Utilizing Knowledge of the Different Text Types

READING COMPREHENSION: Find out if you have developed this skill after reading the text that follows. Do you know of a person who has been raised under different cultures? Which culture has he/she more dominantly shown?

Two in One
Throughout high school I chose to ignore my Filipino side. The most important thing for me was to fit in – wear the latest clothes, listen to the coolest music, speak the slang spoken between friends. If anyone asked me my ethnic background, I emphasized that I was half-white, leaving out that I was half-Filipino. If prodded any further, I said that my mother was born in the Philippines, but that was she was definitely mixed with Spanish blood. Somehow I had come to the conclusion that to be American meant I should exclude my Filipino heritage. To include it also might mean I wouldn’t fit in with my teenager – I had never been to the Philippines, I spoke only English, and I practiced no Filipino customs. Since I came to college I have been exploring the Filipino culture more as part of my family history than as my own culture. This is a step toward true recognition of my Filipino identity. Though I have been raised in America and have lived the “American” culture, this doesn’t mean I should deny that I am also a Filipino. My Filipino heritage has a claim on me that has been waiting to be explored further – waiting to include me – and I in it. Growing up as mixed Asian and American has made me aware that it isn’t necessary for me to be 100% American. Now, as I begin to study Filipino history and culture through research and from my mother, I integrate this new knowledge with my American culture. This process of integration bridges the two identities that make who I am. Now I no longer say I am all American or all Filipino, instead I can proudly say that I am both.

Source: Philippine Free Press

Comprehension Check

1. What is the text all about?

2. What did the writer finally realize about the integration of different cultures in him?

3. Which culture, do you think, was predominant in him? Why do you think so?

4. What type of text is it? Why do you think so?

5. Who could have written it? Why do you think so?

Arriving at the Appropriate Meanings

ACTIVITY: Decide the meaning of value and device that is most appropriate to each of the sentences that follow.

1.) What’s the value of x in the equation?
2.) Their shield bears the device of a menacing tiger.
3.) Strengthening our positive Filipino values may be one of our instruments towards a strong and progressive nation.
4.) An explosive device exploded recently near a mall in Makati.
5.) Can you distinguish the value of re in the piece?
6.) His brother has a hobby of collecting works of strange device.
7.) What’s the total value of their properties?
8.) A T-square is a measuring device commonly used by engineers and architects.
9.) Can you add value to blue?
10.) Many good writers use rhetorical devices in their work.

ANSWERS

ACTIVITIES

Arriving at the Appropriate Meanings

Click HERE to for the quiz to know more about the proper usage of words

Deriving Words

Click HERE and enjoy while learning more about suffixes!

Utilizing Knowledge of the Different Text Types

Click HERE to find out how skilled you are in comprehending texts!

ANSWERS [Arriving..]

1. B.
2. F.
3. E.
4. G.
5. C.
6. J.
7. B
8. I.
9. D.
10. H.

Arriving at the Appropriate Meaning of Words

Many words in the English language have multiple meanings. Often, the meaning of a word depends on how it is used in a sentence. For example the words value and device, may have several meanings.

Value
a. worth
b. numerical quantity
c. relative duration of a musical note
d. lightness or darkness of a color
e. something intrinsically desirable

Device
f. a thing made or adapted for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical o electronic contrivance
g. an explosive contrivance; a bomb
h. a turn of phrase intended to produce a particular effect in a literary work
i. a plan, scheme, or trick with a particular aim
j. an emblematic or heraldic design

ACTIVITY


SOURCE: Bermudez, V., Cruz, J., Gorgon, E., Nery, R., San Juan, M. English Expressways IV textbook

Deriving Words

Look at the following words given and read.

A. Commonly, nearly
B. Spaniard, drunkard
C. parental
D. authority

Notice that common and near are adjectives. What happened to their function when ly was added? Notice, too, that Spain is a noun and drunk is the past participle of the verb drink. What happened to their function or use, when the suffix –ard­ was added? Similarly, parent is a noun. What became of it when the suffix –al was added? How about the author? What part of speech is it? Did it change function when the suffix –ity was added?

In English, suffixes, like prefixes, are very common. The following chart shows suffixes, their meanings and the parts of speech they form.

[click to view larger]

ACTIVITY

SOURCE: Bermudez, V., Cruz, J., Gorgon, E., Nery, R., San Juan, M. English Expressways IV textbook

Getting Meanings through Word Analysis: Suffixes

You sometimes come across words which have been derived from their roots by adding certain structures like prefixes and suffixes.

In your earlier years of schooling, you must have been done with exercises and development activites on the use of prefixes. In this lesson, you will deal with deriving words through the use of suffixes. A suffix added to the end of a root word. We have, for example, a verb that becomes a noun by adding a suffix. This is called a noun derivative. A noun that becomes an adjective by adding a suffix is called an adjective derivative. These are but few ways by which we can identify how words are derived.

Utilizing Knowledge of the Different Text Types

As you have learned earlier, there are different types of texts that you will come across. Some of them are technical, some journalistic in style and some literary. Some examples of technical reports are scientific reports, studies, researches, and business reports. Journalistic texts include straight news or feature articles, while literary texts include the different literary genre most commonly found in literature books like poems, essays, stories, plays, novels, among others.
As students, your ability to recognize and use your knowledge of the differences among these text types will help in processing the information that you read.

ACTIVITY

SOURCE: Bermudez, V., Cruz, J., Gorgon, E., Nery, R., San Juan, M. English Expressways IV textbook