Using the Academic
Word List
Challenges of Teaching
Vocabulary
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Students come knowing many commonly used
words
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Know the simplest forms
Know the most frequently used meanings of multi-meaning
words
Students need content area vocabulary
Students also need all-purpose academic words
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Category labels
Words for thinking
Abstract, hard to picture terms
Snow, C.A. (2007). Learning all-purpose vocabulary words. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from
www.cal.org/create/downloads/CREATEwebcast_snow9-6-07.ppt
Challenge: Students need
all-purpose
academic words, e.g.
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Words for thinking: hypothesize, evidence, criterion
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Words for classifying: vehicle, utensil, process
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Words for communication: emphasize, affirm,
negotiate
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Words for expressing relationships: dominate,
correspond, locate
Snow, C.A. (2007). Learning all-purpose vocabulary words. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from
www.cal.org/create/downloads/CREATEwebcast_snow9-6-07.ppt
What is the Academic Word
List?
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List of 570 words with their “families”
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Does not include first 2000 most commonly used English words
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Result of Averil Coxhead’s MA work at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language
Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
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Find a copy at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/wordlists.htm
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Find lists with “families”: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Averil-Coxhead/awl/sublists.html
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Find list with hyperlinked definitions:
http://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Academic_word_list#Sublist_1
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Find list with hyperlinked definitions to multiple (25-30) online dictionary definitions:
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CiLL/eap/wordlists.htm
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For detail on the development and evaluation of the AWL, see Coxhead, Averil (2000) A
New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2): 213-238.
Where did the words come from?
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Academic corpus covering 28 subjects
Corpus had 3.5 million words from journal articles, book
chapters, course workbooks, laboratory manuals, and course
notes
Words divided into 4 main subject headings: Arts, Commerce,
Law and Science
These were further divided into seven sections each
Words additionally had to appear in at least half of the 28 subject
areas and be represented in all 4 main areas
94% of AWL words appeared in 20 or more subject areas of
corpus
What words were excluded?
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First 2000 most commonly used English words
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Latin forms et al, etc, ie, and ibid
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Proper nouns
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Words which occurred in fewer than 4 faculty
sections of the Academic Corpus or which
occurred in fewer than 15 of the 28 subject areas
What are the first 2000?
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In part, this is heavily influenced by The
General Service List (GSL) created by
Michael West in 1953
Words were selected based on frequency
and semantic value
To see: http://jbauman.com/gsl.html
Use of corpora continues to inform
vocabulary study
Use any text to teach AWL
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http://www.nottingham.
ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/
awlhighlighter.htm
Enter text
Choose word list
All words from this list
will appear in boldface
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http://www.nottingham.
ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/
awlgapmaker.htm
Enter text
Choose words list
All words from this list
will appear as a gap
and words appear as
list on bottom of page
How can this be applied to
classroom instruction?
Use articles, book passages, benchmark passages
 Enter text into highlighter and choose AWL 1
 Read text together, using context clues to
understand meaning
 Enter text into gap maker
 Without using highlighted text, can students enter
correct word from choices?
 For texts with AWL words already highlighted:
http://www.uefap.com/vocab/exercise/exercise.htm
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Research-based Principles of
Vocabulary Instruction
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Introduce and discuss words
Ensure affective engagement
Engage students in using the words
Ensure recurrent exposures
Celebrate successes
Encourage experimentation
How do we choose specific
words to teach directly?
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Use information gleaned from AWL highlighter
Choose at random from AWL list
Introduce about 5 per week to focus on
Direct instruction on Monday
Continue to focus on throughout week
Use frequently!
Whenever possible draw attention to the word in a
text
Encourage students to use the words in context
Create a Word Wall to remind everyone
How can a Word Wall contribute to
vocabulary instruction?
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Must be visible to all students
Must grow organically as well as methodologically
Must be consistently referred to by teacher
For ideas on dealing with space issues:
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgibin/articles/index.pl?noframes;read=2625
To see a video of a teacher implementing this
strategy:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewke
y=8b375a3269223e13dab5
How do I build a Word Wall?
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Choose a format that works for you
Half sheets of scrap paper
Chart paper
White or chalk board
Add words daily. Refer to the words whenever
possible. Add words that are directly taught
or which come up in discussion of text.
How can the students use the
Word Wall?
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Students will look to the wall when teacher
draws attention to a word
Students will remember where the word is,
and use the wall as a reminder for recall and
for spelling
Students can take the burden off the teacher
by being responsible for adding that day’s
words
Can students study on their
own?
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Note cards
Computer note cards
Vocabulary notebooks
Foldables
A way of presenting information that is fun
and creative
For ideas see:
http://www.lauracandler.com/reading/VocabF
oldDir.pdf
©
Knowledge Rating Scale
Know It Well
Word
Have Seen or
Heard It
Have No Clue
Knowledge Rating Scale
Word
Know It
Well
Have Seen
or Heard It
Have
No
Clue
What It Means
How can students learn and remember the meaning of the words?
Look up the meanings of the words in the dictionary
Link the words to previous knowledge
Make a spider diagram for each word
For example, a spider diagram for concept could look like this:
What about dictionaries?
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Dictionaries are of course useful, but direct
instruction on how to use is imperative
Have students work in small groups to find
meanings
Try having “dictionary races” to decrease
amount of time spent looking up words
Which Dictionary?
Lower Levels
 The Oxford Student’s Dictionary
 The Longman Active Study Dictionary
 The Macmillan Essential Dictionary
 The Oxford Wordpower Dictionary
More advanced levels
 The Longman Contemporary English Dictionary
 The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
 The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners
 The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
Many dictionaries have study skills pages, CD-ROM and on-line
resources for students.
Dictionaries on the Web
Macmillan
www.macmillandictionaries.com
Oxford University Press
www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/o
ald7/?cc=tr
Longman
www.longman.com/dictionaries/internation
al.html
Cambridge University Press
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
Using a Vocabulary Profiler
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lextutor.ca
Allows us to see what level the words in a
text are
Can help inform vocabulary instruction
How to use lextutor.ca
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Use Internet Explorer as a browser
Go to http://lextutor.ca/
In the second column, click on Vocabprofile
Click on VP English v. 2.9
Highlight everything in textbox
Paste your copied text into box (Control + V)
Below textbox on right side, click “submit_window”
Scroll down to see the color coded text
Resources
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Waring, R. & Nation, P. (n.d.) Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists.
Retrieved January 30, 2009 from
http://www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/fltr/germ/etan/bibs/vocab/cup.html
Vicotoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. (September 3, 2007). The
Academic Word List. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Averil-Coxhead/awl/links.html
McCullah, W. (2003-2007). Word surfing: Recommended vocabulary tests and
exercises. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from
http://www.wordsurfing.co.uk/17.html
UEFAP. (n.d.) Vocabulary in EAP: Selecting vocabulary to learn. Retrieved
January 30, 2009 from http://www.uefap.com/vocab/vocfram.htm
English Corner (n.d.) English grammar exercises. Retrieved January 30, 2009
from
http://www.angelfire.com/wi3/englishcorner/vocabulary/vocabulary.html#cloze
For product information: http://elt.heinle.com/cgitelt/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M80&discipline_number=301&subject_code=VA
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