K. EXPLANATION

K. EXPLANATION

Purpose:

• To explain the processes involved in the formation or working of natural or socio-cultural phenomena.

• To give reasons why things are they are

           Examples: texts in science or social studies

Generic Structure:
1. General statement
2. Explanation
3. Closing

Language Features:

• Focus on generic, non-human participants (e.g. clouds, rains, the air, moisture, gas, petrol, oil, urbanization, flood, tornado)

• Use of simple present tense, passive voice is used sometimes to get theme right.

• Use mainly of Material and Relational Process

• Use of temporal circumstances and conjunctions (e.g. before, first, then, in the end, finally)

• Use of causal conjunctions (e.g. if, when, until, so, as, why)

SAMPLE OF EXPLANATION TEXT:

1. A brief Summary of Speech Production

A brief Summary of Speech Production

General Statement to Position the Reader

Speech production is made possible by the specialised movements of our vocal organs that generate speech sounds waves.

Explanation

Like all sound production, speech production reguires a source of energy. The source of energy for speech production is the steady stream of air that comes from the lungs as we exhale. When we breathe normally, the air stream is inaudible. To become audible, the air stream must vibrate rapidly. The vocal cords cause the

air stream to vibrate.

Explanation

As we talk, the vocal cords open and close rapidly, chopping up the steady air stream into a series of puffs. These puffs are heard as a buzz. But this buzz is still not speech.

Closing

To produce speech sounds, the vocal tract must change shape. During speech we continually alter the shape of the vocal track by moving the tongue and lips,etc. These movements change the acoustic properties of the vocal tract, which in turn produce the different sounds of speech.