5.2.4. USE PREDICTING SKILLS DISCOURSE ANALYST, DOUGLAS BIBER, HAS D...

1.5.2.4. Use predicting skills Discourse analyst, Douglas Biber, has demonstrated that different communication types can be characterized by the clusters of linguistic features that are common to those types. Verb tense and aspect, sentence length and structure, and larger discourse patterns all may contribute to the distinctive profile of a given communication type. For example, a history textbook and an artic le in English both use past tense verbs almost exclusively. However, the article will use short sentences and a discourse pattern. The history textbook will use complex sentences and follow a timeline in its discourse structure. Awareness of these features allows students to anticipate the forms and structures they will encounter in a given communication task.