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Academic vocabulary

ISLV teacher MGSR

Created on June 10, 2020

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Lengua Inglesa

Vocabulary

Profesora: Sánchez Reinaffé, Mariela

Vocabulary

Types of words within the category of vocabulary

What is academic vocabulary?

One broad definition is the vocabulary which can be used in academic contexts. The problem here though is what do we mean by 'academic contexts'? Does this mean spoken contexts (e.g. lectures, seminars, presentations), written contexts (e.g. essays, articles, reports), or both? It depends on what subject we are talking about. The academic vocabulary necessary for writing a science laboratory report (e.g. apparatus, procedure, errors) has some differences from the academic vocabulary which might be used in social science research (e.g. survey, population, sample), though of course they would also have much in common.

In general, academic vocabulary can be classified in:

GENERAL WORDS

NON-GENERAL 'ACADEMIC' WORDS

TECHNICAL WORDS SPECIFIC FOR A PARTICULAR SUBJECT AREA

Many general words can be used in academic contexts. The aim of this report is to... What I want to talk about today is... There are several possible reasons for this, for example... In comparison, the control group... Spoken English is more informal than academic English. It uses phrases like 'like' and things like that. Acid rain is a bad thing for all of us.

General vocabulary can also include general words which have special meaning in academic contexts. Examples include: discipline general meaning: training people to obey rules academic meaning: a subject of study. population general meaning: the number of people living in a country/region academic meaning: all individuals who could possibly be included in a study/survey control general meaning: power over sb/sth academic meaning: a group used in a scientific experiment to check results In this case, it is important to focus on both the MEANING and USAGE of these general vocabulary items.

Profesora: Sánchez Reinaffé , Mariela

Technical Words You must stydy this group of words to improve your technical vocabulary. These are words that are specific to a particular field of study. Examples are photosynthesis (for biology), inertia (for physics), externalities (for economics). What is subject-specific vocabulary? Each subject has words which are either used specifically in that subject area (and not in general English), or common words which are used with special meaning in that subject area. Such words are known as technical, domain-specific or subject-specific words.

The following are two examples of non-general words used in the subject area of genetics: haploid: an organism or cell having only one complete set of chromosomes; diploid: an organism or cell having two sets of chromosomes or twice the haploid number. These can be difficult even for native speakers to learn, though native speakers may have some advantage in being able to recognise prefixes, suffixes or roots which give the word meaning, e.g. 'di-' in diploid, meaning 'two'.

Another type of subject-specific vocabulary are similar to the type of academic vocabulary in which general words have a special meaning in academic contexts. Such words take on a special meaning according to the subject they are being used in, as shown in the examples. class general: a group of students who are taught together biology: taxonomic group containing one or more orders family general: a social unit living together biology: a taxonomic group containing one or more genera, e.g. 'sharks belong to the fish family' cohesion general: the state of cohering or sticking together botany: the process in some plants of parts growing together that are usually separate (e.g. petals) physics: the intermolecular force that holds together the molecules in a solid or liquid language: how parts of a text are connected together .

List of some subject-specific words

What to study What aspects of a word you study will depend on how you want to use it. If you want to use it in your writing, you will need to understand about: the spelling of the word its part of speech its usage (any grammar rules associated with the word) any common collocations (other words which commonly go with this word) If you want to use it when speaking, or understand it when you hear it, then you will also need to know: it pronunciation Other aspects which are important are: the word family, so that you can use it more flexibly in your writing or speaking (especially useful for paraphrasing) how common the word is (you cannot study every single word!) whether the word is an academic (formal) word or not

thanks for your attention

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