EXPLANATION TEXT

Social Function: To explain the processes involved in the formation or working of natural or sociocultural phenomena.
Generic Structure
• A general statement to position the reader
• A sequenced explanation of why or how something occurs.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features
• Focus on generic, non-human Participants
• Use mainly of Material Processes and Relational Processes
• Use mainly of Temporal and causal Circumstances and Conjunctions
Definition and purposes of Explanation
Explanation is a text which tells processes relating to forming of natural, social, scientific and cultural phenomena. Explanation text is to say 'why' and 'how' about the forming of the phenomena. It is often found in science, geography and history text books.

Generic structure of Explanation
General statement; stating the phenomenon issues which are to be explained.
Sequenced explanation; stating a series of steps which explain the phenomena.

Language Feature of Explanation
1. Featuring generic participant; sun, rain, etc
2. Using chronological connection; to begin with, next, etc
3. Using passive voice pattern
4. Using simple present tense

Explanation text in some way is similar to procedure text. Explanation passage often make description about how something happens or why the thing occurs. While procedure text bring the instruction on how to make something happen completely. The following example of explanation text about how rain happen is best showing on what is explanation text, what is the purpose or social function of explanation text and how it differ from other text types. Explanation text often use technical terms related to the thing which is being explained. Explanation text is commonly compose in the mode of simple present tense.

Examples of explanation text
1. Tsunami
The term of “tsunami” comes from the Japanese which means harbour ("tsu") and wave ("nami"). A tsunami is a series of waves generated when water in a lake or a sea is rapidly displaced on a massive scale.

A tsunami can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Such large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries.

Subduction of earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunami, and occur where denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates.


As the displaced water mass moves under the influence of gravity to regain its equilibrium, it radiates across the ocean like ripples on a pond.

Tsunami always bring great damage. Most of the damage is caused by the huge mass of water behind the initial wave front, as the height of the sea keeps rising fast and floods powerfully into the coastal area.
(simplified from www.panda.org)

2. How Venus Eclipse Happens

On May 16, 2010, people in most regions in the world have seen a very rare natural phenomenon. It was Venus eclipse. It was very rare amazing natural event. It was reported that the Venus eclipse will seen again in the future in 2050. Do you know how this rare Venus eclipse happens?

Well, actually Venus eclipse is like Sun eclipse. Venus eclipses occurs when the position of the earth, moon and Venus is parallel. Venus planet will slowly disappear for a moment because it is covered the surface of the Moon. Venus planet seems to move to the back side of the Moon.

The moon and planets are sharing a similar apparent path in the sky. That is why, it is not unusual for the moon to appear to pass close to Venus. In fact, the moon appears somewhere near it about once a month. However, most people don’t see these events because they are visible in the evening sky only half the time, and then only for a short period after sunset. The apparent closeness varies from month to month as well.


3. How does Rain Happen?
Rain is the primary source of fresh water for most areas of the world, providing suitable conditions for diverse ecosystems, as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation.

The phenomenon of rain is actually a water circle. The concept of the water cycle involves the sun heating the Earth's surface water and causing the surface water to evaporate. The water vapor rises into the Earth's atmosphere. The water in the atmosphere cools and condenses into liquid droplets. The droplets grow until they are heavy and fall to the earth as precipitation which can be in the form of rain or snow.

However, not all rain reaches the surface. Some evaporates while falling through dry air. This is called virga, a phenomenon which is often seen in hot, dry desert regions.
Source:
http://mypages.iit.edu/~smart/abduima/lesson2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain

4. How Earthquakes Happen

Earthquake is one of the most destroying natural disasters. Unluckily it often happens in several regions. Recently a horrible earthquake has shaken West Sumatra. It has brought great damages. Why did it occur? Do you know how an earthquake happens?

Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves. It make the ground shake. When two blocks of rock or two plates are rubbing against each other, they stick a little. They don't just slide smoothly. The rocks are still pushing against each other, but not moving. After a while, the rocks break because of all the pressure that's built up. When the rocks break, the earthquake occurs.

During the earthquake and afterward, the plates or blocks of rock start moving, and they continue to move until they get stuck again. The spot underground where the rock breaks is called the focus of the earthquake. The place right above the focus is called the epicenter of the earthquake.
Mainly taken from: www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/why.html

5. Cancer

What is cancer? It is actually a group of more than one hundred separate diseases. Most of us are fear from cancer It is reasonable because next to heart disease, cancer is the second leading cause of death.

Cancer cells come from normal cells because of mutations of DNA. Those mutations can occur spontaneously. The mutations may be also induced by other factors such as: nuclear and electromagnetic radiation, viruses, bacteria and fungi, parasites, heat, chemicals in the air, water and food, mechanical cell-level injury, free radicals, evolution and ageing of DNA, etc. All such factors can produce mutations that may start cancer.

Cancer cells are formed continuously in the organism. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 cancer cells at any given time in a healthy person. Why do some result in macroscopic-level cancers and some do not? First, not all damaged cells can multiply and many of them die quickly. Second, those which potentially divide and form cancer are effectively destroyed by the mechanisms available to the immune system. Therefore cancer develops if the immune system is not working properly or the amount of cells produced is too great for the immune system to eliminate.
(Simplified from:www.digital-recordings.com/publ/cancer.html)


6. How to get chocolate

Have we wondered how we get chocolate from? Well this time we will enter the amazing world of chocolate so we can understand exactly we are eating.
Chocolate starts a tree called cacao tree. This tree grows in equatorial regions, especially in place such as South America, Africa, and Indonesia. The cacao tree produces a fruit about the size of a small pine apple. In side the fruits are the tree's seeds. They are also known as coco beans.
Next, the beans are fermented for about a week, dried in the sun. After that they are shipped to the chocolate maker. The chocolate maker starts by roasting the beans to bring out the flavour. Different beans from different places have different qualities and flavour. So they are often shorted and blended to produce a distinctive mix.
The next process is winnowing. The roasted beans are winnowed to remove the meat nib of the cacao bean from its shell. Then the nibs are blended. The blended nibs are ground to make it a liquid. The liquid is called chocolate liquor. It tastes bitter.
All seeds contain some amount of fat and cacao beans are not different. However, cacao beans are half fat, which is why the ground nibs from liquid. It is pure bitter chocolate.

7. The Venus’s fly trap

The United States of America is where the Venus’s fly trap has its origins. The Venus’s fly trap is a unique plant. It belongs to a group of plants called ‘carnivorous plants’. These plants feed on insect. The Venus’s fly trap has a special mechanism by which it traps its prey. This is how it works.
At the end of each leaf – which grows from the base of a long, flowering stalk – there is a trap. The trap is made up of two lobes and is covered with short, reddish hairs which are sensitive. There are teeth like structures around the edge of the lobes.
The trap contains nectar which attracts insect. When an insect comes in contact with the nectar, the trap snaps shut. There are certain digestive juice inside the trap which digest the insect. It takes about ten days for a trapped insect to be digested. We can tell when this digestion is complete, for then the walls automatically open to wait for another victim.
There are two hundred species of carnivorous plants. Another kind of these well- known species is the pitcher plant. What differentiates this plant from the Venus’s fly trap is the shape; the mechanism to catch insects is the same in both plants.
The pitcher plants which cling to other plants by means of tendrils. At one end of the tendril, there is a pitcher –shaped vessel with an open lid. The mouth and the lid of the pitcher contain glands which produce nectar to attract insect. When an insect settles on the nectar, the lid of the pitcher shuts, trapping its victim. The digestive juices inside the pitcher then begin to work

8. The effects of acid soil

Soils with a pH of less than 7.0 are acid. The lower the pH, the more acid the soil. When soil pH falls below 5.5, plant growth is affected. Crop yields decrease, reducing productivity
Soils provide water and nutrients for plant growth and development. Essential plant nutrients include phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium and sulfur. Plants require other elements such as molybdenum, in smaller quantities. Some elements e.g aluminum and manganese, are toxic to plants.
Nutrients become available to plants when they are dissolved in water. Plants are able to take up phosphate, nitrate, potassium and sulfate ions in solution.
The solubility of nitients changes with pH. In acid soils (low pH), molybdenum becomes less soluble and aluminium becomes more soluble. Therefore, plant growth may be affected by either a deficiency of molybdenum or too much aluminum.
Both crop and pasture plants are affected by acid soils. there may be a range of symptoms. Crops and pastures may be poorly established resulting in patchy and uneven growth. Plant leaves may go yellow and die at the tips. The root system of the plant may be stunted. Crops may yield less.
Plants vary in their sensitivity to low pH. Canola and lucerne are very sensitive to acid soils so do not grow well. Lupine and triticale are tolerant to soils of low pH so they still perform well.
Land can become unproductive if acid soil is left untreated. Incorporating lime into the soil raises the pH. Therefore, liming soil can reverse the effects of acid soil on plants and return a paddock to productivity.

English Grammar :Direct and Indirect Speech

We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech.
Direct Speech / Quoted Speech
Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)
Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.
For example:
She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."
or
"Today's lesson is on presentations," she said.
Indirect Speech / Reported Speech
Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.
When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.
For example:
Direct speech Indirect speech
"I'm going to the cinema", he said. He said he was going to the cinema.




TENSE CHANGE
As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right):

Direct speech Indirect speech
Present simple
She said, "It's cold." › Past simple
She said it was cold.
Present continuous
She said, "I'm teaching English online." › Past continuous
She said she was teaching English online.
Present perfect simple
She said, "I've been on the web since 1999." › Past perfect simple
She said she had been on the web since 1999.
Present perfect continuous
She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years." › Past perfect continuous
She said she had been teaching English for seven years.
Past simple
She said, "I taught online yesterday." › Past perfect
She said she had taught online yesterday.
Past continuous
She said, "I was teaching earlier." › Past perfect continuous
She said she had been teaching earlier.
Past perfect
She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived." › Past perfect
NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
Past perfect continuous
She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes." › Past perfect continuous
NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five minutes.







Modal verb forms also sometimes change:
Direct speech Indirect speech
will
She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow." › would
She said she would teach English online tomorrow.
can
She said, "I can teach English online." › could
She said she could teach English online.
must
She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online." › had to
She said she had to have a computer to teach English online.
shall
She said, "What shall we learn today?" › should
She asked what we should learn today.
may
She said, "May I open a new browser?" › might
She asked if she might open a new browser.
!Note - There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to.
Direct speech Indirect speech
"I might go to the cinema", he said. He said he might go to the cinema.
You can use the present tense in reported speech if you want to say that something is still true i.e. my name has always been and will always be Lynne so:-
Direct speech Indirect speech
"My name is Lynne", she said. She said her name was Lynne.
or
She said her name is Lynne.
You can also use the present tense if you are talking about a future event.
Direct speech (exact quote) Indirect speech (not exact)
"Next week's lesson is on reported speech ", she said. She said next week's lesson is on reported speech.


TIME CHANGE
If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting.
For example we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of reporting.
Today + 24 hours - Indirect speech
"Today's lesson is on presentations." She said yesterday's lesson was on presentations.
Expressions of time if reported on a different day
this (evening) › that (evening)
Today › yesterday ...
these (days) › those (days)
now › then
(a week) ago › (a week) before
last weekend › the weekend before last / the previous weekend
here › there
next (week) › the following (week)
tomorrow › the next/following day
In addition if you report something that someone said in a different place to where you heard it you must change the place (here) to the place (there).
For example:-
At work At home
"How long have you worked here?" She asked me how long I'd worked there.
Pronoun change
In reported speech, the pronoun often changes.
For example:
Me You
"I teach English online." She said she teaches English online.

Reporting Verbs
Said, told and asked are the most common verbs used in indirect speech.
We use asked to report questions:-
For example: I asked Lynne what time the lesson started.
We use told with an object.
For example: Lynne told me she felt tired.
!Note - Here me is the object.
We usually use said without an object.
For example: Lynne said she was going to teach online.
If said is used with an object we must include to ;
For example: Lynne said to me that she'd never been to China.
!Note - We usually use told.
For example: Lynne told me that she'd never been to China.
There are many other verbs we can use apart from said, told and asked.
These include:-
accused, admitted, advised, alleged, agreed, apologized, begged, boasted, complained, denied, explained, implied, invited, offered, ordered, promised, replied, suggested and thought.
Using them properly can make what you say much more interesting and informative.
For example:
He asked me to come to the party:-
He invited me to the party.
He begged me to come to the party.
He ordered me to come to the party.
He advised me to come to the party.
He suggested I should come to the party.

Use of 'That' in reported speech
In reported speech, the word that is often used.
For example: He told me that he lived in Greenwich.
However, that is optional.
For example: He told me he lived in Greenwich.
!Note - That is never used in questions, instead we often use if.
For example: He asked me if I would come to the party.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING HUMANISM

The study of humanism concerning to humanistic will appear different perception in meaning. The basic principles of humanistic, sometime, have a close relationship to western humanism concept. It is stated that humanism concept is a central focus and the only one aim (anthropocentric). Whereas, based on the real concept, especially in education, humanistic concept included in foreign language learning, will bring to the appreciate attitude for developing human potential without ignoring cultural and religion value.
Humanistic theory in foreign language learning is developed by Gertrude Moskowitz (1978) and Earl W. Stevick (1990). In this theory, learner is treated not only as a learning object, but also as a learning subject which has different basic need. It’s also seen from the teaching learning process involved affective aspects and self-potential development.
The indicators of humanistic approach in foreign language learning can be formulated as follows:
1. Students’ center
2. Communicative teaching learning
3. Good atmosphere
4. Understanding in students’ potential characteristic
5. Concerning to the students’ emotional, social and spiritual
6. Motivating language creativity
7. Language mistake tolerance
8. Stressing on learning process
Based on some researches and survey in some school, show that the chance to make foreign language learning process more humanitarian is often neglected. It’s caused of some cases which are: firstly, teachers were less creativity in using facility to create optimal learning tool. Secondly, teaching learning process used teacher center and uncreative teacher caused poor accommodate student’ learning style difference. Thirdly, religious value is considered unimportant part in foreign language learning. Fourthly, students gave less chance to do communicative activity both in class and outside. Fifthly, there weren’t conducive atmosphere to increase student’ motivation in practicing foreign language that they just had been learned.
The application of humanistic approach in foreign language learning in the school can be started from formulating lesson plan, teaching methodology until evaluating. In running teaching learning poses must be concerned to the curriculum which is KTSP. It is suitable to the humanistic approach characteristic. The aim of teaching learning process is not only to material goal, but also sides with student’s basic need. To get a good achievement, it also must be supported by the all education’ stakeholder.
In implementing humanistic approach, a foreign language teacher can create teaching learning process which concern to the student’ characteristic. Student can develop their maximal potential. Moreover, the implementing of humanistic approach can train student to have capability in learning autonomy, thinking critically and creatively, and at last can grow student’ self-confidence to achieve language target.