Paraphrasing assignment
Paraphrase the four extracts below.
• Keep the meaning of the paragraph, but rephrase it in your own words, changing the
structure of sentences and word groups (for example, form a noun phrase to a verb
phrase), if necessary or possible. Do not paraphrase technical or generic terms.
• Use in-text references (author-content or content-author emphasis).
• Use different introductory reference reminder phrases (e.g. according to) and
reporting verbs (point out, state, etc).
Here are some examples. (APA style is used here. In APA style, the page number is optional
for paraphrases):
According to Thornbury (2017), … . (author>content)
… (Thornbury, 2017, p. 5). (content>author)
… (Thornbury, 2017).
NB: In general, for citation style guidelines, follow the instructions given with a specific task,
since different formats can be used within one style and there are multiple style guidelines.
The extracts are from:
Thornbury, S. (2017). 30 Language Teaching Methods. Cambridge University Press
The extracts are about different foreign language teaching methods. In brackets, the name of
the method or approach is given.
Extract 1 (Whole Language Learning, p 73):
The whole language approach emphasizes the social and cultural dimension of education. It
also aims to promote the learner’s self-realization through learning, a feature that aligns it
with the humanistic tradition of education. In this sense ‘whole’ stands not only for ‘whole
language’, but also ‘whole person’: learning works best when the learner is engaged not only
intellectually but also emotionally and even physically.
Extract 2 (Text-based Instruction, p 47):
Functional approaches, however, have long recognized the fact that, when we look at
language from the point of view of the meanings it expresses, the sentence is no longer pre-
eminent. A communicative event, such as a shopping encounter, or a job interview, or an
exchange of SMS messages, is constructed of much more than a succession of independent
sentences. And some communications, such as a compliment (‘Nice shirt!’) or a road sign
(NO PARKING) consist of single phrases. From a functional point of view, language is
realized – not as sentences – but as text, whether spoken or written, and whether a single
word or a 600-page novel.
Extract 3 (Crazy English, p 98):
In Crazy English, drilling is done mainly for the purposes of confidence building and for
memorization, and in that sense it fits into a well-established Chinese tradition of recitation
and repetition. Videos of Li Yang show him drilling huge crowds in utterances like ‘Would
you like to speak English?’, a word at a time until the whole utterance is shouted in its
entirety. This is part of what he calls ‘tongue muscle training’.
Extract 4 (Suggestopedia, p 91):
The third stage is the one which most distinguishes Suggestopedia from other methods. It is
called the séance, and aims to facilitate unconscious memorization of the new material. There
are elaborate prescriptions as to how this must be done. Essentially, though, having relaxed
themselves doing breathing and other exercises, the learners listen to the text – and its
translation – recited aloud to them by the teacher, to the accompaniment of baroque music,
whose soothing hypnotic rhythms, along with that of the teacher’s carefully modulated voice,
supposedly ensure maximum retention.
