ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN

SHS DEPARTMENT

LESSON 1

ENGLISH
→ It is the lingua franca of the world; it is the common language used by
different people around the globe to establish communication and
understanding.

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

→ focus on the language skills where the “rules” and strategies of academic
skills are different from the general language skills
→ It is a kind of English teaching that relates to the learner’s immediate
purposes.
→ “refers mainly to the academic needs of students and of future
professionals who would seek a career in the academic environment” and
“the actual needs of (future) professionals at work”.

How are these statements similar? How are they different?

 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

TYPES OF ENGLISH

Types of English
General English
❑ Uses hedges (sort of, kind of)
❑ Uses personal pronouns (I, me,
mine)
❑ Uses simple connectors (but,
also, and)
❑ Uses slang (stuff, guys)
❑ Relies more on basic discourse
structures, such as narratives
❑ More extensive use of listening
and speaking
Academic English
❑ Does not use hedges
❑ Avoids personal pronoun
❑ Uses sophisticated transition
words (moreover)
❑ Uses academic words
❑ Specific linguistic functions are
more important (persuading,
hypothesizing)
❑ Relatively decontextualized and
cognitively demanding
❑ Requires greater mastery of
range of linguistic forms

Academic English concerns itself with the

“proper” way of speaking and writing, and places
heavier emphasis on grammar. Considered a tougher
standard to meet, academic English relates more to
those seeking opportunities in higher education.
General, or social English connects to the everyday use
of English and appeals to those who are not looking to
work in the academic field.

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE (ACADEMIC ENGLISH)

→ Language used in academic settings and for academic purposes to help
students acquire and use knowledge (Anstrom, et al., 2010)
 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

→ Words and syntactic structures that students are likely to encounter in

textbooks and tests, but not in everyday, spoken English (Strategic
Education Research Partnership, 2010)
→ The language used in learning of academic subject matter in a formal
schooling context; aspects of language strongly associated with literacy
and academic achievement, including specific academic terms or
technical language and speech registers related to each field of study
(TESOL, 2003)
→ Language that students must comprehend to access the concepts
associated with a particular discipline (mathematics, science, social
studies) and use to demonstrate their understanding of those concepts
(Anstrom, et al., 2010)

COMPONENTS OF ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

1. UNDERSTANDING PHONETIC FEATURES

→ sound-symbol relationship,
→ stress intonation and sound patterns
→ patterns from words borrowed from other language.

1.1. Sound-Symbol Relationship

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has a set of symbols
by which the important sounds in English can be represented. There
is a symbol for every sound and no more than one symbol for any
given sound.
[strεηθ] strength
[əmibə] amoeba
[plad] plaid
ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

Place of Articulation
 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

PLACES OF ARTICULATION
1. Bilabial
- (two lips) lower lip and upper lip
- a bilabial sound is produced by using both lips pressed together
2. Labiodental
- (lips and teeth) lower lip/upper teeth
- a labiodental sound is produced by placing the upper teeth on the lower
lip
3. Interdental
- (between the teeth) tongue, upper, and lower teeth
- an interdental sound is produced by putting the tip of the tongue
between the upper and the lower teeth
4. Alveolar
- (the alveolar ridge) tongue tip and alveolar ridge
- an alveolar sound is produced by placing the tongue tip on or just in
front of the alveolar ridge (the bump behind the upper teeth).
5. Palatal
- (hard palate) tongue body and hard palate
- a palatal sound is made by bringing the tongue body up close to the
hard palate.
6. Velar
- (velum or soft palate) tongue back and soft palate
- a velar sound is produced by bringing the tongue back up close to or in
contact with the soft palate
7. Glottal
- (vocal folds)
- a glottal sound is produced by moving the vocal folds
-
MANNER OF ARTICULATION
1. Stop or Plosives - cut off the air completely, at least for a little time
2. Fricative - a type of continuant, allow air to keep moving without stopping,
but restrict it so much that noise is produced from the friction
3. Nasal – combination of a stop with a fricative. The sound is produced by
first stopping the air and the when it is released, it is allowed to flow out
with a lot of friction.
4. Liquid - a type of continuant, send air flowing through the openings
around the tongue.
5. Glide – in between consonants and vowel
 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

NAME OF SYMBOLS
ʌ - caret
ə - schwa
ɛ - epsilon
æ – ash
θ – theta
ð – eth
ʃ - esh
ʒ - ezh
ŋ – eng
ɹ - turned r
a – flat a
ɔ - open o
ο – closed o

1.2. Stress Intonation & Sound Patterns

One of the most important features of the English language is
stress. Another word for stress is accent. The stressed syllable of a
word is said with more emphasis, with a louder voice, with a higher
pitch, and with a longer pause or duration. Stress also indicates the
difference of usage.

PREsent present
Record reCORD
PROduce proDUCE
Intonation gives a sentence several meanings depending on
the emphasis placed by the speaker.

He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.

He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow. Someone else is flying.

He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.
He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.
He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.
He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.
He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.
It is not true he is flying.
He is not flying; he’ll do
something else.
Wrong direction to fly into.
Not the actual destination
He’ll fly another day.

1.3. Patterns from Loanwords

 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word adopted from

one language and incorporated into another language without
translation. As such, pronunciation of the word will be the same as how
it is pronounced in the language.

tsunami entrepreneur
café Deja vu
croissant kindergarten

2. LEXICAL KNOWLEDGE
→ forms & meanings of words
→ affixation of academic words (prefix & suffix)
→ parts of speech of academic words
→ grammar usage
Jargons are specialized set of terms (vocabulary) and language that is
used in a specific context and setting (field). People who are not part of the
group may not be able to understand the jargon used, as the words are either
obscure terms or have different definitions than the regular usage of the word.
flambé, pureé, sieve
treasury, arbitrage, ledger
comorbid, tachycardia, pneumothorax

A basic word to which affixes (prefixes and suffixes) are added is called a root
word because it forms the basis of a new word. The root word is also a word in its own
right. Adding affixes to root words create a new word with a new meaning and function.
love + -ly = lovely
beauty + -ful = beautiful
after- + life = afterlife
bi- + cycle = bicycle

Having knowledge on the different affixes and their meanings would help
greatly in understanding the meaning of the newly formed word.
pre- affix, meaning before
mis- affix, meaning wrongly
-ness suffix, meaning condition/state of
-s, -es suffix, meaning more than one

Word categories are also good strategy to improve lexical knowledge. This
pertains to group of words related to content-area, theme, unit, or section.

People Places Action

 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

Profession Teacher School Study

Professor University Teach
Supervisor Department Promote
Religion Buddhist Temple Belive
Christian Church Worship
Muslim Mosque Pray
Another important thing to remember about lexicon is ensuring that the
words used in the academic setting are those that are politically correct and socially
accepted. Gender-free nouns and euphemisms would greatly help in this regard.

flight attendant, instead of stewardess

police officer, instead of policeman
ethnic cleansing, instead of genocide
sanitary engineer, instead of janitors

3. GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE
→ grammatical features (morphological and syntactic) associated with argumentative
composition, procedural description, analysis, and definition
→ grammatical co-occurrence (collocations)
→ restrictions governing words
→ the grammatical metaphor
→ more complex rules of punctuation

4. SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE
→ refers to the knowledge on requires knowledge of the language functions.
These functions include general ones of ordinary English such as
apologizing, complaining, and making requests as well as ones that are
common to academic fields.

5. DISCOURSE COMPONENT
→ refers to the knowledge on discourse features used in specific academic
genres. These discourse features help English language learners develop
their theses and provide smooth transition between ideas.
 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
ACLC COLLEGE OF TACLOBAN
SHS DEPARTMENT

IN
IN A
A NUTSHELL
NUTSHELL
❑ English for Academic and Professional Purposes is a course designed to develop
English skills in the students, with lessons catered to their specific academic and
professional (on-the-job) needs for the English language.
❑ Academic English is the language used in the academic environment which
heavily relies on the observation of rules. General English is the language used
outside of the academic field. This form mainly focusses on the communicative
use of the language, wherein rules are not strictly observed.
❑ Academic language is the English used in the academic context which composes
five aspects of knowledge necessary in learning effectively within the school
environment: phonological, lexical, grammatical, sociolinguistic, and discourse.

Prepared by:
Maria Angelica O. Rosales
SHS-Instructor