Language in Use 109-110
Our intuitions about language tell us frequently that what we are reading is
in some sense 'difficult', but what it is that is actually causing the difficulty
may be far from obvious. This unit is concerned with the kind of difficulty
which arises when a writer needs to convey a great deal of information in a
comparatively small space. Its aim is to show how the 'difficulty' of individual
words can arise from different causes and how this difficult), relates to the
total pattern of the text.
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[1] In this session, the aim is to discover what the class regard as difficult and to explore the kinds of difficulty revealed. Ask the pupils to take any book, magazine or paper to hand and list the first half-dozen words they come across that present problems for them. Circulate the lists and in discussion build up on the board a picture of the types of difficulty found. Likely types would include: technical tern-is; words with a Latin base; words taken over from another language; familiar words that do not appear to have their accustomed meaning; words from fields outside the experience of the class; words whose force depends upon a familiarity with limited areas of adult experience.
[2] In this session, the aim is to show how the meaning of words such as those discussed in [1] is bound up with the meaning of the whole text. Divide the class into groups and ask each group to select two passages of broadly contrasting kinds, from an editorial and a physics book, or a short story and a hobby magazine, for instance, which contain words that they find difficult. Ask them to go as far as they can in working out the full meaning of the words concerned from the rest of the text, bearing in mind the types of difficulty discussed in [1], and be ready to present their results to the class in the next session.
[3] The session begins with the presentation of what the groups have found out. The focus should be upon the types of difficult words that can even- be understood from a close examination of the text, and those which have defeated all attempts to get the meaning from the text alone. The class should question each group about their way of going to work so that the kinds of experience which they drew upon will be revealed. The discussion should go on to consider what other kinds of difficulty have occurred in the text.
[4] For this session, each member of the class needs to come with a
short passage that contains features which he finds a barrier to understanding.
Circulate these passages and in the ensuing discussion build up a pattern of
types of difficulties similar to that set up in session [I]. The following list
of features may prove helpful in suggesting likely types of difficulty:
(a) length of sentence and number of subordinate clauses
(b) sentences with 'if', 'when' or 'because' occurring at the beginning
(c) noun phrases of more than three words in length
(d) allusive reference to time or place
(e) a long sequence of 'if ... then' sentences
(f) sentences containing words and phrases like 'probably', 'it may be said
that', 'it may be the case that'.