Chunking | Understand English

Chunking and Noticing

Chunking and Noticing are two high level skills that a competent user of English can employ to increase the amount and speed of learning new language. Creating lists of new words and keeping a personal record can be effective. However, noticing the way the language works together in a text that you are reading can help you to learn faster and more effectively. This is especially beneficial when reading texts related to your discipline or academic field. Chunking refers to items of language that are used to hold a piece of text together. These chunks of language can be made up of verbs, prepositions, adverbs and discourse markers as well as commonly used nouns and adjectives that can be found in academic texts. However, they do not contain content language that discusses the topic, unless specific to the subject discipline.

If we look at the following text about Business Ethics, some of the language has specific content and meaning, but much of it could be used in another piece of writing with different content words. By removing the content words that have specific meaning for the text, we are left with a skeleton of language ‘bones’ which actually hold the content together. This can be done with any text of varying levels of difficulty.

Example 1

Let’s look at the example in detail. Which words do you think are content specific, and which words, phrases and even clauses could you use for your own writing?

Academic integrity (AI) violations on college campuses continue to be a significant concern that draws public attention. Even though AI has been the subject of numerous studies offering explanations and recommendations, academic dishonesty persists. Consequently, this has rekindled interest in understanding AI behavior and its influencers. This paper focuses on the AI violations of plagiarism and sharing homework for freshman business students, examining the factors that influence a student’s intention to plagiarize or share homework with others. Using a sample of more than 1300 freshman business students over 2 years, we modeled intent to plagiarize and intent to share homework using factors in the Theory of Planned Behavior in addition to past violation behavior and moral obligation (feelings of guilt). Based on the results of this study, attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and in addition past behavior and moral obligation, were found to significantly influence an individual’s intention to violate academic integrity (for plagiarism and sharing homework when asked not to do so), explaining 33 and 35 % of the variance in intention to commit an AI violation for sharing homework and plagiarism, respectively. These results contribute to a better understanding of individuals’ motivations for plagiarizing and sharing homework, which is a necessary step toward reducing academic integrity violations.

Cronan, T.P., Mullins, J.K. and Douglas, D.E., 2018. Further understanding factors that explain freshman business students’ academic integrity intention and behavior: Plagiarism and sharing homework. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(1), pp.197-220.

This is the skeleton of the text with the content words removed. Words in brackets could also be removed.

_______________ (violations) on (college) campuses continue to be a significant concern that draws public attention. Even though __________ has been the subject of numerous studies offering explanations and recommendations, _______________ persists. Consequently, this has rekindled interest in understanding _______________ and its influencers. This paper focuses on the _______________ for _______________, examining the factors that influence a _________ intention to _______________. Using a sample of more than _______________ over ___ years, we modeled __________ and __________ using factors in the _______________ in addition to past __________ (behavior and moral obligation, feelings of guilt). Based on the results of this study,__________ , _______________, _______________, and in addition _______________ and _______________, were found to significantly influence _______________ explaining __ and__ % of the variance in intention to commit a(n) __ violation for _______________, respectively. These results contribute to a better understanding of _______________, which is a necessary step toward reducing _______________.

Here we can see that what remains are chunks of language which can be used in different contexts. Much of this language is common to all academic disciplines.

*Remember it is important to check the grammar of the language chunk, for example verb tense, as it may be necessary to change it for your specific content.

Example 2

This is a different text as it contains specific information including data, making it more difficult to analyse. However, much of the language could be used elsewhere and the second sentence could refer to research of any kind.

It has been strongly argued that atypical cognitive processes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) contribute to the expression of behavioural symptoms. Comprehensive investigation of these claims has been limited by small and unrepresentative sample sizes and the absence of wide‐ranging task batteries. The current study investigated the cognitive abilities of 100 adolescents with ASD (mean age = 15 years 6 months), using 10 tasks to measure the domains of theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF). We used structural equation modelling as a statistically robust way of exploring the associations between cognition and parent‐reported measures of social communication and restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRBs). We found that ToM ability was associated with both social communication symptoms and RRBs. EF was a correlate of ToM but had no direct association with parent‐reported symptom expression. Our data suggest that in adolescence ToM ability, but not EF, is directly related to autistic symptom expression.

Jones, C.R., Simonoff, E., Baird, G., Pickles, A., Marsden, A.J., Tregay, J., Happé, F. and Charman, T., 2018. The association between theory of mind, executive function, and the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 11(1), pp.95-109.

After removing the content words, the text below reveals many different structures that could be used when reporting research findings.

It has been strongly argued that ____________________ contribute to ________________________. Comprehensive investigation of these claims has been limited by small and unrepresentative sample sizes and the absence of wide‐ranging task batteries. The current study investigated ________________________ using ________ to measure. We used (structural equation modelling) as a statistically robust way of exploring the associations between __________________ and _________________________. We found that _______________was associated with ______________. _________was (a correlate of) ________but had no direct association with ____________________. Our data suggest that ___________ ,_____________ (but not) , is (directly) related to ________________.

When you are reading a journal article, academic publication or book, try to notice any useful language chunks that you could use in your own writing.

*Please note, this is not plagiarism as plagiarism refers to the copying of ideas, not language items.

Practice

Now it's time to focus your activity on texts that you may need to read and understand for your own discipline. Nowadays academic papers from relevant, peer-reviewed, academic journals are the main resource for research for your assignments. You can use your institution's database which will give you access to a wealth of resources, or if you are not enrolled in an institution, you can use Google Scholar which will give you abstracts for numerous texts on all academic disciplines.

Using an abstract or introduction to an academic paper in your discipline or area of interest, skim the text to understand the main idea. Now,

Identify all of the content words in the text that give the main meaning.
Remove these words from the text so that you are left with the 'skeleton'.
Read the 'skeleton' and identify any words, phrases or expressions that could help you with your writing.
Add them to your own word list for future reference.

When reading any text for your studies, notice any useful language items as this will help to build your general vocabulary.

*These language items are usually not discipline specific.

*This is not plagiarism as you are not copying ideas.