The Fundamentals of Academic Vocabulary

Essential Concepts for Middle School Students and Their Teachers

by Jennifer Wells Greene

The purpose of this article is to describe the vocabulary needs of middle school students, with a focus on academic vocabulary. In the early grades, when students are learning to read, academic vocabulary demands are relatively limited; and generally speaking, if they can recognize grade-level words, they can understand what they have read. This changes when students reach fourth grade and beyond as they are no longer learning to read; instead, students are expected to read to learn. At the same time students are expected to read texts containing a different kind of vocabulary, academic vocabulary, which is a very different sort of vocabulary than the words we use for general communication. For so many students, those in the general education as well as those in special education and ESL contexts, when word recognition declines, so does solid comprehension of their texts. Teachers of middle school students see this difficulty every day in their classrooms and, given their instructional demands, are often at a loss about how to assist their students with academic vocabulary development. This article has three goals. The first is to define and describe academic vocabulary in relation to other kinds of vocabulary. The second is to develop an understanding of why knowledge of academic vocabulary is so important. Finally, help students focus on and develop their knowledge of academic words by providing a description of a balanced framework of learning activities.

What is academic vocabulary and how is it different from other kinds of vocabulary?

Vocabulary researchers have categorized words based upon their frequency of use for specific purposes. A well-known categorization was developed by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) who conceptualized vocabulary into three tiers. In this conceptualization, Tier 2 words are those that are academic in nature. Coxhead (2000) defined academic words as a type of specialized vocabulary that appears most frequently in written academic text (e.g., textbooks and journal articles) but not very frequently in other kinds of texts or settings (e.g., novels and conversations). Additionally, academic words are often supportive to a topic rather than central to a topic. For example, consider the words "release" and "contrast." These words are frequently used in academic textbooks written for university-level students as well as middle school students (Greene & Coxhead, 2015; Coxhead, 2000); however, when we think about how they might be used, it is easy to see how they would support a topic being discussed. Finally, the third part of Coxhead’s definition of academic words is that they often come from Greek or Latin roots (e.g., "transport" and "export").

A second type of specialized vocabulary is referred to as technical vocabulary (Nation, 2013). Technical words are those that are specifically used in a particular subject area, and as opposed to academic words, technical words are directly related to the topic discussed. Beck and colleagues (2002) refer to technical words as Tier 3 words. Words such as "molecule" and "bacteria" are examples of technical words in middle school science textbooks (Greene & Coxhead, 2015).

Demonstration of Academic and Technical Vocabulary in Text

The following paragraph is an example from a science textbook written for students in the seventh grade. In this paragraph, academic words have been bolded and technical words have been bolded and underlined for easier identification:

As you grow, you pass through different stages in life. Similarly, your cells pass through different stages in their life cycle. The life cycle of a cell is known as the cell cycle. The cell cycle begins when the cell is formed and ends when the cell divides and forms new cells. Before a cell divides it must make a copy of its DNA. DNA contains the information that tells a cell how to make proteins. The DNA of a cell is organized into structures called chromosomes. In some organisms, chromosomes also contain protein. Copying chromosomes ensures that each new cell will be able to survive (Allen, 2004, p. 92).

Seeing a paragraph constructed in this fashion is helpful for understanding the frequency with which academic and technical words appear in written academic text. The paragraph above contains a total of 106 words, and of these, 24 are academic or technical in nature. The technical word "cell" along with its plural form "cells" occurs 11 times throughout this paragraph. The academic word "cycle" occurs four times.

High-Frequency Vocabulary

A well-known list of high-frequency vocabulary is the General Service List (GSL) (West, 1953), which contains about 2,000 word families. West compiled the GSL with the purpose of creating a relatively short list of words that would allow an individual to communicate just about any idea. The GSL has been shown to consistently represent up to 80% of written texts across genres (Nation & Hwang, 1995).

As an example, the following paragraph is taken from The Hunger Games, which is a popular fiction novel written for adolescents and young adults. In this paragraph, all of the words on the GSL are bolded:

I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots. Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I pull on trousers, a shirt, tuck my long dark braid up into a cap, and grab my forage bag. On the table, under a wooden bowl to protect it from hungry rats and cats alike, sits a perfect little goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves. Prim’s gift to me on reaping day. I put the cheese carefully in my pocket as I slip outside (Collins, S., 2008, page 2).

This paragraph contains 87 words, and of those, 87% are part of the GSL, which is excellent coverage and helps to demonstrate how powerful this list really is. None of the words in this paragraph could be classified as academic or technical in nature, which helps to illustrate one of the features of academic words discussed earlier in this section—they occur in academic texts, but not other kinds of texts.

What do the CCSS say about academic language?

There are three significant shifts in learning priorities demonstrated throughout the CCSS (Kapinus, Pimental, & Dean, 2012). These three shifts are:

1. Reading More Difficult Texts: The CCSS require students to read more difficult texts at all grade levels and more nonfiction texts than fiction texts.
2. Focus on Evidence: There is an increased focus on what students glean from reading: evidence.
3. Increased Content Understanding: Students must increase their understanding by synthesizing what they have learned both within and across content areas.

In conclusion, it is clear that today’s students, under the CCSS, need to develop a strong understanding of academic vocabulary as they navigate their academic journey.

What are the priorities for word learning?

Frequency matters when identifying words for study. The first priority for students is a good foundation of high-frequency vocabulary. Middle school students who have a foundational vocabulary in place are ready to focus their attention on academic and technical words. The Middle School Vocabulary Lists (Greene & Coxhead, 2015) provide frequency-based lists of academic and technical words in the content areas of English grammar and writing, health, mathematics, science, and social studies and history.

How can we provide balanced vocabulary instruction in the middle school classroom?

Paul Nation (2007) describes a framework for balanced instruction which includes:

• Learning New Words through Listening and Reading: Students need to hear academic and technical words repeatedly to assist their understanding of meaning.
• Learning New Words through Speaking and Writing: Students need to incorporate academic and technical words throughout their speaking and writing activities.

Language-Focused Learning Activities

Examples of language-focused learning activities include:

• Vocabulary cards
• Word sorting
• Word chaining
• Word-learning journals
• Semantic feature analysis

Fluency Activities

Fluency activities are important as they require students to use target academic and technical words during timed speaking and writing events.

References

1. Allen, K. Z., Berg, L. R., & Dusheck, J. (2004). Holt science and technology: Life science. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
2. Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
3. Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY: Scholastic.
4. Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213–238.