Academic Vocabulary : Putting Words in Academic Texts in Perspective

2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (sup37) ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
P A Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Academic Texts

scholarly journals A Survey Study on Academic Vocabulary Learning Strategies by EFL University Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1009
Author(s):  
Le Pham Hoai Huong
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Word List ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Vocabulary Learning Strategies

The development of the Academic Word List by Coxhead (2000) has drawn attention of the academia to teaching and learning academic vocabulary as well as the creation of more word lists for different majors. However, most of the research in the field of vocabulary has focused on the learning strategies for general vocabulary only (e.g. Gu & Johnson, 1996; Lawson, & Hogben, 1996; Nation, 2001; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997). Little has been done to investigate strategies for academic vocabulary (Nushi & Jenabzadeh 2016). Given the importance of academic vocabulary in comprising some 8%-10% of running words in academic texts (Nation, 2001), the present study was set out to investigate EFL university students’ strategies for learning academic English words. The participants included 132 EFL university students. The study adopted the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies by Schmitt (2000) and strategies for learning academic words by Bramki and Williams (1984) and Chung and Nation (2003). The findings reveal that the respondents tended to use on-line dictionaries and other applications more than cognitive strategies in learning academic words. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions were put forward to a systematized list of academic vocabulary learning strategies as well as what teachers and learners should do when encountering new academic words.

scholarly journals Academic Words in the English Research Article Abstracts: the Coverage and Frequency

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Fransiskus Jemadi ◽  
Fatmawati . ◽  
Priska Filomena Iku
Keyword(s):  
Word List ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Word Families ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Lexical Items

<p>The present study aimed at exploring the abstracts of research articles written by non-native English researchers to uncover the specific characteristics of academic vocabulary employed in the English research articles abstracts.It focuses on frequency and coverage distribution of the words from the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) in the abstracts of research articles. The source of data for this corpus study was gathered from 97 abstracts written by the EFL researchers and published by the <em>Journal Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Missio</em> at STKIP St. Paulus Ruteng from 2015 until 2018. The results of this study revealed that the coverage of K1, the first most frequent 1000 English words, is the most dominant lexical items applied by the researchers. It covered 71.33% of the texts. The representation of lexical items that belong to K2, the second most frequent 1000 English words, covered 5.44% of all the words used by the writers in their abstracts. Moreover, the presence of Academic Word List, which refers to a list of 570 word families that are commonly found in academic texts and Off-list, which refers to the words that do not belong to K1 or K2 because it is related to certain field, has slight difference over all of the texts where the former covers 11.95% and the later covers 11.26%. As far as the findings of the present study are concerned, the room for some improvements on academic words applied in the abstracts need to pay attention.</p>

scholarly journals How useful is eap vocabulary for esp? a corpus based case study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Sutarsyah ◽  
Paul Nation ◽  
G Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Word List ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
The University ◽  
General Service ◽  
Very High

This study compares the vocabulary of a single Economics text of almost 300,000 running words with the vocabulary of a corpus of similar length made up of a variety of academic texts. It was found that the general academic corpus used a very much larger vocabulary than the more focused Economics text. A small number of words that were closely related to the topic of the text occurred with very high frequency in the Economics text. The general academic corpus had a very large number of low frequency words. Beyond the words in West's General Service List and the University Word List, there was little overlap between the vocabulary of the two corpora. This indicates that as far as vocabulary is concerned, EAP courses that go beyond the high frequency academic vocabulary are of little value for learners with specific purposes. © 1994, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

scholarly journals How useful is eap vocabulary for esp? a corpus based case study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Sutarsyah ◽  
Paul Nation ◽  
G Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Word List ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
The University ◽  
General Service ◽  
Very High

This study compares the vocabulary of a single Economics text of almost 300,000 running words with the vocabulary of a corpus of similar length made up of a variety of academic texts. It was found that the general academic corpus used a very much larger vocabulary than the more focused Economics text. A small number of words that were closely related to the topic of the text occurred with very high frequency in the Economics text. The general academic corpus had a very large number of low frequency words. Beyond the words in West's General Service List and the University Word List, there was little overlap between the vocabulary of the two corpora. This indicates that as far as vocabulary is concerned, EAP courses that go beyond the high frequency academic vocabulary are of little value for learners with specific purposes. © 1994, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

scholarly journals An Examination of the Use of a Vocabulary Instruction Strategy (Content Acquisition Podcast) on the Vocabulary Comprehension of Students, Through the Use of Action Research Methods

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashleigh Tomcics ◽  
Oriana Long-Auman ◽  
Lorraine A Munion
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
Ell Students ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
New Information ◽  
Strong Indicator ◽  
Content Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Comprehension

Academic vocabulary is a strong indicator of a student’s ability to learn subject content. Subject mastery is a strong predictor of academic achievement. Academic vocabulary comprehension is a critical component of academic success that is required for making meaning of new information, and demonstrating mastery of academic concepts through the construction of meaningful, articulate assessment responses.  Repeated exposures to academic vocabulary and multiple opportunities to practice using academic vocabulary are likely integral to the ability to use academic texts in a meaningful way (Townsend, Filipinni, Collins, & Biancarosa, 2012).  This paper reports of an examination of the effect of the use of CAPs (Content Acquisition Podcasts) on vocabulary acquisition among two groups of students, both inclusive, both including ELL students, by two student researchers.

scholarly journals Linguistic Complexity in Academic Writing: Comparing Tasks in L2 English

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Päivi Pietilä
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Personal Involvement ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Ma Thesis

Three different types of academic texts written by advanced learners of English were analysed to discover whether they differed from each other in terms of syntactic and lexical complexity. The writing tasks differed in formality and personal involvement. The results were in accordance with earlier studies on L2 writing, in that the most formal texts, the MA thesis conclusions, did not contain any more subordination than the less formal texts. By the same token, the thesis texts showed the longest clauses in the data, suggesting a strong reliance on complex phrases. Another feature previously discovered to characterize formal academic L2 writing, the proportion of general academic vocabulary, was also found in the present study to differentiate the formal thesis texts from the less formal text types.

scholarly journals Mind the gap: Academic vocabulary knowledge as a predictor of English grades

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Marie Skjelde ◽  
Averil Coxhead
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
School Students ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Course Grades ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Mastery Level

Knowledge of academic English vocabulary is necessary for Norwegian speaking upper secondary students for the completion of their English course and to qualify for university studies. General academic vocabulary occurs in academic texts across disciplines (for example, furthermore, research). The focus of this article is meaning-recognition knowledge of written academic English vocabulary and associations with English course grades. The academic sections from versions one and two of the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Nation, 1990; Schmitt et al., 2001) were administered to 134 Norwegian-speaking students aged 15 - 17. Participants were first-year upper secondary school students taking the final obligatory English course provided in the Norwegian educational context. On average, learners had high levels of meaning-recognition knowledge (80.93%). However, 58.21% failed to reach minimum mastery levels of 52/60 for the test, and results varied considerably (SD = 8.31). A Spearman correlation revealed significant associations between VLT scores and English course grades. Compared to students who did not reach a mastery level, the odds of receiving a higher English grade were nine times greater for students with a maximum of two mistakes on the academic section of the VLT, and four times greater for students who reached the minimum mastery level. Findings indicate a need for these learners to attain a greater understanding of academic vocabulary in English and suggest the need for a principled focus on academic vocabulary acquisition. Keywords: academic vocabulary; academic achievement; vocabulary testing; second language learning; mastery levels «Mind the gap» - Akademisk ordforråd som prediktor for karakterer i engelsk SammendragKunnskap om akademiske ord er nødvendig for at norske elever i videregående skole skal kunne gjennomføre engelskfaget og for at de skal kunne kvalifisere seg til høyere utdanning. Akademiske ord omfatter ord som forekommer i vitenskapelige tekster fra ulike akademiske disipliner (for eksempel dessuten, forskning). Fokuset i denne artikkelen er forholdet mellom elevers kunnskap om skriftlige akademiske ord og karakterene deres i engelsk. 134 norsktalende elever på Vg1 studiespesialiserende mellom 15 og 17 år tok Nations (1990) VLT, den akademiske delen fra versjon en og to av Schmitt et al. (2001) reviderte test. Resultatene viser at elevene i gjennomsnitt hadde en høy VLT- poengsum (80.93%), men 58.21% ikke klarte å oppnå den laveste anbefalte poengsummen på 52/60 og det var en høy grad av variasjon i resultatene (SD = 8.31). En Spearman-korrelasjon viste signifikante forbindelser mellom resultatene fra VLT og elevenes engelskkarakterer. Sannsynligheten for å ha en høyere engelskkarakter var ni ganger større for elever med maksimum to feil på VLT- testen og fire ganger større for de som oppnådde minimumskravet på 52/60. Funnene indikerer at disse elevene har behov for å utvikle en bedre forståelse av akademiske ord, og de antyder dermed også et behov for fokus på utvikling av akademisk ordforråd i engelskundervisningen. Nøkkelord: akademisk ordforråd, testing av vokabular, engelsk som andrespråk, språkundervisning

Using Multilinguistic Strategies to Improve Decoding in Older School-Age Students in a Contextualized and Motivational Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ginger Collins ◽  
Julie A. Wolter
Keyword(s):  
Struggling Readers ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Reading Acquisition ◽  
Fourth Grade ◽  
School Age ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Motivation To Read ◽  
Elementary Years

The multilinguistic skills of phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness codevelop and appear to all be important for reading acquisition in the elementary years. By fourth grade, the academic vocabulary words to which students are exposed become more content-specific and frequently contain multiple morphological units. Struggling readers often lack motivation to read. The purpose of this article is to (a) review the evidence basis for providing multilinguistic instruction, and (b) provide a model for teaching multilinguistic strategies by using Latin and Greek roots within the context of creating superhero comics to promote decoding in an engaging manner.

Stress management: Corpus-based insights into vernacular interpretations of stress

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Laurel Smith Stvan
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
American English ◽  
Physical Symptom ◽  
The Body ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
The Past ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Semantic Shift

Examination of the term stress in naturally occurring vernacular prose provides evidence of three separate senses being conflated. A corpus analysis of 818 instances of stress from non-academic texts in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the Corpus of American Discourses on Health (CADOH) shows a negative prosody for stress, which is portrayed variously as a source outside the body, a physical symptom within the body and an emotional state. The data show that contemporary speakers intermingle the three senses, making more difficult a discussion between doctors and patients of ways to ‘reduce stress’, when stress might be interpreted as a stressor, a symptom, or state of anxiety. This conflation of senses reinforces the impression that stress is pervasive and increasing. In addition, a semantic shift is also refining a new sense for stress, as post-traumatic stress develops as a specific subtype of emotional stress whose use has increased in circulation in the past 20 years.

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