Academic Vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary
If your goal is to read academic writing
(college textbooks, etc) and write
academic papers (essays, etc), you can
save yourself a lot of time and effort by
focusing on academic vocabulary
What is Academic
Vocabulary?
Academic Vocabulary is a specialized
vocabulary of 570 word families that
commonly appear in all academic
textbooks, regardless of major field of
study
Academic Vocabulary
Learning
In general
vocabulary learning,
to go from 80%
understanding to
86% understanding
would require you to
learn 2,000 more
word families
In academic
vocabulary learning,
to go from 80%
understanding to
86% understanding
would require you to
learn 570 more word
families
Do you think studying
academic vocabulary will be
helpful?
This semester,
we will focus
on learning
academic
vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary
In each unit this semester, approximately 100
word families from the academic word list will
appear.
Keeping 4 principles in
mind will help you develop
your vocabulary as much as
possible this semester
Vocabulary Learning
Strategies
In order to develop your
vocabulary, you should keep
4 main principles in mind
4 Main Principles
Number 1
You should be active in developing your
understanding of words and ways to
learn them
Active Learning Strategies
• Semantic Mapping:
Making a graphic representation of the
relationship between words
Semantic Mapping
Active Learning Strategies
• Definition Mapping:
Working with grammar, meaning,
and sample sentences
Active Learning Strategies
• Grouping:
Recognizing the relatedness of a word
to other words
Grouping
massive
extensive
Words that
Describe Large
Scale
huge
immense
enormous
vast
4 Main Principles
Number 2
You should personalize your vocabulary
learning
Personalized Learning
Strategies
• Choosing words:
Identify key concepts and the words
required to understand these concepts
Personalized Learning
Strategies
• Choosing words:
Identify important terms you need to learn
Personalized Learning
Strategies
• Choosing words:
Identify meaningful similarities and
differences among the concepts / words
being studied
Personalizing words
• Node Acquisition and Integration Technique (NAIT):
• Students identify key concepts or important terms they
need to learn within a text.
• Students construct a semantic network around each of
the selected key concepts.
• Students think of examples or potential applications of
the key concepts and record these examples on the
definition worksheet.
• Students identify meaningful similarities and differences
among the different concepts being studied.
4 Main Principles
Number 3
You should be immersed in words
Immersion in Words
• Opportunities:
Put yourself in a wordand language-rich environment
Immersion in Words
• Opportunities:
Become aware of words and how they are
used in the input you receive
Immersion in Words
• Opportunities:
Try to use new / interesting words
in your speaking and writing
4 Main Principles
Number 4
You should use multiple sources of
information to learn words through
repeated exposures
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunities:
Watch television news / programs that are
related to the topic of environment
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunities:
Read newspaper / magazine articles
related to the topic on environment
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunities:
Discuss environment-related topics with
friends, family, classmates, etc
Summary
4 Principles of Vocabulary Learning
• You should be active in developing your
understanding of words and ways to learn
them
• You should personalize your word learning
• You should be immersed in words
• You should use multiple sources of
information to learn words through repeated
exposures
Keeping these 4 principles in
mind will help you develop
your vocabulary as much as
possible this semester
Two important elements of
vocabulary learning
1 Quality:
How well do you know each word?
Quality
Goal:
To improve how much you know about
each word
Quality
• Spoken Form:
What does the word sound like?
How is it pronounced?
Quality
• Written Form:
What does the word look like?
How is it written?
Quality
• Meaning:
What meaning does this form
of the word have?
for example:
consider vs. considerably
individual vs. individualism
Quality
• Concepts:
What things can the concept refer to?
for example:
fertile soil
fertile mind
Quality
• Associations:
What other words does this word make you
think of?
for example:
fundamentally - basically
vast - massive - huge - extensive
Quality
• Grammatical Patterns:
In what patterns does the word occur?
– transitive vs. intransitive verbs
– two-word verbs: opt out of
– prepositions: interest in, responsible for
– relative clauses: suggest that, conclude
that
Quality
• Collocations:
What words or type of words occur with this
word?
for example:
– complex problem
– complex issue
– complex person
– complex idea
Quality
• Restrictions on use (register
differences):
Where, when, and how often would you
expect to meet this word?
for example:
ethos, kin, institutionalize =
formal academic words
Quantity
Goal:
To increase the number of words you
know
Quantity
Educated adult native speakers of English
know approximately 20,000 word
families
Quantity
College freshman ESL students know
approximately 2,000 - 3,000 word
families
Quantity
Unknown
Known
If you know the
most frequent 1,000
words of English,
you should be able
to understand 72%
of the words on the
page of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
Unknow n
Know n
If you know the
most frequent 2,000
words of English,
you should be able
to understand 80%
of the words on the
page of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
Unknow n
Know n
If you know the
most frequent 3,000
words of English,
you should be able
to understand 84%
of the words on the
page of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
Unknown
Known
If you know the
most frequent 4,000
words of English,
you should be able
to understand 86%
of the words on the
page of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
In order to
understand 95% of
the words on a page
of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine, you need
to know
approximately
12,500 words
In order to
understand 99% of
the words on a page
of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine, you need
to know
approximately
44,000 words