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How Can I Help My Students Learn Academic Vocabulary?

By Robin Scarcella, Ph.D.

What is Academic English?

Academic English is the language used by the educated and by leaders in business, academic, and other professional disciplines. It is the type of English used in professional books, including textbooks, and it contains specific linguistic features that are associated with academic disciplines including health. Proficiency in reading and using academic English is especially related to long-term success in all aspects of life.

Academic vocabulary is the basis for academic English. By reinforcing academic vocabulary and academic English, teachers help learners to access authentic, academic texts-not simplified texts that dummy down the content. In this way they can provide information that will help build their students' background knowledge rapidly.

What is Academic Vocabulary?

By the time children have completed elementary school, they must have acquired the knowledge needed to understand academic vocabulary. How many words should they acquire to be able to access their textbooks? A basic 2,000 word vocabulary of high-frequency words makes up 87 percent of the vocabulary of academic texts. Eight hundred other academic words comprise an additional 8 percent of the words. Three percent of the remaining words are technical words. The remaining two percent are low-frequency words. There may be as many as 123,000 low-frequency words in academic texts.

Why Should Students Learn Academic Vocabulary?

English learners who have mastered a basic 2,000-word vocabulary are ready to acquire the majority of general words found in their academic texts. Knowledge of academic words combined with continued acquisition of general words can significantly boost an English learner's comprehension level of academic texts. English learners who learn and practice these words before they graduate from high school are likely to be able to master academic material with more confidence and speed. They waste less time and effort in guessing words or consulting dictionaries than those who only know the basic 2,000 words that characterize general conversation.

Also, consider academic success in terms of measurement and assessment-state standards-based assessments, the SAT, the ACT, and the GRE-with regards to word mastery. All demand an understanding of academic vocabulary.

How Do I Include Academic Vocabulary and Academic English in My Teaching?

Teachers can provide their students with rich samples of academic vocabulary and help students understand and attend to the academic English of their texts.

To develop academic English, learners must have already acquired a large amount of basic proficiency in the grammar of everyday English.

Academic English should not be taught overtly, but rather within contexts that make sense. In terms of instruction, teaching academic English includes providing students with access to core curriculum-in this case in the health classroom.

Academic English arises not only from knowledge of a linguistic code and cognition but also from social practices in which academic English is used to accomplish communicative goals. The acquisition of academic vocabulary and grammar is necessary to advance the development of academic English.