1. Nominalisation
DECS Languages & Multicultural Education Portfolio Group
Professional Development and Resource Materials for ESL

2. Nominalisation
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class applauded wildly.
Text 2
The choir’s beautiful singing drew wild applause from the class.

3. Nominalisation adjective adverb verb noun pretty beauty quietly
silence
evaporate
evaporation

4. Nominalisation
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class applauded wildly.
Text 2
The choir’s beautiful singing drew wild applause from the class.

5. Nominalisation : Noun groups
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class applauded wildly.
Text 2
The choir’s beautiful singing drew wild applause from the class.

6. Nominalisation : verbs and clauses
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class applauded wildly.
Text 2
The choir’s beautiful singing drew wild applause from the class.

7. The council decided to allow the building to be demolished even though the heritage committee was just about to debate whether it should be heritage listed or not. The Aurora Heritage Group has said that this has got to be the most appalling thing the council has ever done.
Nominalised version
The council’s decision to allow the demolition of the building prior to debate on its heritage listing has drawn a scathing rebuke from the Aurora Heritage Group.

8. Field: Language Scales: noun groups Scale 4
numbers: eight, four or five, ten percent
describers: pretty, very pretty, good-looking
classifiers: gas, electric, oil heater
prepositions: on the box, under the box, in the box
Scale 6
numbers: a quarter of
describers: big, beautiful
classifiers: state, federal government
short prepositional phrases as qualifiers:
“The man in the shop was …”
Across the Scales there is increasing technicality in the numbers, describers and classifiers that can be added in front of a noun. You can see the increasing complexity across Scale 4 and 6. Qualifiers start in Scale 6 with simple prepositional phrases

9. Field: Language Scales: noun groups Scale 10
describers: the biggest, most colourful centre
classifiers: the biggest, most colourful shopping centre
more complex qualifiers: “It is the biggest, most colourful shopping centre located in the city”
Scale 12
describers: the most important and exciting discoveries
classifiers: the most important and exciting medical discoveries
qualifiers: “One of the most important and exciting medical discoveries in recent times is …”
in Scale 10 the describers and classifiers become more complex and the qualifiers include dependent clauses such as" located in the city" and prepositional phrases with more specific vocabulary as in," in recent times".

10. Field: Language Nominalisations Scale 6 Scale 8
understands a range of nominalisations and uses a limited range
understands: movement, your turn, a good chance
uses: “What’s your height?”, a lot of happiness, education
Scale 8
understands a range of nominalisations and uses small range
understands: possibility, allowance
uses with varying degrees of accuracy: permission, ability
Across Scale 6 to 8 there is a greater confidence in using nominalisations.

11. Field: Language Nominalisations Scale 10 Scale 12
Uses a small range of technical nominalisations with varying degrees of grammatical accuracy: evaporation, expansion
Scale 12
Uses a range of increasingly abstract and technical nominalisations with increasing confidence: growth, risk, capability
In Scale 10 and 12 there is growing confidence in technical nominalisations.