Resumen

TRIAS, Marta. The complex noun group and its implications for the reading of scientific texts. Núcleo [online]. 2007, vol.19, n.24, pp.113-135. ISSN 0798-9784.

Complex noun groups provide an important source of information for the interpretation of scientific academic texts, and also about the identity of the discourse community. The high number of complex noun phrases in academic scientific texts is considered the most outstanding characteristic of this type of text (Halliday and Martin, 1993). A comparison of the way in which complex noun groups are formed in English and Spanish shows that there are a number of relevant differences that may interfere with the comprehension of academic scientific texts by Spanish speaking readers. With this difficulty in mind, two groups of Spanish speaking university students were chosen to conduct a study with the aim of observing whether an appropriate instruction in the interpretation of complex English noun groups could be related to an improvement in reading comprehension of scientific academic texts. The results of the study show a small, yet significant improvement in comprehension by the group of students who received special training.

Palabras clave : noun group; scientific text; reading.

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