DECS Languages & Multicultural Education Portfolio Group

Professional Development and Resource Materials for ESL

Nominalisation
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class applauded
wildly.

Text 2
The choirs beautiful singing drew wild applause
from the class.

Nominalisation
adjective adverb verb noun
pretty beauty
quietly silence
evaporate evaporation
Nominalisation
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class
applauded wildly.

Text 2
The choirs beautiful singing drew wild applause
from the class.

Nominalisation : Noun groups
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class
applauded wildly.

Text 2
The choirs beautiful singing drew wild applause
from the class.

Nominalisation : verbs and clauses
Text 1
The choir sang beautifully so the class
applauded wildly.

Text 2
The choirs beautiful singing drew wild applause
from the class.

The council decided to allow the building to
be demolished even though the heritage
committee was just about to debate
whether it should be heritage listed or not.
The Aurora Heritage Group has said that
this has got to be the most appalling thing
the council has ever done.
Nominalised version
The councils decision to allow the
demolition of the building prior to debate
on its heritage listing has drawn a
scathing rebuke from the Aurora Heritage
Group.
Field: Language
Scale 4
numbers: eight, four or five, ten percent
describers: pretty, very pretty, good-looking
classifiers: gas, electric, oil heater
prepositions: on the box, under the box, in the box

Scales: noun groups
Scale 6
numbers: a quarter of
describers: big, beautiful
classifiers: state, federal government
short prepositional phrases as qualifiers:
The man in the shop was
Scale 10
describers: the biggest, most colourful centre
classifiers: the biggest, most colourful shopping centre
more complex qualifiers: It is the biggest, most colourful
shopping centre located in the city
Scales: noun groups
Scale 12
describers: the most important and exciting discoveries
classifiers: the most important and exciting medical
discoveries
qualifiers: One of the most important and exciting medical
discoveries in recent times is
Field: Language
Field: Language
Scale 6
understands a range of nominalisations and uses a
limited range
understands: movement, your turn, a good chance
uses: Whats your height?, a lot of happiness,
education
Nominalisations
Scale 8
understands a range of nominalisations and uses small
range
understands: possibility, allowance
uses with varying degrees of accuracy: permission,
ability
Field: Language


Scale 12
Uses a range of increasingly abstract and technical
nominalisations with increasing confidence: growth, risk,
capability

Nominalisations
Scale 10
Uses a small range of technical nominalisations with
varying degrees of grammatical accuracy: evaporation,
expansion