Academic vocabulary in ESL student papers: A corpus-based study

Abstract

Knowledge of core academic vocabulary plays a major role in many gate keeping tests for higher education and is critical to successful academic performance. While researchers have described the linguistic characteristics of academic language use from a variety of perspectives, including the use of academic vocabulary, many of the investigations focus on the texts that students are exposed to or discuss how to teach those words. Yet, relatively few studies explore how students actually use these words in their scholarly papers.The goal of the present study is to investigate academic vocabulary use by non-native English speaker writers situated in a higher educational classroom setting. First, we explore relationships between the amount of academic vocabulary employed and the perceived quality of student writing. Second, we examine differences in the use of academic words across assignments, drafts, and levels of instruction.Results showed significant relationships between academic vocabulary use and essay scores in some text-types, and differences in the way academic vocabulary is used across text-types and levels of instruction, independent of the drafts. A closer analysis showed that rhetorical purposes have a strong impact on the amount of academic vocabulary used. Also, no difference between drafts calls for pedagogical considerations.