The role of vocabulary depth and breadth in academic writing skill in the English language at higher education level.

One of the most challenging tasks for EFL learners is to compose a scholarly text in any area because it calls for a broad range of linguistic and communicative skills. In some studies with limited data, the importance of academic vocabulary in L2 writing has received widespread recognition, however, this paper aims at emphasizing the significance of suitable expressions in Academic writing in English and encourage the creation of highquality writings, identifying the typical vocabulary errors that people make when writing academically, providing examples to clarify for better word choice and expression and addressing the reasons, impacts, and some recommendations. Data collected through a paper test for error analysis using Markin4 method and SPSS based on lexicogrammatical errors caused by participants.

INSTRUCTOR: LE QUANG DUNG, PH.D

FINAL ASSIGNMENT

RESEARCH METHODS

IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS

A39671 Nguyen Minh Quang

GRADE: _

MARKER 1 MARKER 2

HANOI 2023

The role of vocabulary depth and breadth in academic writing skill in the

English language at higher education level.

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF ACRONYMS

AKL: Academic Keyword List

AVL: Academic Vocabulary List

AWL: Academic Word List

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

L2: Second language

NAWL: New Academic Word List

UWL: University Word List

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Abstract

One of the most challenging tasks for EFL learners is to compose a scholarly text in any area because it calls for a broad range of linguistic and communicative skills In some studies with limited data, the importance of academic vocabulary in L2 writing has received widespread recognition, however, this paper aims at emphasizing the significance of suitable expressions in Academic writing in English and encourage the creation of high-quality writings, identifying the typical vocabulary errors that people make when writing academically, providing examples

to clarify for better word choice and expression and addressing the reasons, impacts, and some recommendations Data collected through a paper test for error analysis using Markin-4 method and SPSS based on lexico-grammatical errors caused by participants

Keywords: Academic Writing; Error Analysis; English as Foreign Language; Lexico-Grammatical Errors

1.2 Background of the study

The use of the English language to connect people from several continents for trade, commerce, education, and other purposes is widely acknowledged, Vency

H J, E Ramganesh (2013) In comparison to universities in poor countries, which have weak research cultures, universities in developed countries have a more diverse research culture that helps advance the knowledge-based economy by applying academic findings to a variety of spheres of life, Salazar Clemeña and Almonte-Acosta, (2007) Academic writing engages students and affects their outcomes in many Vietnamese universities In reality, though, a lot of students struggle to finish significant academic papers in English while they are in school

As a result, the grade they receive does not accurately reflect their proficiency

1.3 Research problem

A wide variety of terminology, including technical phrases, academic jargon, and everyday expressions, must be used when writing academically It is evident that vocabulary always contributes significantly to the effectiveness of an academic essay On the other hand, pupils lack the high-level language they need to use in their writing Many people have multiple great concepts, but they struggle to articulate them in essays The solution lies in expanding the vocabulary pool such that it may be used correctly and successfully in academic writing

1.4 Research questions

Several particular research questions have been posed in order to efficiently assess this issue.:

1) Does the diction affect the quality of an academic writing?

2) What are the common mistakes that students usually make in academic writing?

3) How to select words which are suitable with the academic writing context? 4) Why do students make mistake in academic writing and how to improve?

1.5 Significance of the study

English has attracted significant attention for more specialized pedagogical methodologies and techniques because it is a more widely used international language for business and higher education Britain has made wonderful progress

by customizing and designing English for Academic Purposes (EAP) on modern lines, Journal of English for Academic English (2002 pp 69-72) The prerequisite for promoting and extending research activity at Vietnamese institutions is to improve English language competency, particularly academic writing skills at the postgraduate level In light of the fact that the majority of postgraduates lack the writing skills—particularly the academic writing abilities—necessary to support research activity in Vietnam, it has been observed that traditional English language

courses based on general English cannot meet the needs of university students for research writing As a result, a critical pragmatic approach to developing academic English language can help inexperienced writers write more effectively for academic discourse and think critically about conventions Higher education levels require students to write critically, therefore in most academic writing, analysis and evaluation are more important than providing a straightforward explanation, Woodward-Kron, (2002)

Woodward-Kron, R (2002a) Academic discourses and their discourses of learning: Participants, texts and social practices In C Candlin (Ed.), Research and practice in professional discourse (pp 499–519) Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Basic definition

2.1.1 Academic writing

Writing for the academic community at large involves communicating thoughts, knowledge, and research, Alexander, O., Argent, S and Spencer, J (2008) It can be separated into two categories: expert academic writing, which is writing intended for publication in an academic journal or book, and student academic writing, which is writing used as a method of assessment at universities as well as in schools as a preparation for university study Cardiff Metropolitan University (n.d.) According to Staffordshire University (2020), the same standards are anticipated for both student and expert academic writing, which can be challenging for pupils to master The traits of academic writing that collectively set

it apart from other types of writing are that it is and that it is

In addition, academic writing is more formal than other types, University of Leeds (2021) Contractions and other phrases or idioms that might be frequent in spoken English are generally avoided in favor of lengthier, more complicated

sentences For the benefit of students of academic English, researchers have created lists of terms and phrases that are used in academic writing more frequently than in non-academic writing, such as the Academic Word List, the Academic Vocabulary List, and the Academic Collocation List

2.1.2 Academic Vocabulary

The term "academic vocabulary" is used in some academic disciplines, such

as medicine, architecture, and computer programming, to refer to the jargon and acronyms used in such areas of study (Coxhead, 2000; Nation, 2013) For instance, academic works tend to use the word "accumulate" more frequently than non-academic ones, as described by (Nation, 2013, p 16) According to Nation (2013), technical terms are words that are only used in the language of a certain industry Many technical phrases have definitions that are subject-specific and only make sense to people who are familiar with that particular area of expertise

As a result, some disciplines use this word more frequently than others It has been shown that some of the words mentioned on the AWL in Chung and Nation's (2003, 2004) analyses are found in numerous discipline-specific books It may be possible to discern between academic and technical vocabulary using "the degree of relatedness of a given word in the field to the subject matter" (Nation, 2013, p 304)

In general, a word is deemed to be technical vocabulary if, when employed in the context of that discipline, it is crucial to understanding the main idea of a subject in

a book (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013)

It has been looked at what academic terminology is generally like The following are some examples of difficult-to-imagine terms, according to Lindstromberg (2022): abstract, difficult to visualize, low frequency, etc Additionally, Lindstromberg (2022) asserts that even while some L2 students are able to speak smoothly, they may nevertheless struggle to comprehend academic material There aren't enough opportunities for students learning English as a

second language (L2) to relate to academic literature and jargon Since they are unfamiliar with academic language, non-native English speakers may find it difficult to understand academic writings, according to research by Geva, Yaghoub-Zadeh, and Schuster (2000) According to research, improving one's academic vocabulary will also improve one's reading comprehension

2.1.3 Academic Word List (AWL)

As was previously said, academia employs a broad variety of words and phrases, including both general academic jargon and specialized technical language pertinent to each profession (Coxhead, 2000, 2011, 2016a, 2016b) (Hyland & Tse, 2007; Nagy & Townsend, 2012) Academic vocabulary learning has greatly benefited from the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000, 2011, 2016a, 2016b) and subsequent work on the selection and prioritization of academic vocabulary (Coxhead & Hirsh, 2007; Greene & Coxhead, 2015) Coxhead's list of 570 general academic word families includes words from all academic disciplines According to Coxhead and Nation (2001), this collection includes 10% of all terms found in academic texts On the other hand, Coxhead and Hirsh (2007) produce a list of 318 lexical elements, which amounts to only 4% of a scientific corpus not covered by AWL

2.2 Review of related literature

Scientific writing, which is regarded as "organized research" and employed

by researchers at the higher education level, is a term that is frequently used to refer

to academic writing Higher education has traditionally been built on progressive and high-quality research, which has drawn researchers from a wide range of social scientific and natural science fields, including history, sociology, economics, psychology, geography, languages, education, management, and computer science (e.g genres of medical and medicinal discourses, physics, chemistry, biology, environment, engineering, etc.) As genre-based pedagogies recognize the writing

process as a meaningful placed with social and cultural response to specific contexts and communities, research is inextricably intertwined with academic writing After carefully analyzing the complicated variable in composition texts, newbie writers may be able to execute their writing responsibilities by using a variety of linguistic and rhetorical techniques to accomplish meaningful goals in a variety of circumstances Johns, (1995) Therefore, it is necessary to not only restructure English language curriculum development based on current practices and approaches regarding academic writing ability, but also to engage students in activities that may simultaneously improve their use of lexico-grammatical understanding about process and genre-based approaches

2.3 Previous research

Academic word lists that include the terminology that appears the most frequently in academic texts have aided in the study of academic vocabulary Many academic vocabulary collections have been created in recent years, such the Academic Word List (AWL; Coxhead, 2000), which has replaced the University Word List (UWL; Xue & Nation, 1984) Other compilations include the Academic Keyword List (AKL; Paquot, 2010), the New Academic Word List (NAWL, Browne et al., 2013), or the new Academic Vocabulary List (AVL; Gardner & Davies, 2014) Despite sharing the same objective of giving a list of the academic words that appear the most frequently in various publications across disciplines, they differ significantly from one another Each of the word lists has a number of potential limits due to factors such as their size, age, organizational principle, and methods used to compile them, reviewed by Therova (2020)

Out of the various available word lists, the vast majority of studies into academic vocabulary in learner writing have drawn on Coxhead’s (2000) AWL, comprising 570 academic word families identified on the basis of approximately 3.5 million words representing four disciplines (science, arts, commerce, and law) with fewer studies utilizing Gardner and Davies’s (2014) AVL, containing 3,015

academic lemmas extracted from a corpus containing 120 million words of academic texts comprising nine academic disciplines (humanities; social sciences; history; education; law and political science; science and technology; medicine and health; business and finance; and philosophy, psychology, and religion) These studies used the AWL and AVL for exploration of academic vocabulary in learner writing in various contexts, such as secondary English learners (Cons, 2012), advanced college-bound learners of English (Brun-Mercer & Zimmerman, 2015), fifth-grade students (Olinghouse & Wilson, 2013), or in university settings (e.g., Coxhead, 2012; Csomay & Prades, 2018; Durrant, 2016; Knoch et al., 2014, 2015; Masrai & Milton, 2017, 2018; Nadarajan, 2011; Storch, 2009; Storch & Tapper, 2009; Xudong et al., 2010)

Academic vocabulary has been the subject of some studies done in university settings from a longitudinal viewpoint For instance, in their 2009 study, Storch and Tapper tested academic vocabulary (based on the AWL) twice, in Week 1 and Week 10, for postgraduate international students enrolled in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme at an Australian institution The EAP course that the participants took, which placed a strong emphasis on academic vocabulary

in seminars, teaching materials, and the feedback that students received on their writing, is also partially to blame for the increase in academic vocabulary usage that their study found by Week 10 of the course Storch's (2009) study during a comparable time period looked at trends in the use of AWL items in the writing of overseas university students at an Australian university (12 weeks) Storch (2009) reported no change in the percentage of academic vocabulary used in the students' writing after 12 weeks, in contrast to Storch and Tapper's (2009) findings and hypothesized that the time frame of 12 weeks may be too short for students to show improvement in the usage of academic vocabulary At a university in Singapore, Xudong et al (2010) similarly looked at changes in the use of AWL items over a similar time period in the writing of international graduate students They