Who’s
Afraid of the AWL?
The Academic Word List has gotten a lot of attention over the last few
years, but what is it really all about? Making sense of the AWL and
implementing it in your teaching is straightforward. But it only works
if you have the right information. …
What is
the Academic Word List?
The Academic Word List is neither the most common words in English nor
is it content-area-specific jargon. It is a list of words that are
frequently used in all areas of academic English. It was developed by
Averil Coxhead through a global survey of academic language across
subject areas.
Coxhead found that the 2,000 most common words in English are also
common in academic texts, but that another group of 570 words were
common only in academic English. These words form a common core of all
academic texts and separates academic language from everyday language.
Knowing the AWL in addition to the 2,000 most common words allows
students to make the jump from everyday conversations to understanding
some 90% of all the words in any academic text.
We have taken the principles of the AWL and implemented them in several course books, including Contemporary Topics, Reading Power, and World of Reading. If you have to use another course book, you can still teach the Academic Word List by adding Vocabulary Power or Focus on Vocabulary.
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