7 CLINICAL SETTING: ACUTE CARE ≤Exercise F
The purpose of this exercise is to look at how information tends to be structured in sentences. It also requires very close attention to the listening text.
Before listening, allow students time to read through the sentences. In pairs, set them to discuss which sentences (a or b) they think will follow the numbered sentences. Play Part 4 all the way through. Students should choose sentence a or b. Put them in pairs to check and discuss why a or b was the sentence they heard.
Feed back with the whole class. Deal with sentence 2 first. Tell students that both the sentences are correct, but sentence a ‘sounds better’ when it comes after the first sentence. This is because of the way sentences go together and the way in which information is organized in a sentence. Draw the table below on the board. Show how the underlined words in the second sentence have been mentioned in the first sentence. In the second sentence the underlined words are ‘old’ or ‘given’ information. When sentences follow each other in a conversation (or a piece of writing), the ‘given’ information usually comes in the first part of the sentence.
Now look at sentences 1 and 3. These are different. The normal choice would be the a sentences. However, here the speaker wanted to emphasize the idea of ‘important’ and ‘different’. So a Wh~ cleft sentence structure was used, which changes the usual order of information. Show this on the table as below. This ‘fronting’ of information has the effect of special focus for emphasis.
Further examples of different ways to ‘front’ First sentence Given information
1 Promotions and prevention is our first stage.
2 Stage four of our generic cycle is the management stage.
3 Lastly, there is rehabilitation.
special focus
b What’s important about this stage ...
normal order special focus
a In the promotions and prevention stage, ...
b What’s different about the promotions and prevention stage ...
In this stage of the cycle, ... normal order a In this stage,
information and more practice will be given in Lesson 7.3.
Language note
In English, important information can be placed at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. There are two types of important information. The first part of the sentence contains the topic and the second part contains some kind of information or comment about the topic. Usually the comment is the more syntactically complicated part of the sentence.
Once a piece of text or a piece of conversation (i.e., a piece of discourse) has gone beyond the first sentence, a ‘given’/‘new’ principle operates. Information which is ‘given’, in other words that has already been mentioned, goes at the beginning of the sentence. Normally speaking, information which is new goes at the end of the sentence. So in the second sentence of a piece of discourse, an aspect of the comment from the previous sentence may become the topic. Thus the topic of the second sentence, if it has already been mentioned in the previous sentence is also ‘given’. Of course, the given information may not be referred to with exactly the same words in the second sentence. Other ways to refer to the given information include reference words (it, he, she, this, that, these, those, etc.) or vocabulary items with similar meaning. Information structure is covered in the Skills bank in the Course Book unit.
Second sentence New information
... the difference is that it can be carried out on two levels simultaneously.
... is that it can be carried out on two levels simultaneously.
... stabilizing the patient and continuing with the prescribed treatment is of utmost importance.
... the important feature is that by the end of it the patient is able to function in his or her normal environment again.
... is that by the end of it, the patient is once again able to function in his or her normal environment.
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