Abstract
When advanced learners write in English, it is important to have a good knowledge of formal English. However, in my own teaching experience, it seems that even advanced learners are limited to the use of over-colloquial words. Although advanced learners have a fairly large vocabulary for decoding, due to the difficulty of encoding, writing English is more difficult than reading English.
In consideration of this difficulty, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the usefulness of the intensifying adverb “extremely” and suggest its use as a gateway to advanced English encoding.
First, the descriptions in the pedagogical dictionaries based on corpus data are examined in regard to synonyms for “extremely.” Second, the collocations of the other intensifying adverbs in the dictionaries are compared with the collocation of “extremely” itself through actual corpus data. Finally, referring to a t-score analysis, the frequent collocates of “extremely” are presented.
As a result, “extremely” is interchangeable with many of the other intensifying adverbs. Therefore, as a step towards advanced English encoding, the use of the intensifying adverb “extremely” should be suggested in academic settings.
