Developing academic
language
What difficulties do
learners in your school
have with language?
Key issues

This is not just an EAL issue – formal English can be
regarded as an additional language for many students

Gaps in academic vocabulary often remain hidden due to
apparent fluency in spoken or playground English

Without a good range of academic language many learners
cannot achieve top grades and the vast majority will
underachieve at some point

Language acquisition needs to be a structured process –
learners can be taught how to do it themselves
Key features of learners who need attention

They tend to have more gaps in their academic vocabulary
and handle certain features of writing less confidently

They have less grasp of idiomatic speech or take things
more literally than intended

They tend to lack ‘cultural capital’ and haven’t been
exposed to the diversity of history and society critical to
achievement

They are likely to be unfamiliar with the conventions and
expectations of academic writing
Key features of learners who need attention
 They may have excellent ‘playground’ English but this is
not mirrored in their ability to use formal language and
genre
 They may slip into a more informal tone for a task, when
what is required is the adoption of formal language
 They may have good topic level knowledge but limited
capacity to show what they know when answering in exams
 They may write answers that throw information at a
question without actually answering what the question
requires
Word frequency and text recognition
 1,000 most frequently
used words give access
to 74% of texts
 Word level tests
available through REAL
toolkit
 Less than 80% score
requires a focused
intervention to support
acquisition
Diminishing returns to language acquisition
Language development
 Receptive vocabulary of Yr 9 EAL students who have been
educated through English for 10 years had gaps in the most
frequent words and serious problems at the 5K level
 Explanation may lie in the nature of the learning
environment for learners with EAL and the possible lack of
focused support it provides for vocabulary development
 Vocabulary coverage tends not to be planned but arises
from teaching in curriculum areas
 Intervention by mainstream subject teachers in vocabulary
development may often be limited to simplification of
unfamiliar words, rather than attending to the need to
increase vocabulary size or develop deep word knowledge.
Source: Lynne Cameron
The Academic Word List

The common core or 2,000 word level offers access to 78%
of texts

This does not include much of the formal language required
for high achievement

Academic Word List (AWL) relates to the words needed by
students to access and understand academic texts. It
comprises 570 word families that are not in the common
core but which occur reasonably frequently over a very
wide range of texts in many different subjects.

Learning the AWL will give someone most of the language
they need for writing across subjects
Academic Word List
 570 word families
 Not in the most frequent 2,000
words of English
 Formal (not technical)
vocabulary cutting across a
range of subject disciplines
(e.g. authority, define, assume,
legislate, layer)
 Headword ‘access’ (family
words – accessed,
accessibility, accessing,
accessible, inaccessible)
Subject language
Composition of QCDA vocabulary for science
Vocabulary for science by AWL sub-list
The mother of all flu pandemics
The flu virus is a survivor. It must continually evolve in order to evade its biggest threat - the
immune system.
Mammals, including humans, make antibodies, which recognise and target the virus. "So it
has to keep mutating to escape being destroyed," explains David Morens from the US
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Despite these tactics, most of the strains that make people ill during the eponymous "flu
season" are sufficiently similar to infections most of us have been exposed to before.
Our immune systems recognise common parts that these new strains share with their
ancestors, and can launch an effective defence.
Every so often, however, a different strain emerges and infects people - one that contains new
genes from an animal virus.
Its novelty is its most effective weapon against our immune defences. And if it is infectious
enough to find its way easily into a new host - perhaps via an innocent sneeze - it can spread
rapidly and cause a global epidemic - or pandemic.
What does subject language look like?
AWL highlighter tool
The REAL Project has
developed a profiling tool
that enables you to highlight
the academic language in
any electronic text and to
research its meaning and
application. You can find
this at
http://awl.londongt.org.
Using the AWL highlighter
Using the highlighter tool
Word coverage
1k
68%
2k
73%
AWL
79%
Not listed
100%
(cumulative)
Identifying meaning in context
The word global helps us to be accurate in our understanding of the
meaning of epidemic or pandemic, two science words that have similar
but distinct meanings.
Its novelty is its most effective weapon against our immune defences.
And if it is infectious enough to find its way easily into a new host perhaps via an innocent sneeze - it can spread rapidly and cause a
global epidemic - or pandemic.
1. Try to find a simple match, which helps you to establish a fix on meaning
2. Check this with other definitions to establish that the meaning is correct in the
context in which the word is used in the text
3. Look for a more complex definition that may help you to strengthen your ability
to use this word
Identifying meaning in context
Using the Google define function
AWL test