ESL Scope and Scales Moderated Evidence: Middle Years Band
ANTON: WRITTEN CAUSAL EXPLANATION
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ESL Scope and Scales Moderated Evidence: Middle Years Band
Year Level: Year 7
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ESL Scope and Scales Moderated Evidence: Middle Years Band
Evidence for Scaling
ANTON: WRITTEN CAUSAL EXPLANATION
Language
Genre:
Key features and examples
level of scaffolding
x independently written, part of a bigger project
entitled ’Rivers In Crisis’
structure
x title, subheading Cause, brief context statement
for cause, definition and causes, subheading
Effects, brief context statement for effects,
examples of effects
Language for
achieving
Examples of evidence demonstrated by student
different
purposes
organises the text:
x rhetorical questions: And what is the main factor
in global warming?
x conjunctions: First, Next, Finally, In addition
x noun groups in place of conjunctions: Another
reason, One of the main arguments, The
principle cause of the increase
x phrases and dependent clauses of cause: As a
result of the rain, Struggling to survive, Despite
his poor health
x phrases and dependent clauses of time, place,
manner: Born in 1898, When we had finished,
With great care
x topic words: Antarctica, Pollution
x action verbs (in procedures): Slice, Boil
x existential subject to introduce new information:
There
x layout: subheadings, diagrams, pictures
builds cohesion:
x reference items: my, it, they, him, the, this,
these, all of the above
x vocabulary patterns
synonyms / antonyms
words that go together: make complaint
classification: teeth - canines, molars,
premolars, incisors
composition (whole-part): tooth - enamel,
dentine, pulp, nerve
x conjunctions to join sentences: Next, So,
However, Therefore, Hence
joins clauses to expand information:
x linking conjunctions: and, or, so, and then
x binding conjunctions: because, if, since, when,
so / so that, whenever, though
x relative clauses: The Suez Canal, which was
completed in 1869,…
x non-finite clauses: The team, having seen the
results, felt…, Having seen the results, the
team…, To improve the final product, ...
x projections: Scientists believe that exercise
prevents disease.
x conjunctions: Finally
x noun groups: One of the most serious problems
with the Murray, The most common cause of
secondary salinity
x time, place, manner: In urban areas such as
Canberra, Once a bloom occurs
x topic words: The effects of salinity, The effects
on farmers, Not a great deal, Blue-green, Bluegreen algae
x layout: subheadings used to organise text
x reference items: salt was visible…This, Annual
crops don’t use as much rainfall as …This
unused rainfall, all play their part, these
conditions, once a bloom occurs its toxicity, blue
green algae are fast growing and can foul rice
crops if they.., This can cause
x vocabulary patterns
synonyms / antonyms: causes / effects, runs
off / absorbs, loss / death, effects / damages,
agriculture / farming, reduce / increase,
toxicity / poisonous
words that go together: European settlement,
agriculture run off, industrial outflow
classification: salinity - primary, secondary
x conjunctions: Alas
x linking: and, or, either..or, as well as
x binding: because, if, as, when, once, before, as
if
x non finite clauses: give off toxins, making the
water undrinkable and poisnious (poisonous);
enters the plant root zone leading to the death
of species, that aren’t salt tolerant (enters the
plant root zone, leading to the death of species
that aren’t salt tolerant)
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Scale
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ESL Scope and Scales Moderated Evidence: Middle Years Band
Evidence for Scaling
ANTON: WRITTEN CAUSAL EXPLANATION
Language
Field:
Language for
expressing
ideas and
experiences
Key features and examples
noun groups:
x numbers, describers, classifiers, qualifiers:
television, a book, the pencil, all day, the
children in the water, the children living in the
city, the medical discovery that has had the
most impact
comparatives:
x funnier, slower, more beautiful, best
nominalisations:
x likelihood, growth, development, beauty, risk,
government, capability
verbs:
x action: subtract, peered, scanned, demolish
x mental (sensing): knew, believe, understood,
enjoyed, hated
x saying: said, laughed, shouted, stated, asserted
x relational: are, became, has, consists of,
represents, means
x verbal groups: wanted to improve, tried
estimating
x phrasal verbs: fell in with the wrong crowd, look it
up, put up with, put off, put out
causal relations:
x verbs: led to, brought on
x nouns: the result of the floods, the cause of the
injury
x phrases: because of the heat, in spite of the rain
x dependent clauses: because the weather was
bad, in order to end the suffering
circumstances and clauses:
x when: in 1614, when he arrived
x where: at the sign, standing on stage
x how: carefully, with a fine brush, like a leopard
x with whom / what: with his friend, with their
belongings
metaphors:
x get it off your chest
technical vocabulary:
x digest, high sugar levels, niacin
direct and reported speech:
x direct: The police officer said, “There were no
injuries.”
x reported: The manager of the team said that they
were…
Examples of evidence demonstrated by student
Scale
x one of the most serious problems with the
Murray, The most common cause of secondary
salinity, the replacement of deep-rooted
vegetation, the annual crops used in traditional
farming, the original native vegetation, salts that
have accumulated over thousands of years in
the soil, the death of the species that aren’t salt
tolerant, the loss of habitat, extremely valuable
crop land, the corruption of lake and river
ecosystems, great conditions for cyanobacteria
growth, the first stages of blue-green algae, the
amount of nutrient rich storm water entering the
lake system, stable environmental conditions
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x most serious, most common
x problems, salinity, cause, replacement, death,
loss, conditions, reasons, pollution, run off,
outflow, toxicity, corruption, land clearing,
settlement, combination
x action: used, absorbs, rises, accumulated,
released, comes, enters, lose, renders, vary,
produce, damages, continuing, creating,
increase, turns, foul, establishes,
x mental (sensing): known, seems
x relational: aren’t, is, include
x verbal group: play their part in creating
x phrasal verbs: referred to, runs off, builds up,
leading to, gives of (off), result in, rise to
x verbs: renders, play their part in creating, cause,
effect (affect), result in, making, cause, leading
to
x nouns: cause, effects, reasons
x phrases: despite stable environmental conditions
x dependent clauses: as the salt renders it useless
for crops, as salinity effects (affects)water
supplies…, leading to the death of species that
aren’t salt tolerant, making the water undrinkable
and poisonious (poisonous)
x when: Before European settlement, As the
groundwater level rises, When groundwater
comes to (too) close to the surface, Once a
bloom occurs
x where: in the landscape, mostly in salt lakes, In
urban areas such as Canberra, beyond the root
zone, in the soil, to (too) close to the surface, in
bays
x how: through sewerage, agriculture (farming) run
off and industrial outflow; through land clearing,
farming and human settlement as well as a
combination of drought, high summer
temperatures and reduced water in rivers;
x with whom / what: with nutrients – phosphorous
and nitrogen
x what role: as ground water
x play their part
x salinisation, primary salinity, secondary salinity,
plant root zone, groundwater, fresh water,
irrigated land, blue-green algae, cyanobacteria,
stormwater, toxins, agriculture, urban, nutrients,
ecosystems
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ESL Scope and Scales Moderated Evidence: Middle Years Band
Evidence for Scaling
ANTON: WRITTEN CAUSAL EXPLANATION
Language
Tenor:
Language for
Key features and examples
speech functions:
x statements, questions, offers, commands
interacting
with others
subjectivity / objectivity:
x subjective: In my opinion
x objective: The response of the army
modality:
x certainty: possibly, it suggests, tend to, might be
able to, I am sure, will
x obligation: necessarily, must, demand, they
forced
x frequency: tendency, typical, always
x inclination: like, willing, preference
interpersonal meaning:
x feelings, attitudes: It’s beautiful, very, rude, just,
only, luckily, unfortunately, important, amazing
x idioms, colloquialisms, humour
x culturally specific references: dressed in black
x names to refer to people
appropriateness of tenor
Examples of evidence demonstrated by student
Scale
x series of statements constructed in simple,
compound and complex statements, with a high
degree of accuracy and effectiveness
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x objective: One of the most serious problems
with the Murray is salinity
x certainty: seems likely … will result in.., can
effect (affect), can cause, could rise
x frequency: most common
x feelings, attitudes: most serious problems, the
death of species, devastating, extremely
serious, extremely valuable, useless, corruption,
great conditions, foul and disgusting colour,
damages, significant yield loss
x idioms, colloquialisms, humour: play their part
x appropriately formal and written objectively with
strong attitudes expressed largely through the
noun group, verb groups which carry causal
relations also carry attitude
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ESL Scope and Scales Moderated Evidence: Middle Years Band
Evidence for Scaling
ANTON: WRITTEN CAUSAL EXPLANATION
Language
Mode:
Language for
creating
spoken and
Key features and examples
tenses:
x primary: past, present, future
x secondary: other tenses eg was sleeping,
wanted to go, haven’t played, was going to have
to play
written texts
passive voice:
x active: The heavy rainfall led to some minor
flooding.
x passive: Minor flooding was caused by the
heavy rain.
foregrounding:
x abstract elements: The destruction of the habitat
x conjunctions including those in second place:
Success, on the other hand, …
x phrases and dependent clauses of cause
x phrases and dependent clauses of time, place,
manner including consecutive phrases of time,
place: In Canberra in 1975
x non-finite clauses
x non-human elements: The lathe, Koalas
x human elements: specific We, general People
x action verbs: Draw
x existential subject to introduce new information
x interpersonal elements: In my opinion, Clearly
appropriateness of foregrounding
coherence:
x introduction, topic sentences and conclusion,
and the links between them
print conventions:
x handwriting: letter formation, spacing, direction
x spelling: link to pronunciation and visual
patterns, spelling common and uncommon
words, using prefixes and suffixes
x punctuation: capitals, fullstops, question marks,
commas, speech marks, apostrophes,
semicolons, dashes, links to intonation
nd
x abbreviations: cm, 2 , eg
Examples of evidence demonstrated by student
Scale
x primary
past: was,
present: is, runs off, absorbs, builds up,
rises, comes, enters, are, include, renders,
effects, damages, is continuing, occurs,
produce, gives of (off), establishes
future: will increase, will result in
x secondary
accurate: have accumulated, could rise to,
play their part in creating, can vary, can
effect, can cause
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x passive: This is referred to, crops used in
traditional.., salts that have accumulated..are
released, valuable land is already affected,
urban areas are also effected (affected), Not a
great deal is known, the reasons known, If
followed by
x abstract: One of the most serious problems with
the Murray, The most common cause, The
effects of salinity, Effects on the river, The
effects on the farmers, Not a great deal, The
pollution of waterways with nutrients –
phosphorous and nitrogen – through sewerage,
agriculture (farming) run off and industrial
outflow; The corruption of lake and river
ecosystems through land clearing farming and
human settlement as well as a combination of
drought, high summer temperatures and
reduced water in rivers; Little, This (= foul rice
crops if they occur…)
x conjunctions: Finally, Alas
x cause: If followed by a warm dry period
x time, place, manner: Before European
settlement, As the groundwater level rises,
When groundwater comes to (too) close to the
surface, In urban areas such as Canberra,
Once a bloom occurs,
x non-human: Annual crops, This unused water,
An estimated 2.5 million hectares across
Australia of valuable land, Blue-green algae , It
( = Blue green algae)
x human: Farmers
x appropriate level of foregrounding for an
explanation of this complexity with a range of
foregrounded elements including a combination
of elements (nominalisations and
circumstances), circumstances are not
foregrounded where nominalisations carry
causal relation, foregrounded elements
effectively build links between sentences and
allow for accurate use of passive voice
x each of the texts rely on the subheadings to
build text coherence as there is no introduction
linking the two sections together, within each
section there is also no opening statement to
preview the organisation of the information to
follow
x handwriting: legible
x spelling: accurate except for: to (too), of (off)
effect (affect), poisonious (poisonous),
combonation (combination)
x punctuation: correct except for the occasional
misplaced capital, missed some commas linked
to intonation
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