The Graph Shows: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Data

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The Graph Shows: An Innovative Approach to

Teaching Data Description

Richard Ingold & Alex Motel

English Australia Conference

21st Sept, 2018



Academic English 2


AE2 Students

IELTS 5 / CEFR B1

10 week course

2nd level of a 3 level study programme

Mostly from E & SE Asia, & Middle East

Accounting, nursing, IT, hospitality…



Common Student Errors

Education in the 50+ age group is triple of education in the 18-25 age group.

People like to study community welfare which is slightly less than social sciences.

The tertiary students studying business in 50 and over age group has the same number with the percentage of over 50 age group students.

The proportion of community accounts to the same number with the percentage of over 50 age group student.


Oxford EAP: Pre-Intermediate


New Headway Academic Skills: Reading, Writing, and Study Skills Level 2


EAP Now!


Cambridge Grammar for IELTS


Oxford EAP: Advanced


Previous Research

Data description / commentary = a central component of academic writing.

Focus Selection of

information. Discourse moves. Stance. Modality & distancing.

No focus on the grammatical difficulties experienced by learners.

Swales & Feak (1995) Swales & Feak (2012) Wharton (2012) Nordrum & Eriksson (2014) Eriksson & Nordrum (2018)








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Wine Beer Vodka Whisky Gin Rum

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Alcohol type

Alcohol preference among overseas students Sample

Data

Measure

Categories



The above bar graph illustrates international students’ preferred alcohol types.

Overall, beer was clearly the most popular type of alcohol.

In more detail, the percentage of students who chose beer was significantly higher than that of students who chose wine, the second most popular alcohol type (52% and 32%, respectively). While students who consumed wine accounted for over a third of the sample, just under a tenth chose vodka. However, vodka was still the most popular spirit, as the percentage of vodka drinkers was almost double that of rum drinkers (8% and 5%, respectively). There was little difference between the percentages of gin and whisky drinkers, as only a negligible percentage of students preferred these drinks (2% and 1% respectively).

These results suggest that a vast majority of international students preferred beverages with lower alcohol content.

Now look at the structure of the clauses in this example. Can you see any patterns?







5 Clause Types - stating

1. Sample focus: Females who drank wine accounted for 56%.

2. Data focus: The majority of males drank beer.

3. Measure focus: The percentage of females who drank wine was high.

4. Category focus: Wine was a very popular drink among females.

5. Existential: There was a large percentage of males who drank beer.


1. Sample focus: Females who drank wine accounted for

56%, while males represented 32%.

2. Data focus: More males than females drank beer. Or: More males drank beer than females did (56% and 32%, respectively).

3. Measure focus: The percentage of females who drank wine was higher than that of males (56% and 32%, respectively).

4. Category focus: Wine was a more popular drink among females than among males (56% and 32%, respectively).

5. Existential: There was a large difference between the percentage of males who drank beer and that of females.

5 Clause Types - comparing


Now practise!

The number of students who liked grammar was very small.


Now practise!

There was a small difference between males who exercised every day and females who did so.


Now practise!

Hot chips were a very common food choice for male students (65%).


Now practise!

Students who hated graph descriptions accounted for three quarters of the class.


Now practise!

Many students spent over half of their income on rent.


5 clause types (stating). Grammar breakdown table.


1. Activate existing knowledge — Graph types.

Teaching stages


2. Finding the Measure, Sample & Categories.

Teaching stages


3. Model text – Purpose & Structure.

Teaching stages


4. Language analysis — 5 types.

Teaching stages


5. Recognition of 5 types.

Teaching stages


6. Controlled practice — sentence writing.

Teaching stages


7. Joint construction — full text.

Teaching stages


8. Independent practice.

Teaching stages


Other classroom activities

Sts organise sentences into different groups.

Sts identify sentence type and add missing words.

Sts re-order words to form the correct sentence. They then identify the type.

Sts are asked to write a particular sentence type under different graphs pasted around the room.


Does it work?


Next steps


References Eriksson, A. & Nordrum, L. (2018). Unpacking challenges of data commentary writing in master’s thesis projects: An insider perspective from chemical engineering. Research in Science & Technological Education, 36(4), 499-520

Nordrum, L. & Eriksson, A. (2014). Data commentary in science writing: A discourse model for multimodal result presentation in science publication. Lund University, Languages for Specific Purposes Conference 2014.

Swales, J. M. & Feak, C. B. (1995). From information transfer to data commentary. The Journal of Tesol, France, 2(2), 79-93.

Swales, J. M. & Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Ann Arbor, United States: The University of Michigan Press.

Wharton, S. (2012). Epistemological stance and interpersonal stance in a data description task: Findings from a discipline-specific learner corpus. English for Specific Purposes, 31 (4), 261-270.


Thank You!

[email protected]

Richard Ingold Eap

Richard Ingold

@RichardIngold

Alexane Motel

Alex at Navitas

[email protected]



5 types – Line graphs

1. Sample focus: Females who drank wine accounted for 56% in 2016.

2. Data focus: Throughout the period shown by the graph, the majority of males drank beer.

3. Measure focus: The percentage of females who drank wine increased rapidly between 2010 and 2018.

4. Category Focus: Drinking wine was increasingly popular among women between 2010 and 2018.

5. Existential: There was a gradual reduction in the percentage of males who drank whiskey between 2010 and 2016.







The Graph Shows: An Innovative Approach to

Teaching Data Description

Richard Ingold & Alex Motel

English Australia Conference

21st Sept, 2018








0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Wine Beer Vodka Whisky Gin Rum

Pe

rce

nta

ge o

f st

ud

en

ts

Alcohol type

Alcohol preference among overseas students Sample

Data

Measure

Categories







1. Sample focus: Females who drank wine accounted for

56%, while males represented 32%.

2. Data focus: More males than females drank beer. Or: More males drank beer than females did (56% and 32%, respectively).

3. Measure focus: The percentage of females who drank wine was higher than that of males (56% and 32%, respectively).

4. Category focus: Wine was a more popular drink among females than among males (56% and 32%, respectively).

5. Existential: There was a large difference between the percentage of males who drank beer and that of females.

5 Clause Types - comparing


Documents

The Graph Shows: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Data