Academic Vocabulary

1. Academic Vocabulary

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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 Academic Vocabulary Learning

5. Do you think studying academic vocabulary will be helpful?

6. This semester, we will focus on learning academic vocabulary

7. Academic Vocabulary In each unit this semester, approximately 100 word families from the academic word list will appear.

8. Keeping 4 principles in mind will help you develop your vocabulary as much as possible this semester

10. Vocabulary Learning Strategies

11. In order to develop your vocabulary, you should keep 4 main principles in mind

12. 4 Main Principles Number 1 You should be active in developing your understanding of words and ways to learn them

13. Active Learning Strategies • Semantic Mapping: Making a graphic representation of the relationship between words

14. Semantic Mapping desertification deforestation climate change global warming erosion extinction of species air pollution water pollution

15. Active Learning Strategies • Definition Mapping: Working with grammar, meaning, and sample sentences

16. Active Learning Strategies • Grouping: Recognizing the relatedness of a word to other words

17. massive extensive Words that Describe Large Scale enormous huge immense vast Grouping

18. 4 Main Principles Number 2 You should personalize your vocabulary learning

19. Personalized Learning Strategies • Choosing words: Identify key concepts and the words required to understand these concepts

20. Personalized Learning Strategies • Choosing words: Identify important terms you need to learn

21. Personalized Learning Strategies • Choosing words: Identify meaningful similarities and differences among the concepts / words being studied

22. 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.

23. 4 Main Principles Number 3 You should be immersed in words

24. Immersion in Words • Opportunities: Put yourself in a word- and language-rich environment

25. Immersion in Words • Opportunities: Become aware of words and how they are used in the input you receive

26. Immersion in Words • Opportunities: Try to use new / interesting words in your speaking and writing

27. 4 Main Principles Number 4 You should use multiple sources of information to learn words through repeated exposures

28. Repeated Exposure • Opportunities: Watch television news / programs that are related to the topic of environment

29. Repeated Exposure • Opportunities: Read newspaper / magazine articles related to the topic on environment

30. Repeated Exposure • Opportunities: Discuss environment-related topics with friends, family, classmates, etc

31. 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

32. Keeping these 4 principles in mind will help you develop your vocabulary as much as possible this semester

34. Two important elements of vocabulary learning • Quality: How well do you know each word?

35. Quality Goal: To improve how much you know about each word

36. Quality • Spoken Form: What does the word sound like? How is it pronounced?

37. Quality • Written Form: What does the word look like? How is it written?

38. Quality • Meaning: What meaning does this form of the word have? for example: consider vs. considerably individual vs. individualism

39. Quality • Concepts: What things can the concept refer to? for example: fertile soil fertile mind

40. Quality • Associations: What other words does this word make you think of? for example: fundamentally - basically vast - massive - huge - extensive

41. 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

42. Quality • Collocations: What words or type of words occur with this word? for example: • complex problem • complex issue • complex person • complex idea

43. 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

44. Quantity Goal: To increase the number of words you know

45. Quantity Educated adult native speakers of English know approximately 20,000 word families

46. Quantity College freshman ESL students know approximately 2,000 - 3,000 word families

47. 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

48. Quantity 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

49. Quantity 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

50. Quantity 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