. The coach was amazed by Nina’s brilliant effort.

Faculty of Edit this on the Slide MasterThe University of Adelaide Some possible versions Original VersionNominalised Versions Jill placed the flowers perfectly on the table. Her placement of the flowers on the table was perfect. Jill’s perfect placement of the flowers on the table delighted everyone. The coach was amazed by Nina’s brilliant effort. Nina’s brilliance amazed the coach. The coach’s amazement was due to Nina’s brilliance. NB It may not be appropriate to nominalise every possibility