Academic vocabulary
Daniel Gerrard
daniel.gerrard@cjv.muni.cz
What is academic vocabulary?
Characteristics of academic vocabulary
Academic vocabulary is often described as:
̶ formal
̶ precise
̶ objective
̶ complex
But what do these terms actually mean? See here for more:
https://www.monash.edu/rlo/research-writing-assignments/writing/features-of-academic-writing/academic-language
http://www.uefap.net/writing/writing-features/writing-features-introduction
Academic vs. technical vocabulary
Academic or technical? (1)
̶ Academic vocabulary (or ‘sub-technical’): Words that are
high frequency across a range of academic disciplines and less
frequent outside academic discourse.
(Webb and Nation 2017)
̶ Technical vocabulary: Words that are high in frequency in a
particular subject area and less frequent outside that area (for
example, in medicine: ‘pulmonary’, ‘anaemia’).
Academic or technical? (2)
Firms around the world increasingly deploy political strategies
collectively with other firms (e.g., through industry associations) to
affect government policy outcomes to their advantage, often reaping
significant economic rents when they are successful. The basic logic
behind these collective political strategies traces its origins back to
the economic theories of regulation and rent-seeking, which
consider the government a source of economic rents that are
pursued by firms and interest groups.
Taken from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41267-019-00238-4
Academic or technical? (3)
Firms around the world increasingly deploy political strategies
collectively with other firms (e.g., through industry associations) to
affect government policy outcomes to their advantage, often
reaping significant economic rents when they are successful. The
basic logic behind these collective political strategies traces its
origins back to the economic theories of regulation and
rent-seeking, which consider the government a source of
economic rents that are pursued by firms and interest groups.
Taken from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41267-019-00238-4
The Academic Word List (AWL)
What is the AWL?
̶ 570 most frequent academic word families
̶ 10 sub-lists (ranked by frequency)
̶ 10% coverage of written academic texts (40 words per page)
̶ Developed by Averil Coxhead (2000)
̶ Aimed at students on English Medium Instruction programmes
(Coxhead 2000; Webb and Nation 2017)
Headwords and word families
How many do you know already?
Answer key (Test A)
How to use the AWL
Useful links and resources
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
Technical vocabulary: business studies
Business word list (Coventry University)
UEFAP Business studies list