Table Of Content153mm 13.4mm 153mm
Expand Your
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English A Guide to Improving a
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Your Academic Vocabulary
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Writing academic prose in English is especially difficult for non-native speakers, u
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largely because the standard vocabulary used in this genre can be quite different
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from colloquial English. Expand Your English: A Guide to Improving Your
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Academic Vocabulary is a unique and invaluable guide that will enable the reader g
to overcome this hurdle. It will become the favourite go-to reference book for l
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both beginners and for intermediate learners struggling with the complexities of h
English-language academic writing.
A Guide to Improving
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Steve Hart covers 1,000 vocabulary items that are essential for good academic G
writing. The first section describes 200 key terms in detail, grouping them into u Your Academic Vocabulary
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logical sets of 10. Through careful repetition, the reader will find it easy to retain,
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retrieve, and reuse these essential phrases. The second section explains a further t
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800 terms, grouping them according to function, meaning, and the areas of Im 229m
an essay where they are likely to be used. The expansive scope of Expand Your m
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English gives non-native speakers all the vocabulary tools they need to master r
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this diffi cult style of writing. v
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o Steve Hart
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Steve Hart has been editing and proofreading for international academics and A
graduate students since 2005. He is the author of English Exposed: Common c
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Mistakes Made by Chinese Speakers and has co-authored undergraduate English d
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textbooks for the Indian market and written two practical grammar guides for m
university students. He is currently an academic coordinator and dissertation ic
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supervisor at a higher education institution in Cambridge, England.
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English Language Learning
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Printed and bound in Hong Kong, China t
Hart_Expand_pb.indd 1 07/08/2017 10:39 AM
Expand Your English
Expand Your English
A Guide to Improving Your Academic
Vocabulary
Steve Hart
Hong Kong University Press
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road
Hong Kong
www.hkupress.org
© 2017 Hong Kong University Press
ISBN 978-988-8390-99-1 (Paperback)
All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound by Paramount Printing Co., Ltd., Hong Kong, China
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
PART A: Two Hundred Key Academic Terms 5
accomplish accumulate acquire actively adhere
1 7
adjustment advanced advent advocate align
allege alleviate allocate ambiguity amendment
2 14
apparatus apparent applicable arbitrary arguably
articulate assert assign assumption attain
3 attribute authentic beneficial capability 21
characteristic
clarify coherent coincide collectively comparable
4 compile complexity comprehensive conception 28
conflicting
considerable consistency consolidate constituent
5 constitute constraint contemporary contend 36
continuity contradictory
contributor conventional convey coordinate
6 correlation correspond culminate cumulative 43
decisive definitive
vi Contents
demonstrate denote depiction derive designate
7 51
desirable determine differentiate discern disclose
discourse discrepancy discrete disparity
8 distinction elaborate elicit embody emerge 58
encompass
endorse enhance enlist entail envision
9 66
equip equivalent establish exemplify explicit
exploration extensive facilitate feasible
10 formulate frame functional fundamental gauge 73
generate
growing guiding hypothesize hypothetical
11 imperative implement implication implicit 81
incorporate inevitably
infer informed inherent initially insight
12 88
instrumental integral integrate intensify interpret
intrinsic magnitude manifest marginal maximize
13 96
minimal modify monitor normative notably
notion object offset omit optimal outline
14 103
oversee paradox partial perception
persistent pervasive plausible portray precede
15 preclude predominantly preliminary premise 110
prevalent
primarily probe problematic prominent prone
16 proponent prospective proximity recall 117
recognition
Contents vii
refine reflect reinforce relatively reliance
17 125
renewed replicate reportedly resolve respective
robust routinely salient signify similarity
18 133
situate specialize speculation standing steadily
subjective subsequently substantial sufficiently
19 suitability susceptible symbolize systematic 140
tendency theoretical
trait transition underlying undertake
20 147
undoubtedly unified utilize variance verify viable
Final Check for the Top 200 155
PART B: Academic Word Categories 157
CATEGORY: By word type
21 NOUNS: Action nouns 159
22 VERBS: Reporting verbs 167
23 ADJECTIVES: Evaluative adjectives 172
24 ADVERBS: Linking adverbs and sentence adverbs 178
CATEGORY: By word meaning
25 WORDS for unity and division 183
26 WORDS for fact and fabrication 188
27 WORDS for change 193
28 WORDS for amount and size 198
CATEGORY: By area
29 WORDS for introducing aims and objectives 202
30 WORDS for models, data, and figures 205
viii Contents
31 WORDS for interviews and questionnaires 211
32 WORDS for reviewing and concluding 217
Appendix: Noun collocates of the top 200 221
About the author 225
Index: Top 200 by part of speech 226
General index 229
Introduction
A strong ambition of many non-native English writers is to expand their vocabu-
lary. One of the best ways to approach this is by reading as much as possible.
Many learners also use dictionaries and word lists to try to increase the number
of words they know. But how effective are these resources, and how many words
are actually retained and, importantly, employed by writers in their essays and
assignments?
The answer is likely to be very few. While reading and looking up words in
a dictionary can improve receptive vocabulary (understanding words when
hearing or reading them), it is less effective for developing productive vocabu-
lary (actively producing appropriate words when writing). Learners often feel
frustrated when writing in English because they cannot find the words to express
their ideas effectively. The reason is primarily the limited words at their disposal
and the worry that the words they do know are too ‘unacademic’ and therefore
unsuitable. Increasing one’s receptive vocabulary is certainly useful, but produc-
tive vocabulary is the key to writing well in English and producing good academic
work. Expand Your English has been designed for this purpose, by targeting 200
key academic phrases* that learners may well have heard of, or even know how
to use, but probably do not use as often as they should in their writing. Some of
the terms may seem fairly obvious or familiar, but often non-native speakers fail
to employ them in their writing and either fall back on the ‘safe’ elementary term
or use a phrase or metaphor picked up socially. It is also important to remember
* The 200 terms were chosen based on how frequently they occur in academic writing (drawn from three
academic corpora), how useful they are to non-native speakers, and how likely they are to be missing
from a learner’s productive vocabulary. They were selected after consulting three academic written English
corpora: the British Academic Written English Corpus (BAWE), the academic word list of the Corpus of
Contemporary American English (COCA), and the academic word list devised by Averil Coxhead at the
University of Wellington. COCA listed the words by the frequency with which they occurred in published
academic texts, so this was used as a base upon which I added the other two word lists and looked for
matches. Words featuring in West’s General Service List (GSL) (1953) were rejected, as were any others
deemed by me to be in frequent current use (after consulting my own personal collection of 600 essays
written by Chinese postgraduates—on the condition they had been used correctly—that I had proofread
between 2006 and 2015). The terms appearing only on a subject-specific list were then further scrutinized
for their suitability. The most frequent 200 words (top of the COCA frequency list plus featuring in BAWE
and Coxhead minus appearing in West and rejected through my own judgement) were then selected, and
an attempt was made to include the remaining 1,000 or so in Part B of the book.
