Using the Academic Word List

Challenges of Teaching Vocabulary

Students come knowing many commonly used words Know the simplest forms Know the most frequently used meanings of multi-meaning

words Students need content area vocabulary Students also need all-purpose academic words

Category labels Words for thinking Abstract, hard to picture terms

Snow, C.A. (2007). Learning all-purpose vocabulary words. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from www.cal.org/create/downloads/CREATEwebcast_snow9-6-07.ppt

Challenge: Students need all-purpose academic words, e.g.

Words for thinking: hypothesize, evidence, criterion

Words for classifying: vehicle, utensil, process

Words for communication: emphasize, affirm, negotiate

Words for expressing relationships: dominate, correspond, locate

Snow, C.A. (2007). Learning all-purpose vocabulary words. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from www.cal.org/create/downloads/CREATEwebcast_snow9-6-07.ppt

What is the Academic Word List?

List of 570 words with their “families”

Does not include first 2000 most commonly used English words

Result of Averil Coxhead’s MA work at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Find a copy at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/wordlists.htm

Find lists with “families”: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Averil-Coxhead/awl/sublists.html

Find list with hyperlinked definitions: http://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Academic_word_list#Sublist_1

Find list with hyperlinked definitions to multiple (25-30) online dictionary definitions: http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CiLL/eap/wordlists.htm

For detail on the development and evaluation of the AWL, see Coxhead, Averil (2000) A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2): 213-238.

Where did the words come from?

Academic corpus covering 28 subjects Corpus had 3.5 million words from journal articles, book

chapters, course workbooks, laboratory manuals, and course notes

Words divided into 4 main subject headings: Arts, Commerce, Law and Science

These were further divided into seven sections each Words additionally had to appear in at least half of the 28 subject

areas and be represented in all 4 main areas 94% of AWL words appeared in 20 or more subject areas of

corpus

What words were excluded?

First 2000 most commonly used English words

Latin forms et al, etc, ie, and ibid

Proper nouns

Words which occurred in fewer than 4 faculty sections of the Academic Corpus or which occurred in fewer than 15 of the 28 subject areas

What are the first 2000?

In part, this is heavily influenced by The General Service List (GSL) created by Michael West in 1953

Words were selected based on frequency and semantic value

To see: http://jbauman.com/gsl.html Use of corpora continues to inform

vocabulary study

Use any text to teach AWL

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htm

Enter text Choose word list All words from this list

will appear in boldface

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlgapmaker.htm

Enter text Choose words list All words from this list

will appear as a gap and words appear as list on bottom of page

How can this be applied to classroom instruction?

Use articles, book passages, benchmark passages Enter text into highlighter and choose AWL 1 Read text together, using context clues to

understand meaning Enter text into gap maker Without using highlighted text, can students enter

correct word from choices? For texts with AWL words already highlighted:

http://www.uefap.com/vocab/exercise/exercise.htm

Research-based Principles of Vocabulary Instruction

Introduce and discuss words Ensure affective engagement Engage students in using the words Ensure recurrent exposures Celebrate successes Encourage experimentation

How do we choose specific words to teach directly?

Use information gleaned from AWL highlighter Choose at random from AWL list Introduce about 5 per week to focus on Direct instruction on Monday Continue to focus on throughout week Use frequently! Whenever possible draw attention to the word in a

text Encourage students to use the words in context Create a Word Wall to remind everyone

How can a Word Wall contribute to vocabulary instruction?

Must be visible to all students Must grow organically as well as methodologically Must be consistently referred to by teacher For ideas on dealing with space issues:

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?noframes;read=2625

To see a video of a teacher implementing this strategy: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8b375a3269223e13dab5

How do I build a Word Wall?

Choose a format that works for you Half sheets of scrap paper Chart paper White or chalk board

Add words daily. Refer to the words whenever possible. Add words that are directly taught or which come up in discussion of text.

How can the students use the Word Wall?

Students will look to the wall when teacher draws attention to a word

Students will remember where the word is, and use the wall as a reminder for recall and for spelling

Students can take the burden off the teacher by being responsible for adding that day’s words

Can students study on their own?

Note cards Computer note cards Vocabulary notebooks Foldables©

A way of presenting information that is fun and creative

For ideas see: http://www.lauracandler.com/reading/VocabFoldDir.pdf

Knowledge Rating Scale

WordKnow It Well Have Seen or

Heard ItHave No Clue

Knowledge Rating Scale

WordKnow It

WellHave Seen or Heard It

Have No

Clue

What It Means

How can students learn and remember the meaning of the words?

Look up the meanings of the words in the dictionary Link the words to previous knowledge Make a spider diagram for each word For example, a spider diagram for concept could look like this:

                                                          

What about dictionaries?

Dictionaries are of course useful, but direct instruction on how to use is imperative

Have students work in small groups to find meanings

Try having “dictionary races” to decrease amount of time spent looking up words

Which Dictionary? Lower Levels The Oxford Student’s Dictionary The Longman Active Study Dictionary The Macmillan Essential Dictionary The Oxford Wordpower Dictionary

More advanced levels The Longman Contemporary English Dictionary The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Many dictionaries have study skills pages, CD-ROM and on-line resources for students.

Dictionaries on the Web

Macmillanwww.macmillandictionaries.comOxford University Presswww.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/oald7/?cc=trLongmanwww.longman.com/dictionaries/international.htmlCambridge University Presshttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Using a Vocabulary Profiler

lextutor.ca Allows us to see what level the words in a

text are Can help inform vocabulary instruction

How to use lextutor.ca

Use Internet Explorer as a browser Go to http://lextutor.ca/ In the second column, click on Vocabprofile Click on VP English v. 2.9 Highlight everything in textbox Paste your copied text into box (Control + V) Below textbox on right side, click “submit_window” Scroll down to see the color coded text

Resources Waring, R. & Nation, P. (n.d.) Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists.

Retrieved January 30, 2009 from http://www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/fltr/germ/etan/bibs/vocab/cup.html

Vicotoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. (September 3, 2007). The Academic Word List. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Averil-Coxhead/awl/links.html

McCullah, W. (2003-2007). Word surfing: Recommended vocabulary tests and exercises. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from http://www.wordsurfing.co.uk/17.html

UEFAP. (n.d.) Vocabulary in EAP: Selecting vocabulary to learn. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from http://www.uefap.com/vocab/vocfram.htm

English Corner (n.d.) English grammar exercises. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from http://www.angelfire.com/wi3/englishcorner/vocabulary/vocabulary.html#cloze

For product information: http://elt.heinle.com/cgi-telt/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M80&discipline_number=301&subject_code=VAI02