Academic Vocabulary Guide

Academic Vocabulary Guide
Aims
• Improve your academic vocabulary
• Understand academic articles and newspapers more
• Be able to use more academic vocabulary in essays
Did you know?
• In the example below, 78.9% of the words are top 2000 high
frequency words. Issue and nuclear are academic words.
Accelerate decontamination (From The Japan Times August 26 issue)
Some 100,000 people are living as evacuees away from their homes in the wake of the
severe accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Kyodo News has reported that some 17,000 children in Fukushima Prefecture have
changed schools or kindergartens because of radiation fears. …
• 570 academic word families cover about 8.5-10% of academic
texts (see also Which Words?). So, after the top 2000 words,
these are probably the next most powerful words to learn!
• Many academic words, especially in written English, come from
Latin and Greek, as well as French. (See also Word Parts)
Academic Word List (AWL)
You can find a copy of the AWL in e-space or online:
• Academic word families A-Z with links to Cambridge Learner’s
Advanced Dictionary: http://www.uefap.com/vocab/select/awl.htm
• Academic words divided into 10 mini sublists in order of
frequency, with links to simple English definitions:
http://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Academic_word_list
Note: This A-Z list is good for reference but do not try learning them in
alphabetical order! Use the 10 mini sublists, starting with Sublist 1 J
PHOTOCOPIABLE Page 1 of 2 Philip Shigeo Brown (2011) Studying academic words
1. Start with Sublist 1. Use Word Cards and other
Vocabulary Learning Strategies (e.g. Word Parts) to
learn and remember words effectively and use them!
2. Connect new words to words you know. (See further
Word-Webs & Word Connections Guide).
Note: To avoid confusion, don’t study new words with similar or
related meanings, spelling or pronunciation at the same time.
3. Try online vocabulary exercises for the 10 sublists:
http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com/AWL/index.htm
4. Try the National Geographic Reading Explorer
textbooks in the READING section. (See also
Academic Reading)
5. Read more newspaper articles. You can start easily
with the Shukan Times, in e-space or online:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/shukan-st/
6. Use a thesaurus, especially for academic reading and
writing! (See Dictionary Use)
7. Try a mix of vocabulary games, puzzles, and quizzes:
http://www.pbs.plymouth.ac.uk/academicwordlistatuop/exercises_1.htm
Try different things and find what’s best
for you: Variety is the spice of life! J
PHOTOCOPIABLE Page 2 of 2 Philip Shigeo Brown (2011)