Academic Word List

An Introduction to the Academic Word List Aver iI Coxhoad, Massey Uni versity? New Zealand What is the Academic Word Listand fami ly members* ? Take for examp Ie the word maximise? Its fami ly members include inflections of the verb such as maximised. maximises and maximising as we 11 as the noun maximum. The word fami ly a I so includes the British speI Iing of the noun maximisation, as we I I as maximization, the US spe11ing. The Academic Word List (AWL) is a Iist of 570 word famiIies that are commonly found in academic texts? This I ist was selected by examining a Iarge corpus (or col lection) of wr itten academic texts and selecting the words that occurred: In texts from a I Ifour academic In texts from a I I four academic facuIty sections: Arts, Commerce, Law and Science? Over 100 times in the corpus overal l? At least 10 times in each academic faculty section? Outs i de the 2000 most frequent words on Michael West* s Genera/ Service List (GSL). The GSL includes everyday words such as I, house and do. These principles ensured that only words that occurred reasonably frequently i n a var iety of study areas were selected? The AV/L targets vocabulary that occurs most often in written academic texts? These words a I so occur in newspapers but not as often as they do i n textbooks? The AWL words appear even I ess in fiction. If your focus is learning academic vocabulary, you need to make sure you read academic textbooks so that you encounter these words i n context? How is the AWL organized The AWL is organized into Word FamiI ies? Word fami Iies are made up of the * parent word to recognise other fami ly members such as maximised when you encounter them in your reading? These words are closely related and the meaning is IikeIy to be the same or similar? When you are looking for words in thi s dictionary, think about other word famiIy members too.