Introduction
Vocabulary is important in EAP.
When you find a word you do not know, it is important to decide how much it is necessary to know about the word. You may need some or all of the following. A good dictionary will help.
* pronunciation - how to pronounce the word
* spelling - how to spell the word
* grammatical patterns - whether the word is a noun, verb, adjective etc and which patterns it occurs in - particularly useful are Grammar patterns 1: Verbs (1996) and Grammar patterns 2: Nouns and adjectives (1998)
* collocations - which other words it typically occurs with - particularly useful is Oxford collocations dictionary for students of English (2002) and Hill & Lewis (Eds.) (1997)
* frequency - how common the word is
* register - which type of language the word is used in, letters or reports, spoken or written biology or business etc?
* meaning - what the word means
* formation - how the word is made up e.g. What other words or affixes are part of the word? Which other words is it related to?
* connotations - what other meanings a word has, as well as its main meaning e.g. Is it a positive or negative word?
In order to succeed in HE in English, you need:
* a good general vocabulary, for example:
o General Service List
* a good general EAP vocabulary, for example:
o Academic Word List
* specific vocabulary for use in your academic area, for example:
o education
o business
o science & technology
o politics
o law
o music
o mathematics
o environmental science
* knowledge of some less-frequent words
* vocabulary building skills, for example:
o use of prefixes, suffixes and roots to produce words;
o knowledge of construction of compound nouns and adjectives;
o ability to change word forms (nouns to verbs etc),
o information about families (synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms etc)
* vocabulary learning techniques, for example:
o dictionary use
o ways of dealing with meaning
o recording of new words
o remembering new words
o working out meaning of unknown words.
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