What is academicspeaking & listening?an introduction to the contents of the

course

English words

Research shows that most people need tounderstand 95% of the words in any text to be able to understand it fully.

90% of most texts in English are made up of twothousand recurring words – the 1 + 2k word lists.

So what about the extra 5%?

The hard part… learning thenext 5k and 8k will only just

reach 95% coverage

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

1k 2k 5k 8k

Text coverage

That means that learning an additional

6 thousand words will only give you 4%

more understanding of the words of

most English texts.

It is a lot of effort for very little reward.

So what can we do?

Researchers have analysed academic

English texts and determined an

academic word list of around 600

words that can bring you up to and

over the 95% threshold.

The AWL (Academic Word List)

Academic text coverage withthe AWL

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

1k 2k AWL

Text coverage

Text coverage

This is great news for

academic learners because

it allows you to participate

confidently in academic

discourse with 2,600 words.

But are 2,600 words

enough?

The short answer is : YES.

The long answer is: NO.

This list does not cover

• general conversation

• arts and humanities

• music, literature, and poetry

• the richness and texture of the English language

But it is enough to do

BUSINESS

ACADEMIC SPEAKING & LISTENING

If we focus on using theseAWL words, we can improve

our English faster

SPEAKING LISTENING

O use AWL words in

discussions, debate

s, meetings, and

general chat

O analyse

presentations, meeti

ngs, and

conversations