This academic word list is a list of the most common words found in English academic (college-level) textbooks. They are also words commonly found in newspapers, magazines, novels, television, and everyday conversation. The list was compiled by Averil Coxhead at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand (this information is from the list link at http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com/academic-word-list/index.html).
The list is divided into 10 groups of 60 words each. Learn the 60 words in Sublist 1 over the summer (try learning 8 to 10 words per week). If you learn this list, you will know the 60 most common academic words in the English language by the time school begins again in August.
My suggestion: Click on the "ACADEMIC WORD LIST" link below. Find Sublist 1 and select five words to study. You could simply pick the first five words in the sublist, but here's an annoying thing about the exercises for each sublist. The exercises are divided into Group 1 words, Group 2 words, etc. Each group consists of 10 words from the sublist, but THERE'S NOTHING TO TELL YOU WHICH 10 WORDS ARE IN EACH GROUP! The only way to find out is to click on exercise 1a for Group 1, then click on the answer choices box for question 1. The answer box will list the 10 words in Group 1, which you then have to copy down. After you study these 10 words from the sublist (try them in two groups of five), you can go ahead and try the five exercises for Group 1. Then study the words for Group 2 (after using the same method as before to find out which 10 words are in this group--click on exercise 1a for Group 2 and writedown the words in the answer box). If you just study the words in their order on the 60-word sublist, you can't really use the exercises until you've studied all 60 words! Crazy, huh?
Study the words in whatever way you have learned new words in the past, or you can use the method found below the link. One other note about Sublist 1. Two of these words have different spellings in American and British English. The list gives the American spelling for analyze (The British spelling is analyse), but it gives the British spelling for labour (the American spelling is labor). Again--crazy, huh?
ACADEMIC WORD LIST
1. Click on the first word to see its definition and examples of how to use it in a sentence. Write the word and its definition on your own paper (you should keep your own vocabulary list or journal of new words). If the word has more than one definition, use the first one listed for now, since it is usually the most common meaning of the word.
2. Write down the word again five times, then try to restate the meaning in your own words. For example, the definition given for approach is "to move towards or nearer to someone or something." Your definition in your own words might be "to come near."
3. Now try to think of a synonym (word with the same or almost the same meaning) and an antonym (word with the opposite meaning) for the word, and write them down (you may not have one for every word). For the word approach, you might write come near as a synonym and depart from or leave as an antonym.If you need help with synonyms or antonyms, check a thesaurus such as the online one at this link: http://www.thesaurus.com.
4. Next, write down one of the sample sentences you found when you clicked on the word. Try writing your own sentence using the word. If you are not sure you have used the word correctly, ask an advanced English student or native English speaker to review your work. If you need more examples of how to use the word, click on the link below to go to Oxford Learners' Dictionaries, type in the word, and hit enter. When the word definition page appears, scroll down and click on the heading for "Extra Examples."
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com
5. When you have studied all 10 words in a group from the sublist, try the exercises for that sublist. Some of the exercises require you to change the form of the word to fit the grammar and meaning of the sentence. For example, the word legal might need to be changed to legalize or even illegal to correctly complete a fill-in-the-blank question.
