Unlike earlier studies that approach academic vocabulary learning cognitively, this case study situates vocabulary learning in the classroom context. It features the teaching and learning of academic writing in an EMI program in a Thai university, focusing on five EFL students’ use of academic, technical, and translingual lexicons to construct their textual identities in their literacy autobiographies (LAs). Data were collected from a semester-long and autoethnographic-researchoriented academic writing course that focused on a multi-draft LA writing project. They included teaching documents, field notes, students’ LAs, weekly reading journals, and course reflections. These data were examined both quantitatively, i.e., by using AntWordProfiler, and qualitatively, i.e., by adopting a classroom-writing-ecology-and-translanguaging perspective. Both the core Academic Word List (AWL)-570 and a word list specifically for social sciences were referenced. All students were found to have grown in their understanding and use of the academic vocabulary and other resources in their later LA drafts and that they used these resources in an orchestrated manner. This study challenges ESP and EAP professionals to adopt a more holistic and dynamic view of their students’ meaning-making repertoires in academic writing.
2025-10-10
In response to global competition and Taiwan’s 2030 Bilingual Policy, English Medium Instruction (EMI) has started migrating from higher education to secondary education in Taiwan. Research on EMI effectiveness is mostly based in university settings; less is known about the EMI learning outcomes and pedagogies in high school scenarios. The present study compares the learning outcomes of an online EMI and a non-EMI math course in a senior high school through a quasiexperimental design and further examines the support for subject vocabulary on students’ learning performance in EMI classes. The initial statistical results show no significant difference between the learning outcomes of the EMI and non-EMI classes. Further examination of the instructional design of the EMI course, together with student feedback, suggests that math vocabulary instruction, including matching games and authentic tasks, positively affects the students’ motivation, and engagement. The results indicate that contextualized vocabulary learning benefits both the subject and language learning, including the authentic tasks that allow students to use the vocabulary in context. Pedagogical implications drawn from this study emphasize the importance of vocabulary support for EMI, and recommend integrating vocabulary support as either an integral or extra component in high school EMI curriculum.
Lexical availability assessment has been widely used in vocabulary research. This data collection technique uses lexical statistics based on controlled association tests that activate the production of lexical items as a reaction to a stimulus, thus evidencing the productive lexical knowledge of the speakers. Lexical availability also allows the exploration of the organization of the mental lexicon through the generation of semantic networks that show the underlying relationships between the words recalled. With this objective in mind, a lexical availability test composed of 2 centers of interest (i.e., methods and approaches in L2 learning and lesson planning) was applied to a sample of 350 pre-service teachers in an English Medium Instruction (EMI) context to explore their academic vocabulary knowledge and mental lexicons. The results show that as the years of study of the subject in the sample increase, the average number of words they can recall and the degree of coincidence in the responses also increase. In addition, greater specificity in the specialized lexicon is observed as the students move forward through the curriculum. From a pedagogical point of view, lexical availability and semantic networks make it possible to monitor students’ lexical acquisition process and to determine remedial measures when deemed necessary. The implications of these findings highlight the significance of monitoring the progression of academic vocabulary and specialized lexicon in EMI contexts. This monitoring enables the adaptation of teaching approaches and lesson plans to facilitate students’ gradual improvement in these areas, thereby enhancing their language skills and academic success.
Despite being admitted into highly competitive English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) programs, international students often find themselves lacking communicative efficiency in such contexts. Language-related challenges appear to be the foremost barriers to successfully implementing EMI. Considering this situation, teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) needs to play a crucial role in providing students with the necessary targeted language support. Nevertheless, research into EAP tutor’s instruction of functional phrase use remains rare, particularly when it comes to incorporating an English as a lingua franca in academic settings (ELFA) awareness into functional phrase teaching. To address this gap, this research adopted two qualitative techniques to gain an in-depth insight into the pedagogical practices that EAP pre-sessional tutors implemented to teach functional phrases to improve the effectiveness of academic intercultural communication. Initially, I observed and recorded 24 hours of spoken English sessions of an EAP pre-sessional course run by a UK university, King’s College London. Special attention was paid to how pre-sessional tutors developed pedagogical practices to consolidate students’ pragmatic use of functional phrases for achieving communicative effectiveness. Classroom observation was followed up by retrospective interviews with the observed four pre-sessional tutors. The research results unveiled a preference among pre-sessional tutors for utilizing the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) approach in teaching functional phrases. Presessional tutors also face significant challenges in integrating ELFA pragmatic awareness into their EAP pedagogical approaches when it comes to teaching functional phrases.
Academic vocabulary is a key element of spoken and written texts for educational purposes. This vocabulary can both support the content of academic texts (in the case of general academic vocabulary) and carry content (in the case of specific academic vocabulary). Two issues related to this lexis are discussed in this article: (1) how we define and characterize academic vocabulary and (2) how written and spoken academic vocabulary can be similar but also different. Suggestions for future research in academic vocabulary in EMI contexts include more analysis of written and spoken input in EMI contexts; undertaking longitudinal studies of academic vocabulary use in speaking and writing; and investigating assessment and growth of academic vocabulary knowledge.
Professor Averil Coxhead is an applied linguist and educator known for her work in vocabulary acquisition and English language teaching. She is particularly recognized for her development of the Academic Word List (AWL), which consists of 570 head words that are commonly found in academic texts across various disciplines. The AWL aims to help English language learners enhance their proficiency in academic English by focusing on high-frequency academic vocabulary. Professor Coxhead’s work on the AWL has been widely referenced and implemented in English language teaching materials and curricula around the world. Professor Coxhead is affiliated with Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, where she has conducted much of her research and teaching in applied linguistics. During an interview on April 10, 2024, Dr. Barry Lee Reynolds and Dr. Sophia Skoufaki asked Professor Coxhead about her journey into studying academic vocabulary and her views on the state of the art and necessary future research. Professor Coxhead discussed the complexities of academic vocabulary, offered strategies for teaching it effectively, and explored the role of technology and knowledge of first-language cognates in academic vocabulary learning in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) settings. Professor Coxhead emphasized the need for practical research focusing on vocabulary application and bridging the gap between English for Academic Purposes (EAP) research and classroom practices.
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