Academic-Word-List

1AnIntroductiontotheAcademicWordListAverilCoxhead,MasseyUniversity,NewZealandWhatistheAcademicWordList?TheAcademicWordList(AWL)isalistof570wordfamiliesthatarecommonlyfoundinacademictexts.Thislistwasselectedbyexaminingalargecorpus(orcollection)ofwrittenacademictextsandselectingthewordsthatoccurred:1 Intextsfromallfouracademicfacultysections:Arts,Commerce,LawandScience.2 Over100timesinthecorpusoverall.3 Atleast10timesineachacademicfacultysection.4 Outsidethe2000mostfrequentwordsonMichaelWest’sGeneralServiceList(GSL).TheGSLincludeseverydaywordssuchasI,houseanddo.Theseprinciplesensuredthatonlywordsthatoccurredreasonablyfrequentlyinavarietyofstudyareaswereselected.TheAWLtargetsvocabularythatoccursmostofteninwrittenacademictexts.Thesewordsalsooccurinnewspapersbutnotasoftenastheydointextbooks.TheAWLwordsappearevenlessinfiction.Ifyourfocusislearningacademicvocabulary,youneedtomakesureyoureadacademictextbookssothatyouencounterthesewordsincontext.HowistheAWLorganized?TheAWLisorganizedintoWordFamilies.Wordfamiliesaremadeupofthe‘parentword’and‘familymembers’.Takeforexamplethewordmaximise.Itsfamilymembersincludeinflectionsoftheverbsuchasmaximised,maximisesandmaximisingaswellasthenounmaximum.ThewordfamilyalsoincludestheBritishspellingofthenounmaximisation,aswellasmaximization,theUSspelling.Ifyoulearntheverbmaximise,youwillbeabletorecogniseotherfamilymemberssuchasmaximisedwhenyouencountertheminyourreading.Thesewordsarecloselyrelatedandthemeaningislikelytobethesameorsimilar.Whenyouarelookingforwordsinthisdictionary,thinkaboutotherwordfamilymemberstoo.Finally,therearesomeacademicwordsthatdonothaveawordfamily.Thesewordsoccurontheirownanddonothaveanyinflections.Examplesincludenonetheless,so-calledandbehalf.WhyistheAWLimportant?TheAWLisintendedasareferenceforstudentswhoarestudyingorpreparingtostudyatatertiarylevelinEnglish.Asauniversitylecturer,Iwasawareofthedifficultiesthatstudentshadinmasteringthevocabularynecessaryforwrittenassignments.TheAWLdoesnotinclude‘content’vocabularyforparticularsubjectswhichstudentsobviouslyneedtolearnaswell.TheAWLfocusesinsteadonthenon-subject-specificvocabularythatstudentsofanydisciplinewillneedtomasterinordertoproducecoherently-structuredwrittenassignments.TheAWLcoversupto10%ofthevocabularycoveredinwrittenacademictexts.Thismeansthat,onaverage,onewordin10inanacademictextbookisintheAWL.Lookatthefollowingextractfromanacademictext:EUROPEANENVIRONMENTALPOLICYEnvironmentalissuesaretrulyglobal.Manyoftheproblems,likethereleasingofCFCsintotheatmosphere,haveglobaleffectsandrequireglobalaction.Someproblemslinktotheexploitationofglobalcommons–theresourcessharedbytheinternationalcommunitysuchasoceanbedsandtheatmosphere.Sometimessmalllocalproblems,suchaspoisonousgasesleakingfromlandfillsandwaterpollution,aremultipliedsomanytimesinanylocalcontextsthattheybecomemajorworldhazards.Theenvironmentisaglobalconcernrequiringglobalpolicies.AcademicWordListAcademicWordList2ThehighlightedwordsareallontheAWL.ThissampleillustratesclearlythattheAWLcanhelpwithdecisionsaboutwhichwordsareimportantforyoutolearnifyouarestudyinginanEnglish-speakingcountry.HowcantheAWLhelpmewithmyacademicstudies?KnowledgeofacademicvocabularyisvitalforstudentsstudyingatanEnglish-speakinguniversity,particularlyforreadingandwriting.IfyoucompareestimatesofhowmanywordsanativeEnglishspeakermightknowbytheageof18(approximately18,000to20,000words)andhowmanyalearnerwhohashadtwoorthreehoursofschoolinginEnglishoverseveralyears(roughly2000to3000wordsdependingonthelanguagebackgroundofthestudent),thisgapisenormous.Inordertoreadandwritesuccessfullyyouneedtobeabletorecognizeasmanywordsaspossibleinyourtextbooksanduseasmanyaspossibleinyouressays.Thebiggeryourvocabulary,themoreyouwillbeabletocopewiththehighreadingandwritingdemandsofyourstudies.Academicwritingtendstobequiteformalinstyle.Thevocabularyitemsthatyouuseinyourwritingcanaffectthelevelofformality.Writersneedtoknowwhetherawordcanbeusedinaparticularsituation.Takeforexampleconsequent.Thisismarkedasformal.YouwouldprobablynotchoosetousethiswordwhenspeakingwithfriendsbutyoushoulduseitinwrittenEnglishtotakeyourlanguagetoahigherlevelofformality.TheAWLwillhelpyoutofocusonissuesofformality.Lookoutfortheformallabelinthisdictionary.RememberthattheAWLcoversapproximately10%ofallvocabularyinapieceofacademicwriting.Youshouldaimtohaveroughlythesamepercentageinyourownacademicwritingtoo.IfyougototheAWLhighlighterwebsitebySandraHaywood(~alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.html)youcancopyandpasteyourtextintoitanditwillhighlighttheAWLwordsforyou.ThiswillenableyoutoseehowmanyAWLwordsyouareusingoverallandwhetheryourepeatthesamewordsmanytimesinyourwriting.WhenlookingupwordsfromtheAWLinthisdictionaryyoushouldalsofocusontheboldphrasesthatarehighlighted.Theseshowyouthekeygrammaticalpatternsandcollocationsforthatword.Collocationsarewordsthatcommonlyoccurtogetherorneareachotherinatext,forexample‘effecton’.Collocationsandphrasesareimportantbecausetheyhelpwithfluencyinwritingandindicatethatyouareworkingatahigherlevelwi