1. Collins Business Skills Breaking down the AWL selecting and grading academic vocabulary By Julie Moore

2. Collins Business Skills Choosing academic vocabulary Selecting vocabulary Academic Word List (AWL) Non-AWL vocabulary Grading vocabulary by level Splitting into 3 levels

3. Collins Business Skills The Academic Word List (AWL) Developed by Averil Coxhead (2000) Based on corpus of academic texts Excludes top 2000 common words Excludes subject-specific words 570 headwords Word families > over 5000 individual items

4. Collins Business Skills Non-AWL vocabulary Top end of the 2000 most common words Less common senses of the top 2000 e.g. table IELTS topic vocabulary (past paper topics) data commentary task Key academic concepts: cause & effect, time & sequence Syllabus vocabulary e.g. Biology: bacteria, cell, nerve, virus

5. Collins Business Skills Grading by level Level 1: Starter IELTS 4.0-5.5 Level 2: Improver IELTS 5.5-6.5 Level 3: Advanced IELTS 7.0+

6. Collins Business Skills Grading by frequency AWL sublists Frequency within academic corpus 1-10 (1 = most frequent) Collins COBUILD frequency banding Frequency in General English (5) = most frequent [-] (0) = least frequent

7. Collins Business Skills Grading: easy cases WordAWL sublistCOBUILD bandIELTS book research 1 (5)1 available 1 (5)1 environment 1 (4)1 analogy 9- (1)3 paradigm 7- (1)3 intrinsic 10- (1)3

8. Collins Business Skills Issues & anomalies: economy noun (5) economic adjective (5) economical adjective- (1) economically adverb- (0) economics noun (3) economist noun (3) uneconomical adjective- (0)

9. Collins Business Skills Entry for level 1 economy (economies) NOUN The economy of a country or region is the system by which money, industry, and trade are organized. Zimbabwe boasts Africas most industrialised economy. The Japanese economy grew at an annual rate of more than 10 per cent. the regions booming service economy collocations: the economy of somewhere a modern/industrial/service/market economy a booming/strong/weak economy the global/world/local/domestic economy the American/Canadian/Japanese/British economy stimulate/revive/boost the economy the economy grows/recovers/shrinks/slows down economic ADJECTIVE Economic means concerned with the organization of the money, industry, and trade of a country, region, or society. Polands radical economic reforms The pace of economic growth is picking up. the current economic crisis see note at financial

10. Entry for level 2 economy (economies) noun An economy is the system according to which the money, industry, and trade of a country or region are organized. Zimbabwe boasts Africas most industrialized economy. the rate at which the U.S. economy grows collocations: the local/global/national/rural/industrial economy a booming/strong/sluggish/weak economy an economy grows/shrinks economic adjective Economic means concerned with the organization of the money, industry, and trade of a country, region, or society. Polands radical economic reforms The pace of economic growth is picking up. collocations: economic growth/recovery/development economic reform/policy/activity/aid an economic downturn/crisis/slowdown the economic situation/impact an economic adviser synonyms: financial, monetary economical adjective Something that is economical does not require a lot of money to operate. For example a car that only uses a small amount of petrol is economical. the most economical method of extracting essential oils from plant materials collocation: an economical method/solution/alternative/option phrase: efficient and economical synonyms: cost-effective, inexpensive antonyms: uneconomical, expensive, wasteful USAGE : economic or economical? Be careful not to confuse these two adjectives. Economic describes something related to the economy. the governments economic policies Something that is economical is cost-effective. the most effective and economical use of resources economically adverb an economically depressed area Small English orchards can hardly compete economically with larger French ones. collocations: prosper/benefit/grow/survive economically suffer/struggle/develop economically economically viable/feasible/sustainable economically dependent/disadvantaged/depressed/inefficient economics 1 uncountable noun Economics is the study of the way in which money, industry, and trade are organized in a society. He gained a first class Honours degree in economics. having previously studied economics and fine art collocation: an economics professor/degree/department phrase: economics and politics 2 uncountable noun The economics of a society or industry is the system of organizing money and trade in it. a radical free-market economics policy [+ of] the economics of the third world collocations: the economics of somewhere/something the economics of industry/business Keynesian/classical/experimental/free-market economics development/market economics an economics correspondent/editor/policy synonym: finance economist (economists) noun An economist is a person who studies, teaches, or writes about economics. the chief economist of the World Bank few economists expect to see a rise this year collocations: a leading/chief/senior economist market/health economists economists say/believe/expect/predict/forecast/warn

11. Collins Business Skills Issues & anomalies General – academic frequencies colleague – AWL sublist 10 team – AWL sublist 9 Splitting senses conduct a. carry outlevel 2 b. electricitylevel 3 Semantic sets advantage ( / 4), disadvantage (- / 2)

12. Collins Business Skills The final breakdown BookTotal entriesAWL entries* AWL % In each book Level 1: Starter78911214% Level 2: Improver80033041% Level 3: Advanced70418026% *Total of 622 AWL entries across all three books: includes all 570 AWL headwords + 52 repeated headwords (e.g. economy appears in 1 &2)

13. Collins Business Skills COBUILD Key Words for IELTS Collins ELT: www.collinselt.com Julie Moore: www.juleswords.co.uk