LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET IN ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL

PURPOSES
Worksheet No. 1, Semester ____
Learner’s Name: ________________________________
Grade Level/Section: ____________________________
Date: _________________________________________

I. LEARNING SKILLS

Differentiate language used in academic texts from various discipline.

II. INTRODUCTORY CONCEPT

What is an Academic Text?

Academic text is typically used for textbooks, tests, in classrooms, and any other
discipline related to the field of academics. It is very different from the structure of vocabulary
and structure from everyday conversations through social interactions. Academic text is a
formal way to present words and terms typical for the field.

✓ Include concepts and theories related to the specific discipline

✓ Have clearly structured introduction, body, and conclusion.
✓ Include information from credible sources that are properly cited.
✓ Include concepts and theories that are related to the specific discipline they explore.
✓ Usually exhibit all properties of a well-written text --- organization, unity, coherence,
and strict adherence to the rules of language and mechanics.

The specific ideas in various academic texts are dependent on the field of academic text
one is reading in. For example, Humanities texts discuss more about the various human
expressions, such as art and languages, while the sciences contain the scientific method that
discusses the objective result of an experiment or the specific research methodology. The
specific ideas in various academic text can be understood after skimming and closely reading
the text.

What is Linguistic Register?

✔ The concept of the linguistic register has been described by Trudgill
(1983:101) as follows:
● Linguistic varieties that are linked to occupations, professions, or topics have been
termed registers. The register of law, for example, is different from the register of
medicine, which in turn is different from the language of engineering---and so on.
Registers are usually characterized solely by vocabulary differences.
● Registers are simply a rather special case of a kind of language being produced by the
social situation.
✔ According to Harold Schiffman (1997) it is a set of specialized vocabulary and preferred
(or dispreferred) syntactic and rhetorical devices/structures, used by specific socioprofessional
groups for special purposes. A register is a property or characteristic of a language, and not of
an individual or a class of speakers.

Stylistic Variation: Degrees of Formality in Language Usage

1. Registers are marked by a variety of specialized vocabulary and turns of phrases,
colloquialisms, and the use of jargon.
2. A register can be considered a unique way a speaker uses language in different
circumstances.
3. Registers encompass all the ways in which humans communicate to one Another
in specific parameters.

Some of the Language Registers are as follows:

 • Language of medicine/medical science (medical terminologies)
✓ Is used to describe components and processes of the human body,
Medical procedures, diseases, disorders, and pharmacology. Simply put,
it is the vocabulary that medical professionals use to describe the body,
what it does, and the treatments they prescribe.
• Law (legal language)
✓ A language used by the persons connected to the legal
profession. The language used by the lawyer, jurist, and the legislative
drafts man in their professional capacities. Law being a technical subject
speaks through its own register.
• Journalism (journalistic language)
✓ This type of language helps understand how journalists create
their stories or reports, shape points of view, deliver expected news and
how media language is different from other languages we encounter.
• Literature (Literary Language)
✓ Register of a language that is used in literary writing.

Let’s us Remember

There are certain registers of language (types of language use) peculiar to

specific professions such as medical science, engineering, and business. These types
of language use may be unintelligible to people not belonging to the same profession.
Such language use is also referred to as jargon.

III. ACTIVITIES

a. PRACTICE TASKS

Instructions: The following text in these series of activities illustrates the use of the
English language in different disciplines. Read carefully and evaluate its content
answering the questions that follow. Write the answers on a separate sheet of paper.

TASK 1

Reading Text
From the Autopsy Surgeon’s Report
Death occurred from the effects of asphyxia, cerebral anemia, and shock. The victim’s
hair was used for the constriction ligature. Local marks of the ligature were readily discernible:
there were some abrasion and a slight ecchymosis in the skin. But I found no obvious lesion in
the blood vessels of the neck.
Cyanosis of the head was very slight and there were no pronounced hemorrhages in
the galea of the scalp. I should judge that very great compression was effected almost
immediately, with compression of the arteries as well as of the vein, and that the superior
laryngeal nerve was traumatized in the effect of throwing the victim into profound shock…

The lungs revealed cyanosis, congestion, over aeration, and sub pleural petechial
hemorrhages.

Questions
1. Did you encounter difficulties in understanding the text? Why?
2. List down words that you found difficult to understand and look for its definition in
the dictionary.
3. How was the report structured?
4. What did you learn from each sentence in the report? Begin with a simple
grid like the one below.
 Sentence Number Topic

1 Cause of death
2 Manner
3 Evidence
4 Evidence
5 Evidence
6 Manner
7 Evidence

5. State briefly the content of the autopsy surgeon’s report.

TASK 2
Reading Text

State of ----

--- Country

TWENTY-FIRST JUDICIAL

DISTRICT COURT

THE GRAND JURORS of the State of --- duly impanelled and sworn, in and for --- County in
the name and by the authority of the said State upon their oath, find and present:

That one John Doe late of --- County, on the 223rd day of January in the year of our Lord One
Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-Four, with force and arms, in -- - County, aforesaid and
within jurisdiction of the Twenty First Judicial District Court of ---, for the --- County, did
unlawfully, feloniously, with malice aforethought kill and slay one Porphyria Blank by
strangulation.

Contrary to the form and the Statutes of the State of ---, in such cases made and provided and
against the peace and dignity of the same.

…………………………………………………..

District Attorney for the 21st

Judicial District of ---

Questions
1. Did you encounter difficulties in understanding the text? Why?
2. List down words that you found difficult to understand and look for its definition in
the dictionary.
3. Discuss the text focusing on the type of language that is used in the selection.
Is this language commonly used in ordinary communication?
4. In plain language that can be understood by an ordinary reader, share the
findings of the Great Jurors.
5. What does the last paragraph of the District Attorney’s statement means?

TASK 3

Reading Text
Local Girl Found Slain by Rejected Lover
(Newspaper Account)

Ms. Porphyria Blank, 21, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Blank, of Barton Park, was
found strangled this morning in the cottage owned by John Doe, 25, who was apprehended on
the scene of the crime by officers Bailey and Hodge. Doe was found holding the body in his
arms, and appeared to be in stupor, his only reply to repeated questioning being, “I killed her
because I loved her.”
 According to the members of the Blank family, Doe had paid attention to Miss Blank for
the last several months, though it was strenuously denied that his regards for Miss Blank was
returned. Miss Blank’s engagement with Mr. Roger Weston was announced last month. Mr.
Weston could not be reached for a statement. Mrs. Blank was prostrated by the news of her
daughter’s death.
The slain girl vanished last evening at approximately eleven o’clock from a dinner party
given at her parent’s home in honor of the approaching wedding. The family became alarmed
when it was discovered that she was not in her room and instituted a search for her about
midnight. The police, who were promptly notified, in the course of their search knocked at Mr.
Doe’s cottage, a building some quarter of a mile from the Blank estate, at five in the morning.
Receiving no answer, they forced the door and discovered Doe sitting with the dead girl in his
lap. She had apparently been strangled, Dr. A. P. Reynolds, Autopsy Surgeon for the county,
state that, from the condition of the body, death must have occurred at about midnight.

Questions
1. Get a copy of any broadsheet/newspaper and read an article from it.
In a short paragraph, compare this text with the article “The local girl found slain
by rejected lover.”
2. What kind of information did you get from the text? Did you notice any similarity/
difference between the two?
3. Pay attention to the words and sentences used in the news article. Are the words
and sentences difficult to understand? Why?
4. Who is narrating the event?
5. How was the event narrated?

b. ASSESSMENT
Instructions: Read carefully, analyze, and determine the register of language used
in the following text. Choose from the options inside the box. Write the answer on a
separate sheet of paper.

Language of Medicine Language of Law Language of literature

Language of Business Language of Journalism

1. (From the Philippine Constitution)

LANGUAGE
Section 6. The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be
further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.
Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, the Government
shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official
communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.
Section 7. For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the
Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English. The regional
languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary
media of instruction therein. Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and
optional basis.
Section 8. This Constitution shall be promulgated in Filipino and English and shall be
translated into major regional languages, Arabic, and Spanish.
2.

SARS virus
SARS virus is an infectious agent belonging to the virus family Coronaviridae,
which causes severe respiratory illnesses in humans and animals. SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome) coronavirus (CoV) is a novel member of this family that causes
acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is associated with high mortality
rates.
 Simplified curriculum, guidelines for distance learning now available online - DepEd
3.
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday said it has made the adjusted version
of K to 12 curriculum and guidelines for distance learning available online.

In a statement, the DepEd said the K to 12 Most Essential Learning Competencies

(MELCs) and its guidelines can now be downloaded for free on DepEd Commons.

“We have made the MELCs available for free download at DepEd Commons to help our
teachers focus on what is most essential given the challenge in learning delivery this
school year,” DepEd Undersecretary Alain Pascua said.

“We are trying to make everything as accessible as we can, through DepEd Commons
and our other available channels. It is upon us to make sure our teachers and learners
have everything they need in order to continue learning.”
These were prepared by the Bureau of Curriculum Development (BCD) under Director
Jocelyn Andaya and approved by Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado
San Antonio.

Our Mother Tongue

(A poem originally in Tagalog written by Rizal when he was only eight years old)
4.
IF truly a people dearly love
The tongue to them by Heaven sent,
They'll surely yearn for liberty
Like a bird above in the firmament.
BECAUSE by its language one can judge
A town, a barrio, and kingdom;
And like any other created thing
Every human being loves his freedom.
ONE who doesn't love his native tongue,
Is worse than putrid fish and beast;
AND like a truly precious thing
It therefore deserves to be cherished.
THE Tagalog language's akin to Latin,
To English, Spanish, angelical tongue;
For God who knows how to look after us
This language He bestowed us upon.
AS others, our language is the same
With alphabet and letters of its own,
It was lost because a storm did destroy
On the lake the bangka 1 in years bygone.

5. The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Once upon a time, there lived a shepherd boy who was bored watching his flock of sheep on the hill.
To amuse himself, he shouted, “Wolf! Wolf! The sheep are being chased by the wolf!” The villagers
came running to help the boy and save the sheep. They found nothing and the boy just laughed
looking at their angry faces.
“Don’t cry ‘wolf’ when there’s no wolf boy!” they said angrily and left. The boy just
laughed at them.
After a while, he got bored and cried ‘wolf!’ again, fooling the villagers a second time. The angry
villagers warned the boy a second time and left. The boy continued watching the flock. After a while,
he saw a real wolf and cried loudly, “Wolf! Please help! The wolf is chasing the sheep. Help!” But this
time, no one turned up to help. By evening, when the boy didn’t return home, the villagers wondered
what happened to him and went up to the
hill. The boy sat on the hill weeping. “Why didn’t you come when I called out that there was a wolf?”
he asked angrily. “The flock is scattered now”, he said. An old villager approached him and said,
“People won’t believe liars even when they tell the truth. We’ll look for your sheep tomorrow morning.
Let’s go home now”.
IV. RUBRIC FOR SCORING

Scoring guide for a short-paragraph discussion / comparison and contrast

V. References

Department of Education, Region V Bicol. (2020) English for Academic and Professional
Purposes: Quarter 1-Module 1 (Differentiate language used in academic texts from various
discipline).

(n.d.). Erie's Public Schools / Erie's Public Schools | Erie Pennsylvania.

Retrieved February 27,2021,from https://www.eriesd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?
moduleinstanceid=14837&dataid=13730&FileName=5Comparison%20Contrast%20Rubric.
pdf
IRubric: Answering short answer questions rubric - U66W43: RCampus. (n.d.). A
Collaborative Learning Community.:
RCampus. https://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?sp=yes&code=U66W43&

Prepared by:

IMEE S. GABION
SHS -Teacher III
Quality Assured by:

GINA B. PANTINO, Ed.D. and CLEOFE D. ARIOLA

Education Program Supervisors- English