Nominalization: The process of changing verbs into nouns

Text 1
When people clear land for houses and road they change the environment. They
destroy the forest and bushland and then many animals lose their homes. More
houses and roads will pollute the environment even more. Some animals have
become extinct because their homes have been destroyed.
Text 2
Clearing and development of land often results in the destruction of the natural
habitat of many local species. It may also increase the level of pollution. Loss of
habitat has already led to the extinction of many species of animals.
What is different between text 1 and text 2?
• Text 1 – the words describe what people are doing and what is happening
• Text 2 – the verbs have become nouns and they now refer to things or
concepts
• Nominalization allows a writer to structure information so that he or she can
express abstract ideas
• Textbooks use nominalizations to package more information into sentences
and discuss subject-based abstract concepts
• As students move through the grades they are expected to use
nominalizations in their writing to demonstrate that they understand the
more abstract concepts in these subjects
• Nominalization allows the writer to focus on key abstract ideas rather than on
persons and events
• It is often necessary to learn a new technical word prior to being able to
create a nominalization, while making the new technical word
comprehensible

VERBS (Name what is NOUNS (Name things or

happening) concepts)
clear clearing
changes development
destroy destruction
lose (their homes) loss (of habitat)

Nominalizations and nominal groups are important language resources for students
to master because:
• They create abstract and technical terms

Pauline Gibbons, English Learners Academic Literacy and Thinking, Chapter 3, pp

50, 51
 • They “condense” information in text which makes it possible to be more
precise and concise
• They allow us to talk about a general concept or phenomenon rather than the
individual people and process around a particular event

Pauline Gibbons, English Learners Academic Literacy and Thinking, Chapter 3, pp

50, 51