Master Academic Vocabulary
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Illustrations: Unsplash, authors: Elisa Calvet B
By Svetlana Bogolepova,
Ph.D. in Linguistics, Associate Professor and
Programme Academic Supervisor at HSE University.
She completed the School of Trainers and ran a workshop at the Academic Writing Center.
What is academic vocabulary?
Some words and phrases are more frequent in academic texts but rather rare in everyday speech. This is academic vocabulary. The term “academic vocabulary” is viewed in two ways: as content-specific vocabulary, and as general academic vocabulary (Baumann & Graves, 2010, p. 6). We will focus on the latter, defined by Coxhead (2000) as “lexical items [that] occur frequently and uniformly across a wide range of academic material” (p. 218).
So how do we differentiate between academic and everyday vocabulary? Academic vocabulary has certain unique features. It is usually less frequent vocabulary with a specific meaning performing such functions as reporting, hedging, describing research, describing causal relationships, interpreting, etc. For example, if we compare the words to say and to contend, we will see that to contend is less frequent and more formal with a narrow meaning “to say that something is true or is a fact.” It can be used to report your own or somebody else’s ideas.
Academic vocabulary lists contain vocabulary units specific to academic discourse, and these lists are easily found online. For example, here you can find both such a list and exercises to practice academic vocabulary in context.
As already mentioned, academic vocabulary tends to be less frequent than its everyday counterpart. You can use this tool to look for less frequent and more formal equivalents of familiar words. However, keep it in mind that 100% synonyms do not exist. Check the examples of use to make sure the words are used in contexts in a similar way.
How do linguists know what words are frequent in academic contexts?
How can you boost your academic vocabulary?
As vocabulary learning, and language learning in general, is incremental, it is necessary to expose yourself to as much academic discourse as possible. For example, you can listen to academic lectures and presentations online. To learn more about effective listening strategies and resources, read our blogs.
It is also advisable to read professional literature in your specialisation. When you listen or read, you encounter words common for academic language, which strengthens the memory of these words. Besides, your brain creates an understanding of how these units are used in a context. Highlighting and copying phrases used in different parts of articles in your specialisation for different communicative purposes will provide you with chunks you can use in your writing.
Finally, you can check if your writing is academic enough using online tools such as vocabulary checkers. The presence of academic vocabulary will ensure face validity of your text, its perceived suitability for academic discourse. You should keep in mind that academic vocabulary mostly includes infrequent and high-level (B2-C2) words, so you can also use such tools as Text Inspector to check the level of vocabulary units in your text. However, clarity of the message and appropriacy of linguistic means should not be sacrificed for the sake of the number of academic vocabulary units used in your texts.
Summary
To summarise, to master academic vocabulary you can follow a number of steps and use technology to aid you:
- Use www.thesaurus.com to look for less frequent and more formal equivalents of familiar words.
- Check the examples of use to make sure the words are used in contexts in a similar way.
- Check online lists of academic vocabulary and practice.
- Use corpora to find out how academic words are used in context.
- Expose yourself to as much academic discourse as possible by reading and listening extensively.
- Use vocabulary checkers to make sure your text is academic enough.
References
Baumann, J. & Graves, M. (2010). What is academic vocabulary? Journal Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(1), 2010.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213–238.
Nation, P. (2011). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.