Academic word list
Encyclopedia
The Academic Word List was developed by Averil Coxhead at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington
, New Zealand. The list contains 570 semantic field
s 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. However, a significant percentage of the vocabulary contained within the AWL is of general use; it is simply not of high enough frequency to be contained within the General Service List. Words such as area, approach, create, similar, and occur, for example, are in sublist one, yet are words which one could expect to encounter in everyday life, in newspapers, on television, etc. The AWL was primarily made so that it could be used by teachers (especially teachers of English as a Second Language) as part of a programme preparing learners for tertiary level study or used by students working alone to learn the words most needed to study at colleges and universities.
The 570 words are divided into 10 sublists. The sublists are ordered such that the words in the first sublist are the most frequent words and those in the last sublist are the least frequent.
The list is available on the Simple English Wiktionary.
Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...
, New Zealand. The list contains 570 semantic field
Semantic field
A semantic field is a technical term in the discipline of linguistics to describe a set of words grouped by meaning in a certain way. The term is also used in other academic disciplines, such as anthropology and computational semiotics.-Definition and usage:...
s 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
A General Service List of English Words
The General Service List is a list of roughly 2000 words published by Michael West in 1953. The words were selected to represent the most frequent words of English and were taken from a corpus of written English. The target audience was English language learners and ESL teachers...
), thus many of the words are specific to academic contexts. However, a significant percentage of the vocabulary contained within the AWL is of general use; it is simply not of high enough frequency to be contained within the General Service List. Words such as area, approach, create, similar, and occur, for example, are in sublist one, yet are words which one could expect to encounter in everyday life, in newspapers, on television, etc. The AWL was primarily made so that it could be used by teachers (especially teachers of English as a Second Language) as part of a programme preparing learners for tertiary level study or used by students working alone to learn the words most needed to study at colleges and universities.
The 570 words are divided into 10 sublists. The sublists are ordered such that the words in the first sublist are the most frequent words and those in the last sublist are the least frequent.
The list is available on the Simple English Wiktionary.
External links
- Academic Vocabulary
- Vocabulary in EAP
- http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels/
- University Word List Expanded 880 word University word list (UWL). Site provides personalized tutoring.
- English Vocabulary Exercises (exercises to learn and review the vocabulary contained within the AWL, as well as general English vocabulary).