Perspectives on Teaching and
Learning Academic Vocabulary
Keith Folse
Department of Modern Languages
University of Central Florida
keith.folse @ gmail.com
An IEP Curriculum
9:00-9:50
Grammar
10:00-10:50
Reading
11:00-11:50
Elective
1:00-1:50
Communication
2:00-2:50
Writing
Another IEP Curriculum
9:00-10:50
Grammar/Writing
11:00-11:50
Elective
1:00-2:50
Reading/Speaking/Listening
Another IEP Curriculum
9:00-10:50
Grammar/Speaking/Listening
11:00-11:50
Elective
1:00-2:50
Reading/Writing
What is
Academic Language?
What is
Academic Language?
(1) language that sounds academic
“according to the previous research on which this
study was based, several aspects of xyz
emerged…”
(2) a set of vocabulary that will enable you to
understand academic texts
????
Does the AWL equal Academic Language?
Does Academic Language equal the AWL?
What is the
Academic Word List?
 Coxhead
a
(2000)
corpus study (3.5 million words)
 570
 For
words (word families)
a word to be designated as an AWL item, that
word had to occur frequently in her corpus AND it
had to appear across certain areas AND it had to
appear in 15 of 28 subdisciplines
Today’s Talk (blurb)
Coxhead’s Academic Word List highlights the
importance of vocabulary for academic study
and has inspired a host of teaching materials
and similar word lists. This panel revisits the
notion of academic vocabulary, exploring it
from different perspectives in order to offer
teaching and learning ideas for IEP programs.
Categorizing Words
(function: a/the/of; content: cat/adjacent/fun)
GSL 1000:
_____, _____, _____
GSL 2000:
_____, _____, _____
AWL:
_____, _____, _____
OFF-LIST:
_____, _____, _____
(1) Today’s Talk (blurb)
Coxhead’s Academic Word List highlights the
importance of vocabulary for academic study
and has inspired a host of teaching materials
and similar word lists. This panel revisits the
notion of academic vocabulary, exploring it
from different perspectives in order to offer
teaching and learning ideas for IEP programs.
Find the 6 AWL items?
Coxhead’s Academic Word List highlights the
importance of vocabulary for academic study
and has inspired a host of teaching materials
and similar word lists. This panel revisits the
notion of academic vocabulary, exploring it
from different perspectives in order to offer
teaching and learning ideas for IEP programs.
*****************************************
Today’s Talk (6)
Coxhead’s Academic Word List highlights the
importance of vocabulary for academic study
and has inspired a host of teaching materials
and similar word lists. This panel revisits the
notion of academic vocabulary exploring it
from different perspectives in order to offer
teaching and learning ideas for IEP programs.
What about the leftovers?
Coxhead’s Academic Word List highlights the
importance of vocabulary for academic study
and has inspired a host of teaching materials
and similar word lists. This panel revisits the
notion of academic vocabulary exploring it
from different perspectives in order to offer
teaching and learning ideas for IEP programs.
*************
Look at the
GREAT LEFTOVERS
Coxhead’s _______ Word List _______ the
importance of vocabulary for _______ study
and has inspired a host of teaching materials
and _______ word lists. This _______ revisits
the _______ of _______ vocabulary exploring it
from different _______ in order to offer
teaching and learning ideas for IEP programs.
******************************************
1000? 2000? AWL? OFF?
0-1000 different ideas importance learning
materials offer order study teaching word
1001-2000
exploring host list programs
AWL academic highlights notion panel
perspectives similar
OFF
coxhead iep inspired revisits vocabulary
(2) wikipedia.org
The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed
by Averil Coxhead in New Zealand. The list
contains 570 semantic fields which were
selected because they appear with great
frequency in a broad range of academic texts.
The list does not include words that are in the
most frequent 2000 words of English (the
General Service List), thus many of the words
are specific to academic contexts.
Find the 6 AWL words?
The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed
by Averil Coxhead in New Zealand. The list
contains 570 semantic fields which were
selected because they appear with great
frequency in a broad range of academic texts.
The list does not include words that are in the
most frequent 2000 words of English (the
General Service List), thus many of the words
are specific to academic contexts.
wikipedia.org
The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed
by Averil Coxhead in New Zealand. The list
contains 570 semantic fields which were
selected because they appear with great
frequency in a broad range of academic texts.
The list does not include words that are in the
most frequent 2000 words of English (the
General Service List), thus many of the words
are specific to academic contexts.
What about the
leftovers?
The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed
by Averil Coxhead in New Zealand. The list
contains 570 semantic fields which were
selected because they appear with great
frequency in a broad range of academic texts.
The list does not include words that are in the
most frequent 2000 words of English (the
General Service List), thus many of the words
are specific to academic contexts.
Look at the
GREAT LEFTOVERS
The _______ Word List (AWL) was developed by
Averil Coxhead in New Zealand. The list
contains 570 semantic fields which were
_______ because they appear with great
frequency in a broad _______ of _______
_______ . The list does not include words that
are in the most frequent 2000 words of English
(the General Service List), thus many of the
words are _______ to _______ _______ .
1000? 2000? AWL? OFF?
0-1000 appear broad contains developed
english fields general great include most new
number service word
1001-2000
frequency list
AWL academic contexts range selected
specific texts
OFF
averil awl coxhead semantic zealand
(3) webmd.com
Find examples for
GSL 1000, GSL 2000, AWL, and OFF
1000? 2000? AWL?
1000: best bodies day developing eat end even food
going growing heavily long more need number
problems time
2000: behavioral brains breakfast lot perform regular
AWL: adults create period periods physical rely
OFF: intake intellectual kids semistarvation skip
1000? 2000? AWL?
1.
To function in an academic setting, you need
A LOT of vocabulary.
2.
The AWL is good, but it is not enough.
3.
I can teach you the 570 words, but the
students need to practice heavily.
4.
Even with these 570, it’s still not enough.
************************************
In our classes…
1.
Is academic vocabulary being taught?
2.
If so, how?
3.
But wait… To what degree is ANY
vocabulary being taught?
Is explicit vocabulary the
reading teacher’s job?
Reading in a Foreign Language
April 2010, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 139-160
To find: Google RFL FOLSE
28
the study

a case study

one upper intermediate class at an IEP

EVF: explicit vocabulary focus

goal: number of EVFs in 1 week of classes (25 hrs)

RQ: how many EVFs? where? who? why?
29
background
TRAIN WRECK: ELLs + “lexical plight”


Ss need to know 95%-98% of the words to
comprehend a reading passage

TIME CRUNCH: “Ss typically need to know words
measured in thousands, not hundreds, but receive
language instruction measured in months, not years”
(Cobb, 1999, p. 345)

Publications frequently conclude with “Ss need more
vocab instruction,” BUT what is really happening
right now?
30
Research Questions
1. To what extent is vocab being covered in an
intensive English program?
2. Are explicit vocabulary focuses (EVFs)
being initiated by the teacher, the students,
or both?
3. Is there more attention to vocab in a
particular course than in others? If so, why?
31
Students/Participants
①
a typical IEP at a large university in 2002
②
Level 3 (upper intermediate) of a 4-level program
③
475 on paper-based TOEFL; 4 on IELTS
④
14 ELLs (1 Arabic; 1 French; 3 Japanese; 4 Korean; 1
Portuguese; 3 Spanish; 1 Thai)
⑤
5 teachers of 5 classes (Communication, Composition,
Grammar, Reading, TOEFL)
⑥
1 Researcher (hid as a student in classes, multilingual)
32
RQ1: To what extent is
vocab covered in an IEP?

121 EVFs/week, 24 EVFs/day, 4.8 EVFs/class

often orally with no visual cues

rarely wrote on the board
rarely drew class attention to the
word/meaning/strategy for remembering the
word


33 problem:
small number and limited quality
An IEP Curriculum
Is anyone teaching vocabulary?
Where?
Is it systematic (at all)?
An IEP Curriculum
9:00-9:50
Grammar
10:00-10:50
Reading
11:00-11:50
Elective
1:00-1:50
Communication
2:00-2:50
Writing
Another IEP Curriculum
9:00-10:50
Grammar/Writing
11:00-11:50
Elective
1:00-2:50
Reading/Speaking/Listening
Another IEP Curriculum
9:00-10:50
Grammar/Speaking/Listening
11:00-11:50
Elective
1:00-2:50
Reading/Writing
Where is vocab taught?
it depends…
“we all do that”…
in the reading class…
in the elective class…
in the TOEFL class…
Vocabulary Elective
University of South Florida’s ELI
summer 1999
new vocabulary elective
Vocabulary in Use (McCarthy & O’Dell)
In conclusion,
In conclusion,
DO SOMETHING!
Focus on Vocabulary: Mastering the Academic
Word List
(Schmitt & Schmitt, Pearson)