Academic Word List 1:
Learning Academic Vocabulary
Introduction
At university you need to use academic vocabulary. In this lesson you will be given the tools needed to improve your knowledge of academic vocabulary. You will also be able to practise a range of strategies for learning vocabulary effectively.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson you will be better able to:
* Key tasks: 3, 4, 5, 6
Each task with a star * indicates that this is a key task and must be completed.
Consolidation: Reflective Journal
Working by yourself
Learning Academic Vocabulary
Task 1
What is Academic Vocabulary?
Task 1a: Before watching
What are the two types of Academic Vocabulary?
Task 1b: While watching
You will now watch a video about Academic Vocabulary.
Take notes as you watch and check your answer to Task 1a
Video used with permission, courtesy of Griffith University, and Griffith University English Help, Australia.
Task 1c: After watching
Answer the questions below.
  1. How many words does the Academic Word List contain?
  2. Which words are contained in Sub-list 1?
  3. Choose the correct ending for the sentence from the video

    You need to read, hear, speak and write a word:

    • a) in different languages to really know it.
    • b) in different contexts to really know it.
    • c) in different voices to really know it.
  4. Nominalisation is changing a verb, adjective or adverb into a noun.

    After changing the word, what else might we need to change?

    "Its p________ in the sentence and o_______ w_______"

  5. Can you remember how to change the following sentences?
    • a. It took a long time to collect data.
    • b. We have made the model more applicable.
    • c. Health experts don't understand why the disease is so prevalent.
Check your understanding
Task 2
Vocabulary notebook
What is your opinion about using a vocabulary notebook? Choose the sentence below which best suits you and record your answers for later use in your Reflective Journal.
You will not receive a mark for this work but you should consider the feedback you get carefully, as it will help you improve your speaking.
Go to >> My Reflective Journal
* Task 3
The Academic Word List (AWL)
In these vocabulary lessons, you will review some words from the AWL and you will review strategies of how to learn them.
You will read the text below, which is adapted from an introductory textbook on sociology.
Task 3a: Before Reading
The extract focuses on four factors that influence our social development today.
Can you guess what these four factors are? Note down your answers.
Task 3b: While Reading
Now read the text and check your ideas.
Do you agree with the authors?
Social forces that shape our lives
Every social experience we have affects us in at least some small way. In modern industrial and post-industrial societies, however, there are four familiar influences that have a special significance in the socialisation process. They are the family, schooling, peer groups and the mass media.
The family is the most important agent of socialisation because it represents the centre of children's lives. At least until the start of schooling, the family is responsible for teaching children cultural values, attitudes, and prejudices about themselves and others. How a child views a world largely stems from the early environment that adults create. Parenting styles aside, parental attention is important in the social development of children. Physical contact, verbal stimulation and openness from parents and others all encourage intellectual growth. The family also confers on children a specific social position; that is, parents not only bring children into the physical world, they also place them in society in terms of race, ethnicity, religion and class. In time, all these elements become part of a child's self-concept. Of course, some aspects of social position may change later on, but social standing at birth affects us throughout our lives.
Schooling stretches children's social worlds to include people with social backgrounds that differ from their own. As children encounter social diversity, they learn the significance society gives to people's race and sex, and they often act accordingly; for instance, studies document the tendency of children to gather together in play groups composed of one race and gender. Formally, schooling teaches children a wide range of knowledge and skills, but schools provide a host of other lessons informally through what sociologists call the 'hidden curriculum'. Many school activities teach children key cultural values such as competitive success, as well as messages supporting their society's way of life as morally good. Children entering school also soon discover that evaluations of skills like reading and arithmetic are based on impersonal, standardised test. Here the focus changes from who they are to how they perform. The confidence or anxiety that children develop at home can have a significant effect on how well they perform in school. Schools also socialise children with regard to gender. Although gender roles are evolving, gender distinctions persist right through school and even university. Women, for example, encounter pressure to choose degrees in the arts and humanities, while men are steered toward the physical sciences. School is also most children's first experience with rigid formality. The school runs on a strict timetable and children are encouraged to conform to impersonal rules and be on time. Both conformity and punctuality are the kinds of behaviour expected by most large organisations that will employ the same children later in life.
By the time they have entered school, children have also discovered the peer group, a social group, whose members have interests, social position, and age in common. While a young child's peer group is generally made up of neighbourhood friends, later peer groups are composed of friends from school or elsewhere. This peer group allows young people to escape from the direct control of adults. With this new-found independence, members of peer groups gain valuable experience in forming social relationships of their own and developing a sense of themselves apart from their families. In a rapidly changing society, peer groups often rival parents in influence as the attitudes of parents and children separate along the lies of 'generation gap'. The dominance of peer groups is typically strongest during adolescence. At this stage of life, young people often show anxious conformity to peers because this new identity and sense of belonging eases some of the anxiety brought on by emotional distancing from the family. The conflict between parents and peers may be more apparent than real, however, for even during the teenage years, children remain strongly influenced by their families. Peers may guide short-term concerns but parents retain greater influence over the long-term goals of their children.
The fourth major influence on social development is the mass media - impersonal communications directed to a vast audience. They are an important part of the socialisation process and TV has been shown to be the most dominant means of communication. Figures vary by group, nation, class and gender but years before children learn to read, watching TV might be a regular habit. Some studies show that children spend as much time watching TV as they do interacting with their parents.
Adapted from Macionis, J.J. and Plummer, K. (1997). Sociology: A global introduction. New York: Prentice Hall Europe
Task 3c: After reading
As the text was written in 1997, the modern phenomenon of social media has not been mentioned.
* Task 4
Word meaning
Many words have more than one meaning. Use context clues - words and phrases around the word - to decide which meaning fits.
Task 4a: After reading
Read the target words below and choose which dictionary definition reflects how the word is used in the article above.
  1. significance
    1. the meaning of a word, sign, action etc. especially when this is not immediately clear
    2. the importance of an event, action etc. especially because of the influences it will have in the future
  2. process
    1. a system or a treatment of materials that is used to produce goods
    2. a series of human actions or operations that are performed intentionally to reach a particular result
  3. aspect
    1. the direction in which a window, room or door faces
    2. one part of a situation, idea, plan, etc. that has many parts
  4. rigid
    1. physically stiff and not moving and bending
    2. strict or difficult to change
  5. distinction
    1. a clear difference between things
    2. the quality of being unusually good
  6. conflict
    1. a state of disagreement or argument between people, groups, countries etc.
    2. a situation in which there is no choice between two or more opposing things
  7. apparent
    1. seeming to be real or true, although it may not really be so
    2. easily noticed or understood
  8. retain
    1. to keep something or continue to have something
    2. to keep facts in your memory
(Adapted from Schmitt, D. & Schmitt, N. (2011). Focus on Vocabulary 2. White Plains New York: Pearson)
Check your understanding
* Task 5
Word meaning
By learning a word's family, you will recognise words more quickly when you read or listen, and you will express yourself more clearly when you write and speak.
Task 5a: After reading
Complete the table below, which shows the word families for the some of the target words from the article. An x indicates that there is no form or that the form is not common.
Verb Noun Adjective Adverb
conform X X
contact contact X
X distinction
  1. dominance
  2. domination
X
X ethnicity
evaluation
persist persistently
X rigid
X significance
vary X
Check your understanding
Task 5b: After reading
Now study the table in 5a and identify any spelling patterns for verb, noun, adjective and adverb forms of the words. List the patterns you find in the table below.
Verb Noun Adjective Adverb
(Adapted from Schmitt, D. And Schmitt, N. (2011). Focus on Vocabulary 2. White Plains New York: Pearson)
Check your understanding
* Task 6
Collocations
You need to learn which words form partnerships with one another. These partnerships are called collocations. For example, we can say 'He had a change in attitude' but not 'He had an alteration in attitude'. We also talk about people's attitudes toward something, not with something.
Task 6a: After reading
In the set of sentences below, you will see the target word paired with different words to form different collocations. Choose from these collocations to complete the last sentence. You may need to change the form of one word in the collocation to fit the sentence.
  1. retain
    1. The government retained control of the banks.
    2. Universities retain close ties with past graduates through their alumni associations.
    3. Elderly people usually wish to retain their independence even after suffering mobility issues.
      4. The police set up barriers to ___________________ of the crowd.
  2. confer
    1. The University conferred an honorary doctoral degree on its Chancellor.
    2. Having a strong research portfolio confers a high status on a university.
    3. The Queen confers titles on people who have provided exceptional service to the country.
      4. Wearing brands can ________________ on teenagers in the eyes of their peers.
  3. conflict
    1. A heavy workload, poor condition and personality conflicts are causes of stress a work.
    2. Stem cell research raises potential conflict between scientific progress and ethics.
    3. The government had no wish to embark on an armed conflict with its neighbour.
      4. The political leaders were unable to stop the peaceful protests from developing into _____________________.
  4. process
    1. Finding a solution to global warming is a continuing process.
    2. The decision-making process in large organisations can be unmanageable.
    3. Quality control must be in place in all phases of the production process.
      4. The Industrial Revolution led to major changes in the _________________ of human-made goods.
  5. attitude
    1. People who have a positive attitude toward life tend to live longer.
    2. Many people adopt a wait-and-see attitude to changes in technology.
    3. Students often express unfavourable attitudes about audio feedback.
      4. The younger generation have developed _______________ toward the older generation.
  6. document
    1. The two World Wars have been amply documented.
    2. The contents of the art gallery had to be fully documented for insurance purposes.
    3. The report carefully documents the development of the new vaccination.
      4. The causes of many social problems have not been ______________ because research is still ongoing.
  7. range
    1. The supermarket stocks an extensive range of ethnic foods.
    2. Due to food shortages, the restaurant only offered a restricted range of meals.
    3. The college offers a surprising range of degrees despite its small size.
      4. The menu was only suitable for a ________________ of customers because of the lack of vegetarian options.
  8. concept
    1. Today's lecture will examine the concept of culture in a multicultural society.
    2. Sociologists are trying to develop the concept of a global village.
    3. The course aims to introduce the concept of equality in all aspects of a business.
      4. The lecturer ______________ of social change in the first seminar.
Check your understanding
The Academic Collocations List is a compilation of collocations for words in the AWL. You can find it here: https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/academic/acl/
End of section