“Academic Vocabulary, Writing and English for Academic Purposes: Perspectives from Second Language Learners”
Article Summary
“Academic Vocabulary, Writing and English for Academic Purposes: Perspectives from Second Language Learners”
Averil Coxhead (2012) conducted a research on the use of English vocabulary in Writing and Academic purpose by involving with 14 students of English as an additional language at a New Zealand university. The research was mainly conducted through the experience obtained from background language learning and academic studies of the students by mainly based on two target questions: 1. What effect does an academic context have on the lexical choices of the participants in this study? 2. What academic conventions do these writers employ to incorporate vocabulary into their writing? After assigning the task for the students, Coxhead made an interview with all of them and found two main reasons showing the extent of importance of academic vocabulary.
The first main reason of the two is the selection and rejection of the words for certain contexts and audiences to which the text is intended. The research shows that some students from different areas of academic studies find academic vocabulary very important for their academic writing because those words can make their writing sound realistic and professional. Some students suggest that those who are involved in academic study should read as much as possible in order to expand their vocabulary; however, they should use it in certain circumstances because very formal writing is not always needed.
The last one is the use of academic words in quotation for the sake of safety. Some students of the research use quotation as a mean of mistake avoidance since they believe that the words used by source text are academically accurate. So they just include those words in their writing and simply keep them unabridged. Although quotation is seen to be a safe way to avoid word use mistakes, some still find it a risky way because they do not have much confidence about the words they use; and
“Academic Vocabulary, Writing and English for Academic Purposes: Perspectives from Second Language Learners”
Averil Coxhead (2012) conducted a research on the use of English vocabulary in Writing and Academic purpose by involving with 14 students of English as an additional language at a New Zealand university. The research was mainly conducted through the experience obtained from background language learning and academic studies of the students by mainly based on two target questions: 1. What effect does an academic context have on the lexical choices of the participants in this study? 2. What academic conventions do these writers employ to incorporate vocabulary into their writing? After assigning the task for the students, Coxhead made an interview with all of them and found two main reasons showing the extent of importance of academic vocabulary.
The first main reason of the two is the selection and rejection of the words for certain contexts and audiences to which the text is intended. The research shows that some students from different areas of academic studies find academic vocabulary very important for their academic writing because those words can make their writing sound realistic and professional. Some students suggest that those who are involved in academic study should read as much as possible in order to expand their vocabulary; however, they should use it in certain circumstances because very formal writing is not always needed.
The last one is the use of academic words in quotation for the sake of safety. Some students of the research use quotation as a mean of mistake avoidance since they believe that the words used by source text are academically accurate. So they just include those words in their writing and simply keep them unabridged. Although quotation is seen to be a safe way to avoid word use mistakes, some still find it a risky way because they do not have much confidence about the words they use; and