Week 10 and 11

Language and knowledge
Some specific types of jargon that we studied in class were:

Scientific Language: It refers to all the words used in medicine,investigation, health care and science in general. It includes Technical words not commonly understandable by everyone.

Legal Language: It is the language used by lawyers and people related to legal processes. It must be precise and detailed, avoiding ambiguities and most of the time, when ambiguity is present, change what was meant to be said to accommodate the language in your favor.
Sports Language: It is composed by different words used in sports, commonly used to explain the training, plays, positions, etc.

This is a video in which you can learn how scientific language is used. Jargon and Slang make it more difficult to understand:
http://youtu.be/r0ov89KPtDQ

To practice this jargon, we had oral presentations. In my case, I was a waterpolo player alongside with Mr Macchiavello and Mr Reynolds interviewed us after loosing the national finals.

Language in cultural context

When analyzing a text you should take into consideration:

Theme:  An idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature.

Topic

Main Idea

Author's purpose: Ex: Inform, persuade, entertain.

Genre: Fiction, Non Fiction

Source

Target Audience

Register

Vocabulary

Tone

To practise this we had reading comprehension activities in which we had to find the different aspects mentioned before and give an example from the text that supports our point of view.