ANALYZING LEXICAL FEATURES AND ACADEMIC VOCABULARY IN ACADEMIC WRITING

Abstract

Introduction. Academic writing is considered to be an important means of sharing knowledge and academic experience. The article investigates lexical features of academic writing and academic vocabulary, correlation of academic vocabulary and writing proficiency. The main objective of teaching EAP is the development and further improvement of communicative skills of post-graduate students in professional and academic fields. There is a reasonable necessity to study and improve practical aspects of foreign language education of postgraduate students, contributing to the effective mastering of English for academic purposes (EAP), development of academic writing skills, mastering academic vocabulary. The purpose of the research is to analyze such lexical features as lexical diversity, lexical complexity, lexical density, word frequency and academic vocabulary usage of postgraduate students’ academic writing outcomes in the process of learning English for academic purposes. Theoretical and practical methods of research have been used in the article: theoretical analysis of scientific researches, methods of logical generalization, observation, analyses of EAP students’ academic writing outcomes. Results of the research. The article highlights specific peculiarities of academic writing like formal structure, specific rules, citation, traditional English grammar usage, punctuation, spelling etc. In the frame of the article we explored lexical features and academic vocabulary in English academic writing of EAP learners’ in the process of learning English for academic purposes. We studied the relation between academic vocabulary and writing abilities. The author investigated ways of word complexity, paying special attention to affixes and compound words. Different approaches to the analyses of lexical density and diversity are implemented. The most frequent academic words (nouns, verbs and adjectives) are analyzed. Conclusion. Our results showed a strong relation between academic vocabulary and writing proficiency of postgraduate students. Our empirical observation revealed correlation of lexical diversity and academic writing quality of EAP learners. Academic vocabulary demonstrates significant interrelationship with the quality of writing. Word frequency correlates with word difficulty. According to our findings advanced learners predominantly use less frequent words and have larger vocabulary size.