The GAV (Global Academic Vocabulary) Corpus & Dictionary
The Most Important Vocabulary in Academic English ©2015 Paul Wadden
This brief learner’s dictionary contains the most important academic vocabulary in English: it presents the most commonly used words across all academic disciplines, from literature to biology and economics to education. To form it, the vocabulary from the three most significant research studies of academic vocabulary were combined: the University Word List (Nation and Guoyi), the Academic Word List (Coxhead), and EAP Core Vocabulary (Masuko et. al.). While these three studies mostly identified the most frequently used individual words in academic texts, the GAV Dictionary adds to these words by giving you the word families and Japanese equivalents. In other words, in addition to each main vocabulary word, the GAV Dictionary includes the most important related words (including the same-root antonyms and near antonyms), the words’ translations in Japanese, simple and clear English definitions for the primary meanings, common phrases the vocabulary are used in, and sample sentences in which the words appear so that you can see their use in context.
In total, the GAV features about 1,400 key vocabulary and about 2,800 total words when related words and same-root antonyms are included. It is a true “Learner’s Dictionary” because it identifies and presents the exact vocabulary, word forms, common phrases, and use-in-context that non-native users of English need to learn for successful college study. And if you learn these words, you will know about 95 percent of the words in the typical university-level academic text; the remaining words, the last 5 percent, tend to be technical vocabulary or terms related to a particular field, or both. Learning the GAV words below is truly one of the most important things you can do to boost your language skills in reading, listening, writing, and even speaking. It can greatly improve your English-language vocabulary, enhance your overall English academic skills, and give you tools to sharpen your critical thinking ability.
Each week, your teacher will assign you either a full lesson of 75-80 words or a half-lesson of 36-40 words from the 17 Lessons that cover all of the key words in this dictionary. The lessons are not as big or as difficult as they first appear. Many of the words you receive each week you will already know, but it will be helpful for you to review their meanings. Using flash cards or a vocabulary notebook (choose your own method), write down the words you don’t know and learn them. Each week, you’ll have brief quiz on the words to help organize and motivate your study, and each quiz will include some words from the previous week or two to encourage you to review some of the words you learned the previous few weeks. The GAV lessons progress from the “easiest” and most common words (the ones that most frequently appear in academic texts) to the most difficult (the words which appear less often). Therefore, your vocabulary and your vocabulary lessons will progress from the most common, useful, and essential vocabulary and increase in difficulty through the entire Global Academic Vocabulary corpus.
As you learn the words in the GAV, you will immediately start to notice them—and their various forms—in the articles and textbooks you are reading as well in the lectures you are listening to. As you see them, hear them, and learn them, make an effort to try to use them in your papers, your reports, and your in-class discussions (your teacher may also require you to use some of them in your writing assignments). The GAV corpus provides the foundation for the English in your university courses, in your future study abroad, in eventual graduate work you may do, and in your lifelong use and comprehension of the English language. Good luck with your study.