Academic Vocabulary. If your goal is to read academic writing (college textbooks, etc) and write academic papers (essays, etc), you can save yourself.
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Academic Vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary
If your goal is to read academic writing (college textbooks, etc) and write
academic papers (essays, etc), you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by
focusing on academic vocabulary
What is Academic Vocabulary?
Academic Vocabulary is a specialized vocabulary of 570 word families that commonly appear in all academic
textbooks, regardless of major field of study
Academic Vocabulary Learning
In general vocabulary learning, to go from 80% understanding to 86% understanding would require you to learn 2,000 more word families
In academic vocabulary learning, to go from 80% understanding to 86% understanding would require you to learn 570 more word families
Do you think studying academic vocabulary will be
helpful?
This semester, we will focus on learning academic
vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary
In each unit this semester, approximately 100 word families from the academic word list will
appear.
Keeping 4 principles in mind will help you develop
your vocabulary as much as possible this semester
Vocabulary Learning Strategies
In order to develop your vocabulary, you should keep
4 main principles in mind
4 Main Principles
Number 1
You should be active in developing your understanding of words and ways to
learn them
Active Learning Strategies
• Semantic Mapping:
Making a graphic representation of the relationship between words
Semantic Mapping
Active Learning Strategies
• Definition Mapping:
Working with grammar, meaning,
and sample sentences
Active Learning Strategies
• Grouping:
Recognizing the relatedness of a word
to other words
Grouping
Words thatDescribe Large
Scale
massive
huge enormous
immense
extensive
vast
4 Main Principles
Number 2
You should personalize your vocabulary learning
Personalized Learning Strategies
• Choosing words:
Identify key concepts and the words required to understand these concepts
Personalized Learning Strategies
• Choosing words:
Identify important terms you need to learn
Personalized Learning Strategies
• Choosing words:
Identify meaningful similarities and differences among the concepts / words
being studied
Personalizing words
• Node Acquisition and Integration Technique (NAIT):
• Students identify key concepts or important terms they need to learn within a text.
• Students construct a semantic network around each of the selected key concepts.
• Students think of examples or potential applications of the key concepts and record these examples on the definition worksheet.
• Students identify meaningful similarities and differences among the different concepts being studied.
4 Main Principles
Number 3
You should be immersed in words
Immersion in Words
• Opportunities:
Put yourself in a word-
and language-rich environment
Immersion in Words
• Opportunities:
Become aware of words and how they are used in the input you receive
Immersion in Words
• Opportunities:
Try to use new / interesting words
in your speaking and writing
4 Main Principles
Number 4
You should use multiple sources of information to learn words through
repeated exposures
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunities:
Watch television news / programs that are related to the topic of environment
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunities:
Read newspaper / magazine articles
related to the topic on environment
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunities:
Discuss environment-related topics with friends, family, classmates, etc
Summary4 Principles of Vocabulary Learning
• You should be active in developing your understanding of words and ways to learn them
• You should personalize your word learning• You should be immersed in words• You should use multiple sources of
information to learn words through repeated exposures
Keeping these 4 principles in mind will help you develop
your vocabulary as much as possible this semester
Two important elements of vocabulary learning
1 Quality:
How well do you know each word?
Quality
Goal:
To improve how much you know about each word
Quality
• Spoken Form:
What does the word sound like?
How is it pronounced?
Quality
• Written Form:
What does the word look like?
How is it written?
Quality
• Meaning:
What meaning does this form
of the word have?
for example:
consider vs. considerably
individual vs. individualism
Quality
• Concepts:
What things can the concept refer to?
for example:
fertile soil
fertile mind
Quality
• Associations:
What other words does this word make you think of?
for example:
fundamentally - basicallyvast - massive - huge - extensive
Quality
• Grammatical Patterns:
In what patterns does the word occur?
– transitive vs. intransitive verbs– two-word verbs: opt out of– prepositions: interest in, responsible for– relative clauses: suggest that, conclude
that
Quality
• Collocations:
What words or type of words occur with this word?
for example: – complex problem
– complex issue– complex person
– complex idea
Quality
• Restrictions on use (register differences):
Where, when, and how often would you expect to meet this word?
for example:ethos, kin, institutionalize =
formal academic words
Quantity
Goal:
To increase the number of words you know
Quantity
Educated adult native speakers of English know approximately 20,000 word
families
Quantity
College freshman ESL students know approximately 2,000 - 3,000 word
families
Quantity
If you know the most frequent 1,000 words of English, you should be able to understand 72% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Known
Unknown
Quantity
Known
Unknown
If you know the most frequent 2,000 words of English, you should be able to understand 80% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Quantity
Known
Unknown
If you know the most frequent 3,000 words of English, you should be able to understand 84% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Quantity
Known
Unknown
If you know the most frequent 4,000 words of English, you should be able to understand 86% of the words on the page of a book, newspaper, or magazine
Quantity
In order to understand 95% of the words on a page of a book, newspaper, or magazine, you need to know approximately 12,500 words
In order to understand 99% of the words on a page of a book, newspaper, or magazine, you need to know approximately 44,000 words
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