News                                                                  

These are the latest news articles, taken from the RSS feed.

• Newsletter: March 2024

• April 1st, 2024

• New pages for word clouds: an academic word cloud generator, AWL by sublist, and AWL by headword. Read more in this newsletter.
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• Academic Word Clould Generator

• March 31st, 2024

• This word cloud generator can be used like a regular word cloud generator, but has the special feature to exclude words from the GSL, AWL or both to show a combination of academic, general, or technical words.
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• AWL Word Clould (by sublist)

• March 17th, 2024

• This page gives word cloud (i.e. visual) representations of the frequency of word forms in different sublists of the Academic Word List (AWL), in two different corpora: the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus, and the BNC Baby, a 1m word sub-corpus of the British National Corpus.
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• AWL Word Clould (by headword)

• March 16th, 2024

• This page gives word cloud (i.e. visual) representations of the frequency of different word forms of headwords in the Academic Word List (AWL). Frequencies are taken from the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus.
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• Newsletter: March 2024

• March 11th, 2024

• New pages giving frequency data for reporting verbs and word forms in the Academic Word List. Read more in this newsletter.
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• Academic Word List (frequencies)

• March 4th, 2024

• This page shows all word forms of words in the Academic Word List (AWL), with frequency counts, i.e. how many times each word form occurs, in the 6.5 million word BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus and the academic section of the BNC Baby, a 1 million word sub-corpus of the BNC (British National Corpus).
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• Reporting verbs (by frequency)

• February 25th, 2024

• Reporting verbs are essential when citing information. This page lists the frequency of the most common reporting verbs in two corpora, the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus, and the BNC Baby, a 1 million word sub-corpus of the BNC (British National Corpus).
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• Newsletter: February 2024

• February 17th, 2024

• A new video 🎥 on features of academic vocabulary, a webpage on ergative verbs, and an infographic on learning vocabulary. Read more in this newsletter.
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• YouTube video: Features of academic vocabulary

• February 15th, 2024

• If you want to do more with vocabulary than understand it in a reading text, then it is important to study not just the meaning but other aspect such as pronunciation, spelling, part of speech, word family, frequency, register, usage and collocation. This video looks at each of these features, with a detailed example for the academic word 'conclusion'.
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• Learning vocabulary infographic

• February 12th, 2024

• An infographic detailing factors involved in learning vocabulary, namely exposure, depth of processing, involvement, manipulation, attention and time.
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• Ergative verbs

• February 5th, 2024

• Ergative verbs allow the object of a sentence to become the subject without changing the verb to passive, making their use objective and therefore more academic. This page explains what ergative verbs are and presents a list of the most common ones, referenced against some well-known academic word lists.
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• Newsletter: April 2023

• April 16th, 2023

• This newsletter showcases the new teacher account for the Login section of the site.
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• Guide to the Login section

• April 16th, 2023

• The guide explains how to use the Login section of the site, for both a teacher account and a student account.
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• BNC/COCA lists: update

• April 9th, 2023

• The BNC/COCA word family lists have been updated to include download options for V2.0.0 of the lists (PDF and Excel). Additionally, the lists no longer automatically show on the page as the sheer number of words made the page a bit buggy. You can select high frequency (1k-3k), mid-frequency (4k-9k) and low-frequency (10k-25k) for both versions of the list.
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• Newsletter: March 2023

• March 27th, 2023

• News about new quizzes for sublist 2 of the Academic Word List (AWL).
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• Podcast: Using Dictionaries

• December 31st, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Using Dictionaries page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Report writing infographic

• November 26th, 2022

• An infographic explaining the IMRAD structure of a report.
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• Newsletter: November 2022 #2

• November 23rd, 2022

• Two new infographics, giving 10 common idioms for academic English writing and speaking.
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• Academic idioms (speaking) infographic

• November 16th, 2022

• This infographic gives 10 common idioms for academic English speaking, based on a 2019 study by Julia Miller.
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• Academic idioms (writing) infographic

• November 15th, 2022

• This infographic gives 10 common idioms for academic English writing, based on a 2019 study by Julia Miller.
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• Profiler update: BNC/COCA V2.0.0

• November 15th, 2022

• Update to the profiler, with addition of V2.0.0 of the BNC/COCA lists, allowing for better categorisation of words.
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• Newsletter: November 2022

• November 8th, 2022

• This newsletter gives information on new quizzes in the Quiz section, including quizzes for academic idioms as well as words in sublist 2 of the AWL.
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• Quiz: AWL sublist 2#1

• November 7th, 2022

• Some quizzes for 10 words from sublist 2 of the AWL, namely: conclude, construct, evaluate, impact, invest, potential, purchase, reside, site, transfer.
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• Quiz: Academic Idioms

• November 7th, 2022

• These quizzes are for academic idioms, such as: on the other hand, bear in mind, beg the question.
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• Guides

• October 21st, 2022

• There are a few guides to different tools on the site (word profiler, concordancer). The guides can all be accessed from this page.
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• Newsletter: October 2022

• October 18th, 2022

• This newsletter gives information on the Concordancer for Academic English, recently added to the site.
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• Academic Corpora

• October 17th, 2022

• Information on some academic corpora, namely the BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus, the BASE (British Academic Spoken English) corpus, and the BNC Baby, a 4 million word sub-corpus of the British National Corpus. These are used in Academic Word Profiler and the Concordancer.
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• Guide: Concordancer for academic English

• October 17th, 2022

• The guide explains how to use the Concordancer for academic English.
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• Concordancer for academic English

• October 16th, 2022

• The Concordancer for academic English is a search engine tool which is used to examine a corpus (a collection of authentic texts) in order to view words in context and extract information about frequency, range, collocation and grammar.
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• Newsletter: August 2022

• August 28th, 2022

• This newsletter gives information on the Academic Word Profiler.
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• Guide: Academic Word Profiler

• August 27th, 2022

• This guide explains how to use the Academic Word Profiler.
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• Academic Word Profiler

• August 27th, 2022

• The Academic Word Profiler profiles single words (as opposed to whole texts), giving rich detail about frequency in different sub-corpora (academic, fiction, spoken and news) of the 4 million word Baby BNC corpus, as well possible academic synonyms, and much more.
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• Newsletter: July 2022 #2

• July 24th, 2022

• This newsletter describes the latest video on the EAPFoundation.com channel, titled What is academic vocabulary?
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• YouTube video: What is academic vocabulary?

• July 23rd, 2022

• This video takes a close look at academic vocabulary, considering some important word lists, the vocabulary shift that is required when transitioning from general to academic English, considers some general words with special meaning in academic contexts, and looks at an example text, with the vocabulary analysed in terms of technical and academic words, including academic formulas and collocations.
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• Newsletter: July 2022

• July 21st, 2022

• Updates from the website, including incidental vocabulary learning (with reference to both academic and technical vocabulary), the full MSVL, profiler updates and more.
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• BNC/COCA lists

• July 5th, 2022

• The BNC/COCA word family lists are frequency based lists often used for graded readers or selecting vocabulary for study. This page gives information on what the BNC/COCA lists are, how they were developed, the definition of word family used in the list, as well as a complete copy of the lists from 1k to 25k, i.e. the 1st to the 25th 1000 word family lists.
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• Incidental vocabulary learning: tool

• July 5th, 2022

• This page gives a tool which can be used to calculate the likelihood of incidental vocabulary learning of academic vocabulary (AWL) and technical vocabulary (SVL) via extensive reading or viewing in a given time frame. This is modified from data by Clarence Green, from a 2022 article published in Language Learning & Technology.
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• Incidental vocabulary learning

• July 5th, 2022

• Incidental vocabulary learning generally refers to learning words as a result of reading a wide range of books or other material for pleasure (also called extensive reading), during which there is no explicit intention to learn words, though words are often learned as a byproduct. This page describes incidental vocabulary learning, giving information on what incidental vocabulary learning is, why it is important, and how much repetition is needed to learn words. There is also information on incidental vocabulary learning for academic and technical vocabulary.
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• Vocabulary profiler: updates

• July 4th, 2022

• Some updates to the vocabulary profiler, namely addition of proper nouns, compound words and acronyms to the BNC/COCA profiler, and option to identify proper nouns for the GSL/AWL profiler.
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• MSVL (Middle School Vocabulary Lists) - full lists

• July 4th, 2022

• Jennifer Green, main author of the MSVL (five lists of academic and technical vocabulary for middle school students) has kindly agreed to allow publication of the lists on the website. The 5 lists can be sorted by frequency or alphabetically. The page also shows which subject each word is in (English Grammar and Writing, Health, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies). AWL words in the lists can also be highlighted.
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• Podcast: Note-taking (while listening)

• May 21st, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Note-taking page of the listening section of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Language for reports

• April 10th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Language for reports page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Newsletter: Enrich video #3

• April 9th, 2022

• This is the newsletter for the third video in the Enrich Your Vocabulary series, on the topic of Crime.
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• Enrich your vocabulary: Crime

• April 9th, 2022

• This page accompanies the Crime video, with exercises and an additional reading text, plus a full list of words from the video.
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• YouTube video: Enrich Your Vocabulary #3

• April 9th, 2022

• This is the third video in the Enrich Your Vocabulary series, and is on the topic of Crime. It includes explanation of words and phrases such as deterrent, enforce, engage in, and perpetrator.
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• Podcast: Features of vocabulary

• March 21st, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Features of vocabulary page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Newsletter: March 2022

• March 14th, 2022

• Updates from the website, including the second video in the Enrich Your Vocabulary series, on the topic of the environment.
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• Enrich your vocabulary: Environment

• March 13th, 2022

• This page accompanies the Environment video, with exercises and an additional reading text, plus a full list of words from the video.
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• YouTube video: Enrich Your Vocabulary #2

• March 13th, 2022

• This is the second video in the Enrich Your Vocabulary series, on the topic of the environment. It includes explanation of words and phrases such as biodiversity, deforestation, environmental, and impact.
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• Highlighter for SPL (Secondary Phrase Lists)

• March 4th, 2022

• This highlighter will find and highlight collocations from the Secondary Phrase Lists (SPL), a series of lists of discipline-specific (i.e. technical) two-word phrases for secondary school education.
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• Podcast: Brainstorming

• March 3rd, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Brainstorming page in the Writing Process section of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Newsletter: February 2022

• February 28th, 2022

• Updates from the website, including the new Enrich Your Vocabulary series of videos.
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• Enrich your vocabulary section

• February 27th, 2022

• This is a new section of the website, with exercises and additional reading texts for the Enrich Your Vocabulary series of videos.
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• YouTube video: Enrich Your Vocabulary #1

• February 27th, 2022

• This is the first video in the Enrich Your Vocabulary series. It includes explanation of words and phrases such as calorie, cardiovascular disease, diet, obesity, and physical activity.
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• YouTube video series: Enrich Your Vocabulary

• February 27th, 2022

• This new series of videos on YouTube use recognised word lists and vocabulary research to select words and phrases for common IELTS and TOEFL topics, such as physical health, mental, food, work, education and more.
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• Podcast: Taking part in academic discussions

• February 17th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Taking Part in Academic Discussions page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: What is EAP?

• February 14th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the What is EAP? page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Technical (subject-specific) vocabulary

• February 7th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the technical (subject-specific) vocabulary page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: General (high-frequency) vocabulary

• February 4th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the general (high-frequency) vocabulary page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Transition signals infographic #2

• February 2nd, 2022

• This infographic lists transition signals for Cause, Effect, Alternative, Clarification, and Conclusion.
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• Transition signals infographic #1

• February 2nd, 2022

• This infographic lists transition signals for Addition, Comparison, Contrast, Concession, and Example.
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• Podcast: Academic report writing

• February 1st, 2022

• This is the podcast for the report writing page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Writing objectively

• January 30th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the writing objectively page of the writing skills section. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Academic Formulas List (AFL)

• January 28th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Academic Formulas List page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Hedging in academic writing

• January 26th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Hedging page of the writing skills section. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: New Academic Word List (NGSL)

• January 13th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the New Academic Word List page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: New General Service List (NGSL)

• January 11th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the New General Service List page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Academic Collocation List (ACL)

• January 9th, 2022

• This is the podcast for the Academic Collocation List page of the website. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Newsletter: January 2022

• January 4th, 2022

• Updates from the website, including a vocabulary profiler, and a video on the topic of objectivity in academic writing.
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• YouTube video: Writing objectively

• January 2nd, 2022

• This video considers what objective writing is, how objective academic writing is, then presents five ways to make your writing more objective.
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• Podcast: What is academic writing?

• December 31st, 2021

• This podcast considers what academic writing is, looking in detail at the main features of academic writing, namely that it is structured, evidenced, critical, balanced, precise, objective, and formal. The podcast also suggests ways for you to develop your academic writing. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Academic idioms

• December 29th, 2021

• This podcast describes idioms in academic English, giving information on what an idiom is, why academic idioms should be studied, as well as giving the 10 more comMon, academic idioms for spoken and written English from a recent study of idioms (Miller, 2019). The podcast also gives the background to the creation of the list. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: The Academic Word List (AWL)

• December 27th, 2021

• This podcast describes the Academic Word List (AWL), giving information on what the AWL is, as well as listing the first 60 headwords of the AWL. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• General vocabulary

• December 14th, 2021

• This page discusses general vocabulary, with a definition and an indication of how many words should comprise general vocabulary, looking at two comMon, models of vocabulary: one by Nation (2001), and a more recent one by Schmitt and Schmitt (2014).
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• Writing objectively

• December 7th, 2021

• Academic writing is generally impersonal and objective in tone. This section considers what objective writing is, how objective academic writing is, then presents several ways to make writing more objective, such as use of passive, focusing on the evidence, and using impersonal constructions with It and There.
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• Podcast: Using word lists

• December 5th, 2021

• This podcast gives information on why word lists are important, then presents ideas about how to use word lists. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• MSVL (Middle School Vocabulary Lists)

• November 26th, 2021

• The Middle School Vocabulary Lists (MSVL) are a series of five lists of academic and technical vocabulary for middle school (grade 6-8) students, covering five subject areas: (1) English Grammar and Writing, (2) Health, (3) Mathematics, (4) Science, and (5) Social Studies and History. Each list consists of 300-400 words families that occur frequently in each of these areas, but which are not contained in the GSL (General Service List).
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• Vocabulary profiler

• November 15th, 2021

• This vocabulary profiler allows you to identify word frequencies in different lists, from the 25,000 word lists of the BNC/COCA corpus, to the GSL/AWL, NGSL/NAWL, New-GSL/AVL, as well as subject lists such as the SVL. Shows percentages, lists of words, and highlighted text (fully customisable).
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• SPL (Secondary Phrase Lists)

• November 5th, 2021

• The Secondary Phrase Lists (SPL) is a series of lists of discipline-specific (i.e. technical) two-word phrases for secondary school education, covering eight core subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English (general not literary), Geology, History (modern), Mathematics, and Physics.
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• Newsletter: October 2021

• October 26th, 2021

• Updates from the website, including a mind map creator for the ACL, information on how to use wordlists, and a detailed overview of the many word lists available for academic English study.
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• Word Lists

• October 24th, 2021

• This page give reasons why word lists are important, and some tips on how to use them.
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• SVL (Secondary School Vocabulary Lists)

• October 21st, 2021

• The Secondary School Vocabulary Lists (SVL) is a series of lists of discipline-specific (i.e. technical) words for secondary school education, covering eight core subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English, Geology, History, Mathematics, and Physics.
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• ACL Mind Map

• October 17th, 2021

• This tool creates mind maps for collocations in the Academic Collocation List (ACL). Start typing a word and use autocomplete then see a map of words which collocate with the word. The mind map can be redrawn and the words can be dragged into new positions.
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• Word Lists: infographic

• October 5th, 2021

• This infographic summarises the word lists mentioned on the recent word lists page, classifying different lists and showing how they relate to one another.
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• Word Lists: Overview

• October 5th, 2021

• There are many word lists available for study, ranging from general lists (GSL, NGSL, new-GSL), to academic lists (UWL, AWL, AKL, NAWL, AVL), to multi-word lists (AFL, ACL, DCL, academic idioms list), to field-specific lists (too many to list, but 14 are shown on the page). This page classifies word lists, and gives a detailed summary of the major lists available.
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• CSAVL (Computer Science Academic Vocabulary List) highlighter

• October 4th, 2021

• This highlighter will highlight words in the CSAVL (Computer Science Academic Vocabulary List).
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• Computer Science Academic Vocabulary List (CSAVL)

• October 4th, 2021

• The Computer Science Academic Vocabulary List (CSAVL), developed in 2021 by David Roesler, is a list of academic words which occur frequently in the kind of textbooks and journal articles used by Computer Science (CS) undergraduates at university in the USA, and is intended to provide an efficient tool for CS students to reach a minimum comprehension threshold of 95%. It comprises 904 words in the main list, with an additional 702 in a supplemental, more technical list. In total, the two lists provide 19.90% coverage of a second evaluative corpus, or 1.24% per 100 words.
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• New-GSL (New General Service List) highlighter

• October 2nd, 2021

• This highlighter will highlight words in the new-GSL (New General Service List) by Brezina and Gablasova.
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• New-GSL (New General Service List)

• October 2nd, 2021

• Developed in 2013 (the same year as the NGSL), the new-GSL (New General Service List), by Vaclav Brezina and Dana Gablasova of Lancaster University, is a list of 2494 words which occur frequently in a range of texts. It is intended to be a major update of the much older General Service List (GSL). Added as part of the background work for a page on word lists.
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• CAWL (Chemistry Academic Word List) highlighter

• September 25th, 2021

• This highlighter will highlight words in the CAWL (Chemistry Academic Word List).
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• Chemistry Academic Word List (CAWL)

• September 25th, 2021

• The Chemistry Academic Word List (CAWL) was developed by Leila Valipouri and Hossein Nassaji in 2013 for EFL graduate Chemistry students. It comprises 1400 word families which occur frequently in Chemistry research articles. Added as part of the background work for a page on word lists.
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• SWL (Science Word List) highlighter

• September 23rd, 2021

• This highlighter will highlight words in the SWL (Science Word List).
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• Science Word List (SWL)

• September 21st, 2021

• The Science Word List (SWL), developed by Averil Coxhead and David Hirsch in 2007, is a list of 318 word families which do not occur in the GSL or AWL but which occur with reasonable frequency in a range of written science texts. Added as part of the background work for a page on word lists.
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• Academic Keyword List (AKL)

• September 13th, 2021

• The Academic Keyword List (AKL) consists of 930 words which appear more frequently in academic texts than non-academic ones. This tendency is called keyness, which leads to the name of the list, since it identifies keywords in academic (vs. non-academic) texts. It was developed in 2010. Added as part of the background work for a page on word lists.
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• University Word List (UWL)

• September 9th, 2021

• One of the first widely used academic word lists (developed in 1984), the UWL contains 836 word families divided into levels based on frequency. It excludes words from the GSL, and gives coverage of 8.5% of academic texts. Now largely replaced by the AWL. Added as part of the background work for a page on word lists.
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• Newsletter: August 2021

• August 22nd, 2021

• Updates from the website, including some new videos on the EAP Foundation YouTube channel, the Academic Collocation List sorted by frequency, information about online concordancers, and some new infographics.
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• YouTube video: 25 ComMon, Collocations for Academic English

• August 20th, 2021

• This video contains the 25 most frequent collocations in academic English, plus some bonus collocations and example sentences for each.
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• Academic Collocation List by frequency

• August 19th, 2021

• If you are familiar with the ACL, you will know it does not contain frequency information... until now! Students can now focus on studying the most frequent collocations and study those first.
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• Podcast: Reading and Note-taking

• June 26th, 2021

• This podcast covers information on reading and note-taking. It is published on PodOmatic.
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• Infographic: Reading and Note-taking

• June 26th, 2021

• This infographic gives information on reading and note-taking.
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• YouTube video: Concordancers for Academic English Study

• June 20th, 2021

• This video reviews the four main online concordancers: Lextutur; BNC; MICUSP; and SKELL.
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• Review: Concordancers (online)

• June 10th, 2021

• A concordancer is a computer program which is used to search through a corpus (plural form corpora), in other words a collection of texts. This review looks at 4 free online concordancers: Lextutor, BNC, MICUSP and SKELL.
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• Podcast: Learning Vocabulary

• June 4th, 2021

• Another new podcast, for the Cohesion in Academic Writing page, published to PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Cohesion

• May 31st, 2021

• Another new podcast, for the Cohesion in Academic Writing page, published to PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Summarising

• May 29th, 2021

• Another new podcast, for the Summarising page, published to PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: General Service List (GSL)

• May 29th, 2021

• Another new podcast, for the General Service List (GSL) page, published to PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Critical Reading

• May 28th, 2021

• A new podcast, for the Critical Reading page of the reading section, published to PodOmatic.
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• Nursing Collocation List (NCL) highlighter

• May 26th, 2021

• The NCL highlighter can be used to highlight collocations from the NCL (Nursing Collocation List).
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• Nursing Collocation List (NCL)

• May 25th, 2021

• The Nursing Collocation List (NCL) is a list of 488 collocations which occur frequently in nursing journal articles. It was developed in 2020 by Kaja Mandić and Izabela Dankić using a corpus of 1.1 million words drawn from 262 nursing articles, from ten prominent nursing journals, all published in 2017 or 2018.
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• EAP Shorts: What are Citations and References? [video 7]

• March 22nd, 2021

• The seventh video in the EAP Shorts series is What are Citations and References? The video explains the difference between the two, and gives examples, for Harvard, APA and MLA styles.
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• YouTube video: 21 Academic English Idioms

• March 1st, 2021

• This video gives 21 idioms which can be used in academic English speaking or writing. The idioms come from a 2019 study by Julia Miller of The University of Adelaide.
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• YouTube video: What is Academic Writing?

• February 14th, 2021

• This video gives a definition of academic writing, as well as explaining (with examples) the features that make academic writing unique, namely that it is structured, evidenced, critical, precise, balanced, objective and formal.
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• What is Academic Writing?

• February 8th, 2021

• This page gives a definition of academic writing, as well as explaining (with examples) the features that make academic writing unique, namely that it is structured, evidenced, critical, precise, balanced, objective and formal. It also suggests ways to improve academic writing.
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• YouTube video worksheets

• January 11th, 2021

• This video (the second of two) lists different types of transition signal (Addition, Comparison, Cause, etc.), showing how they are used and giving example sentences.
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• YouTube video: Reporting Verbs in Academic Writing

• January 11th, 2021

• This video (the second of two) lists different types of transition signal (Addition, Comparison, Cause, etc.), showing how they are used and giving example sentences.
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• YouTube video: Transitions Signals #2

• December 25th, 2020

• This video (the second of two) lists different types of transition signal (Addition, Comparison, Cause, etc.), showing how they are used and giving example sentences.
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• YouTube video: Transitions Signals #1

• December 25th, 2020

• This video (the first of two) gives a definition of transition signals (also called linkers, discourse markers or cohesive devices), explains the grammar of transition signals, looks at comMon, problem students have when using transition signals, and shows how to use a concordancer and a highlighter to student authentic texts.
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• YouTube video: Cause and Effect essays

• November 15th, 2020

• This video takes the topic of global warming to demonstrate how to use block and chain structure for a cause and effect essay, as well as how to use various cause and effect connectors accurately.
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• YouTube video: Research Skills: Searching for information

• November 1st, 2020

• This video accompanies the page on Searching for Information, and shows how to conduct academic information searches more efficiently by identifying keywords, using boolean operators, and using other advanced search techniques.
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• Research Skills: Searching for information

• October 31st, 2020

• This webpage explains how to conduct academic information searches more efficiently by identifying keywords, using boolean operators, and using other advanced search techniques.
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• Discourse Connectors List (DCL) highlighter

• October 29th, 2020

• This highlighter will highlight words in the Discourse Connector List (DCL), sorted according to class (clarification, comparison and so on).
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• Discourse Connectors List (DCL)

• October 29th, 2020

• The Discourse Connector List (DCL) is a list of 632 discourse connectors analysed according to frequency in academic, non-academic and spoken registers in the BNC (British National Corpus) and COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English). This page explains what discourse connectors are, and gives some details about the Discourse Connector List itself, including a complete list of connectors in the DCL, which can be sorted according to frequency in the different corpora and registers.
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• Research skills: Searching for information

• October 28th, 2020

• This section considers how to conduct searches of library catalogues, online databases and search engines more efficiently by identifying keywords and using boolean operators and other advanced search techniques.
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• WHO World Mental Health Day 2020

• October 10th, 2020

• This newsletter covers the WHO World Mental Health Day 2020, which is on the topic of increased investment in mental health. Read the newsletter and help to raise awareness of this issue.
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• Newsletter: October 2020

• October 7th, 2020

• Updates from the website, including information on the new Quizzes section, and publication of books 2 and 3 in the three book Unlock the Academic Word List series.
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• Quizzes page

• October 7th, 2020

• This section has quizzes for different areas of EAP, such as collocations, academic word list and more. Login and keep track of your scores. Take the quizzes again to try and improve.
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• Critical writing (page update)

• September 17th, 2020

• There are some updates to the page on critical writing, including examples of descriptive vs. critical writing, and a discussion of the relationship between Bloom's revised taxonomy and critical writing.
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• AWL finder (update)

• August 2nd, 2019

• This tool has been updated to limit the definitions of words, to match those in the Unlock the Academic Word List series of books. Now even more useful!
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• Podcast: Structure of Reports

• August 23rd, 2020

• Another new podcast, for the Structure of Reports page, published to PodOmatic.
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• Podcast: Academic Style

• August 22nd, 2020

• A new podcast, for the Academic Style page of the writing section, published to PodOmatic.
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• Newsletter: July 2020

• July 18th, 2020

• Updates from the website, including a new video in the EAP shorts series (avoiding plagiarism), a corresponding webpage, and some new infographics.
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• Reporting verbs infographic

• July 17th, 2020

• This infographic gives information on reporting verbs (also called referring verbs), including strength of reporting verbs, grammar, and many examples.
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• Academic Collocation List infographic

• July 9th, 2020

• This infographic gives an overview of the Academic Collocation List (ACL), with some facts and figures and a few examples of each type of collocation.
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• EAP Shorts: What is Plagiarism and How to Avoid It? [video 6]

• July 6th, 2020

• The sixth video in the EAP Shorts series is What is Plagiarism and How to Avoid It? The video gives a definition of plagiarism, shows types, lists reasons why students plagiarise and gives suggestions on how to avoid plagiarism.
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• Avoiding Plagiarism

• June 27th, 2020

• This page explains what plagiarism is, gives types of plagiarism, gives some examples of acceptable and unacceptable source use, lists reasons why students plagiarise, and suggests ways to avoid plagiarism. There is also a checklist to help you check your writing for plagiarism.
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• IELTS writing: task descriptors

• June 17th, 2020

• This page gives detailed information on the criteria for each area of the IELTS writing test, taken from the publically available band descriptors for task 1 and task 2, as follows: Task Achievement; Coherence and Cohesion; Lexical Resource; Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
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• Newsletter: June 2020

• June 10th, 2020

• Updates from the website, including addition of academic idioms, plus Academic Collocation List video on the YouTube channel.
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• YouTube video: Academic Collocation List (ACL)

• June 9th, 2020

• This video looks at the Academic Collocation List (ACL), a list containing 2,469 of the most frequent and useful collocations which occur in written academic English. This video gives an overview of the ACL, with some examples, with examples, as well as some ways you can learn collocations in the ACL.
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• EAP Resource Bank

• May 5th, 2020

• This page highlights some useful websites for academic English study. Some are personal favourites of mine, others have been recommended by other EAP teachers.
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• Academic Idioms

• May 9th, 2020

• Although it is often assumed that idioms are too informal for use in academic English, two studies have identified idioms which occur fairly frequently in spoken and written academic English. This page gives a list of academic idioms from a recent study of idioms by Julia Miller (2019) published in the Journal of EAP (2019).
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• AWL/AVL highlighter

• March 21st, 2020

• This tool combines the AWL highlighter with a highlighter for the AVL (Academic Vocabulary List).
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• AVL highlighter and gapfill

• March 17th, 2020

• This tool highlights words from the AVL (Academic Vocabulary List).
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• Academic Vocabulary List (AVL)

• March 15th, 2020

• The Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) was developed in 2013 by Dee Gardner and Mark Davies. It is a list of academic words derived from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The AVL provides an updated list of 'core' academic vocabulary, which excludes general high-frequency words as well as subject-specific (technical) words.
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• MAWL/MAVL highlighter

• March 11th, 2020

• This tool combines the two medical academic highlighters found on the website, namely the MAWL highlighter and the MAVL highlighter.
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• MAWL highlighter

• March 8th, 2020

• This is a tool to highlight words in a text that are in the MAWL (Medical Academic Word List)
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• Medical Academic Word List (MAWL)

• March 7th, 2020

• The Medical Academic Word List (MAWL) was developed by in 2008 from a study of a 1.09 million-word corpus of medical research articles from online resources, covering 32 medical subject areas. The MAWL contains 623 word families, and has a coverage of 12.24% of words in the corpus used to derive the list.
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• MAVL highlighter

• March 5th, 2020

• This is a tool to highlight words in a text that are in the MAVL (Medical Academic Vocabulary List)
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• Medical Academic Vocabulary List (MAVL)

• March 4th, 2020

• The Medical Academic Vocabulary List (MAVL) was developed in 2015, based on a study of a 2.7 million-word corpus of medical academic English and a 3.5 million-word corpus of medical English textbooks. The coverage of the MAVL in the two corpuses was 19.44% and 20.18% respectively. This page gives more information and a complete list of words in the MAVL.
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• Newsletter: February 2020

• March 1st, 2020

• Updates from the website, with news on recent videos on the YouTube channel, including the coherence and cohension video and the AWL Quizlet.
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• Quizlet: AWL flashcards

• March 1st, 2020

• These flashcards cover sublist 1 of the AWL. There are two sets: one with definitions, pronunciation, examples and collocations (for study) and one with definitions (only) for self-testing purposes.
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• Cohesion infographic

• March 1st, 2020

• This infographic summarises the information on cohesion from the webpage.
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• EAP Shorts: What is the Writing Process? [video 5]

• March 1st, 2020

• The fifth video in the EAP Shorts series is What is the Writing Process? It gives an overview of the writing process, including understanding the title, brainstorming, researchnig, drafting, editing, and proofreading.
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• Coherence and Cohesion

• February 27th, 2020

• The page on cohesion has been updated to include information on shell nouns and thematic development, as well as including some exercises.
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• EAP Shorts: What is a report? [video 4]

• February 16th, 2020

• The fourth video in the EAP Shorts series is What is a report? It gives an overview of report writing, including types, structure, and differences between a report and an essay.
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• YouTube video: Coherence and Cohesion in Academic Writing

• February 12th, 2020

• This video covers coherence and cohesion in academic writing, giving a definition of each, listing five ways to achieve good cohesion, giving suggestions on how to improve coherence, and analysing the IELTS and TOEFL criteria to help students understand how coherence and cohesion are assessed in those tests.
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• EAP Shorts: What are symbols and abbreviations? [video 3]

• February 2nd, 2020

• The third video in the EAP Shorts series is What are symbols and abbreviations? It explains what these are, shows how to abbreviate any word, and gives comMon, symbols and abbreviations that can be used for note-taking.
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• Newsletter: Youku videos

• January 24th, 2020

• A special newsletter for Chinese subscribers, with information on how to access the EAPFoundation videos via the Youku website in China.
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• EAP Shorts: What is the AWL? [video 2]

• January 20th, 2020

• The second video in the EAP Shorts series is What is the AWL? It explains what the AWL (Academic Word List) is, with reference to the GSL (General Service List), plus advice on how to use it to improve academic English study.
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• Newsletter: January 2020

• January 19th, 2020

• Updates from the website, with news on recent videos on the YouTube channel, including the new EAP Shorts series of videos.
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• EAP Foundation on Patreon

• January 8th, 2020

• A short video (in theory, video 0 in the EAP Shorts series) giving a brief outline of the EAPFoundation.com website, as well as how users can support the site via Patreon.
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• EAP Shorts: What is EAP? [video 1]

• January 6th, 2020

• The first video in the EAP Shorts series is What is EAP? It gives a definition and brief overview, and compares EAP to GE. It is a companion to the webpage, also called What is EAP?
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• YouTube video series: EAP Shorts

• January 6th, 2020

• I've started a new series of videos called EAP Shorts. These give a brief (2-4') overview of a comMon, EAP topic, with snappy tune and text rather than voice-over.
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• Using numbers

• January 5th, 2020

• It can be difficult in academic writing to know when to use words and when to use numerals (e.g. 5 or five, 1 million or 1,000,000). To complicate matters, different systems such as MLA and APA have different requirements. Find out more with this page in the Writing Skills section.
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• YouTube video: Academic style

• January 4th, 2020

• This is a new YouTube video, giving 10 rules for academic writing style.
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• Hedging infographic

• December 14th, 2019

• This infographic covers hedging in academic writing, and accompanies the webpage on hedging.
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• YouTube video: Hedging in academic writing

• December 14th, 2019

• This is a new YouTube video for hedging in academic writing.
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• Hedging (cautious language)

• December 5th, 2019

• Hedging, also called cautious language or tentative language, is a way of softening the language by making the claims or conclusions less absolute. This section explains what hedging is, then looks at different ways to hedge, namely using introductory verbs, modal verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns. There is an example passage so you can see each type of hedging in an authentic text.
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• Newsletter, December 2019

• December 2nd, 2019

• Latest updates from the website, including pages on What is EAP? and Complex Grammar, an infographic on Language for Presentations, and exercises for Reporting Verbs.
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• What is EAP?

• November 27th, 2019

• This page gives a definition of EAP, describes the development of EAP, locates EAP in a family tree of English Language Teaching, considers general versus specific EAP, and compares EAP to General English.
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• Presentation language infographic

• November 10th, 2019

• The formulaic phrases in this infographic can be used in different stages of a presentation.
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• Complex grammar

• October 28th, 2019

• Academic writing tends to use a greater proportion of complex sentences, and fewer simple or compound sentences, than everyday writing. This section considers different kinds of sentence, then looks at the three different types of clause used in complex sentences, namely noun clauses, adjective clauses and adverbial clauses.
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• WHO World Mental Health Day 2019

• October 10th, 2019

• This newsletter covers the WHO World Mental Health Day 2019, which is on the topic of suicide prevention. One person dies from suicide every 40 seconds, amounting to 800,000 deaths per year. It is the second leading cause of death among those aged 15-29. Read the newsletter and help to raise awareness of this issue.
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• Theses/dissertations

• October 4th, 2019

• If you are studying for a Master’s or a PhD, you will need to write a thesis or dissertation as the final stage. This page explains the difference between these two terms, gives ideas for how to prepare to write one, and gives information on structure.
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• Research proposals

• October 2nd, 2019

• Research proposals are often completed before research is undertaken. Find out more about the two different types of proposal, namely approval proposal and funding proposal, and some tips on how to structure one.
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• Newsletter, October 2019

• October 1st, 2019

• The newsletter for October 2019, covering updates in Q3 of 2019 (July, August, September).
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• AWL finder

• September 23rd, 2019

• Created 6 years ago and neglected, this tool has been updated to draw on information in other places in the website (ACL collocations, pronunciation database, definitions database) to provide more complete information on AWL word, including word family, usage, and collocation.
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• Abstracts

• August 31st, 2019

• An abstract is a shortened version of an academic paper, such as a report, a conference paper or a journal article, appearing before the paper itself. Find out more about what an abstract is, how it differs from an executive summary, types of abstract, how to structure one, and language for writing one.
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• Literature reviews

• August 31st, 2019

• Literature reviews often form part of larger pieces of writing, such as reports, journal articles, theses or dissertations. This page considers what a literature review is, how to structure one, and provides some guidelines for writing a literature review.
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• Dictionary widget

• August 25th, 2019

• Most pages on the website now have a dictionary widget (available via the desktop version only, not mobile). This is on the left side of the screen, and can be used to check the definition of any word, including those on the page, using the either the Wordnet or OPTED databases, or both.
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• OPTED dictionary

• August 25th, 2019

• The dictionary on the website has been made more powerful by the addition of a second database, the OPTED dictionary, which is based on the 1913 edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
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• New General Service List (NGSL)

• August 18th, 2019

• As with the NAWL, the NGSL has had a highlighter on the site for some time, but no information. This page contains background and a complete list.
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• New Academic Word List (NAWL)

• August 15th, 2019

• There has been a highlighter for the NAWL (New Academic Word List) on the site for a while, but little actual information on the NAWL. Here is some background to the list, and a complete copy of it. All words have definitions supplied via the WordNet database that is also hosted on the site.
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• EAWL highlighter

• August 6th, 2019

• Actually developed first, this highlighter is for the words in the EAWL (Economics Academic Word List). Words are divided into 9 sublists according to frequency.
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• Economics Academic Word List (EAWL)

• August 5th, 2019

• A researcher, James O'Flynn, contacted me about adding his Economics Academic Word List (EAWL) to the site. Here it is!
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• Newsletter, July 2019

• July 27th, 2019

• The newsletter for July 2019, covering updates in Q2 of 2019 (April, May and June).
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• New infographics

• July 19th, 2019

• A few new infographics: one for the writing process, one for using symbols and abbreviations, one for the AWL.
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• Home page tweak

• July 3rd, 2019

• Another tweak, to the home page, adding a short section showing the most popular pages on the website.
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• AWL highlighter with definitions

• June 30th, 2019

• Another existing page that has been tweaked, this time so that AWL words highlighted in texts can be clicked to show definition, word form, pronunciation and more. The perfect complement to the highlighter, allowing for more in-depth study of AWL words.
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• AWL with definitions

• June 25th, 2019

• The full AWL (Academic Word List), with all word forms, is not new, but has been tweaked so that all words (and word forms) can be clicked on to show definition, word form, pronunciation and more, using the dictionary database built in to the website.
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• Academic Writing Genres book release

• April 19th, 2019

• Academic Writing Genres, the second book in the EAP Foundation series, is now available. This has taken me longer than expected to finish, but for a reason. It is an extensive book, 425 pages (paperback edition), covering all comMon, academic genres. The book is divided into four parts, with the largest being the section on essays, the most comMon, genre for academic study. The reports section is also extensive. Other genres such as posters, reflective writing and research proposals, as well as genre elements (abstracts and literature reviews), are also covered.
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• Podcasts

• November 27th, 2018

• I have made further updates and improvements to the podcasts on the EAPFoundation.com website. They can be downloaded or streamed more easily. This means you can find them not only embedded on the website pages, but also on Spotify, iTunes and Google Play. They are also available on PodOmatic, the podcast hosting website.
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• Infographics

• November 11th, 2018

• An area I've been working on recently is inforgraphics for some of the existing pages of the EAPFoundation.com website. The infographics are highly visual summaries of the content of the page. They are all easily 'Pinnable' (if you are a Pinterest fan) and printable. Currently there are infographics for compare and contrast essays, cause and effect essays, academic writing style and summary writing. More coming soon!
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• Dealing with stress

• October 3rd, 2018

• Studying at university can be a very stressful experience. New friends, new relationships, exams, assignments, deadlines, usually far away from your usual emotional support network. Understand what stress is and see 10 ways to reduce stress.
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• Roots

• August 23rd, 2018

• Study some of the most comMon, roots in English - mostly from Latin and Greek - with meaning and examples for each.
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• Suffixes

• August 23rd, 2018

• This section lists some comMon, suffixes, with example words.
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• Prefixes

• August 23rd, 2018

• Study some comMon, prefixes in English, with meaning and example words, and learn how they can be used to improve academic vocabulary.
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• Vocabulary building

• August 23rd, 2018

• This section gives an overview of using prefixes, suffixes and roots to build vocabulary.
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• NAWL highlighter

• June 19th, 2018

• This is a highlighter for the New Academic List (NAWL), a companion to the NGSL. Words in the NAWL are highlighted, along with 'supplemental' words (numbers, days of the week etc.).
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• NGSL highlighter

• June 18th, 2018

• This is a highlighter for the New General Service List (NGSL). Words are highlighted and listed according to three different levels (first, second and third 1000). Off-list words are also shown.
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• Learning vocabulary

• May 15th, 2018

• If you want to be able to have good reading/listening fluency, you need to understand around 8000 word families, or 34000 words. This is a lot! Find out about the kinds of words to study, including formulaic language, as well as tips on how to learn vocabulary including increased exposure, depth of processing and manipulation of new words.
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• Features of vocabulary

• May 6th, 2018

• In order to be able to use vocabulary productively in speaking or writing, it is not enough to know just the meaning. Other areas are important, such as spelling, pronunciation, usage and collocation. This page looks at all these and other important features of vocabulary.
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• Using dictionaries

• May 4th, 2018

• This section gives detailed information on the types of dictionary available and the advantages and disadvantages of each, details the type of information you will find in a dictionary and how to make use of it, and concludes with advice on how to improve dictionary use.
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• Redrafting

• April 4th, 2018

• After checking your work, you should aim to redraft it at least once. This section gives some tips on how to do this. It is the final page to be completed in the Writing Process section.
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• Checking

• April 4th, 2018

• After writing your first draft, you need either to check your work (yourself) or get the teacher or a peer to check it for you. This section explains the kinds of thing to check for.
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• First draft

• April 1st, 2018

• After writing an outline, the next stage of the writing process is to begin on your first draft. This section gives some tips on how to do this.
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• Outlining

• March 31st, 2018

• After brainstorming (and, for researched essays, researching), you will need to write an outline before embarking on the first draft. Find out how to write an effective outline in this section.
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• Proofreading

• March 25th, 2018

• Proofreading is the final stage in the writing process. Get some tips here on how to proofread effectively.
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• Social media page

• October 29th, 2017

• The website has social media platforms to help keep users up-to-date with what's going on. This page on the website gives information on these, including a list of all the videos on the EAPFoundation.com YouTube channel.
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• YouTube video: styles of notes

• October 28th, 2017

• This is a new YouTube video, for note-taking when listening or reading. It covers different styles of notes - linear and pattern - as well as briefly outlining the Cornell Method of note-taking.
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• Dictionary

• September 29th, 2017

• The website now has a dictionary, using the open source database of words provided by Princeton University. The dictionary links to the AWL and GSL to give information on whether a word is in either of those lists and, if so, the headword, sublist (AWL) or frequency (GSL).
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• Subject specific lists

• September 23rd, 2017

• Subject-specific vocabulary lists, using data from Princeton University's WordNet.
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• Subject specific vocabulary

• September 23rd, 2017

• Information on subject-specific (or technical) vocabulary.
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• Error correction code

• May 23rd, 2017

• This is a correction code which can be used to give feedback on grammar and other errors in written work.
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• Multi highlighter

• March 18th, 2017

• This highlighter combines the three highlighters already on the website, namely the AWL, ACL and AFL highlighters.
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• AFL highlighter

• March 17th, 2017

• This highlighter will allow you to input a text and highlight all words from the Academic Formulas List (AFL). As with its companion, the AWL highlighter, it comes with a gapfill maker to help create simple exercises.
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• Academic Formulas List (AFL)

• March 15th, 2017

• The Academic Formulas List, developed at the University of Michigan, gives the most comMon, three, four and five word phrases used in academic speaking or writing. The full list is available here.
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• ACL highlighter

• March 13th, 2017

• This highlighter will allow you to input a text and highlight all words from the Academic Collocation List (ACL). As with its companion, the AWL highlighter, it comes with a gapfill maker to help create simple exercises.
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• ACL by type

• March 10th, 2017

• This is another version of the Academic Collocation List (ACL), this time listed according to collocation type, e.g. adj and noun, adv and noun, etc.
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• Academic Collocation List (ACL)

• March 8th, 2017

• The Academic Collocation List, developed by researchers at Pearson, lists the 2,469 most commonly occurring collocations in academic written texts. The full list is available here.
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• Reading and note-taking basics

• December 20th, 2016

• Reading and note-taking is a key part of academic life. Find out how to do it well.
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• Critical reading

• December 12th, 2016

• Being able to make judgements about a text and understand any potential biases is a vital part of academic study. This process is called critical reading. This section includes important questions to ask as you read a text critically.
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• Compare and contrast exercises

• November 6th, 2016

• Exercises for the compare and contrast essays pages added.
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• Researching (writing process)

• October 3rd, 2016

• Continuing the section on the writing process, this page looks at researching to find additional information, a crucial stage in researched assignments after brainstorming ideas and before writing an outline.
•  
• In-text citations

• June 18th, 2016

• If you are going to use other writers' works in your own, you will need to know how to use in-text citations.
•  
• Reporting verbs

• June 17th, 2016

• Reporting verbs are essential if you have in-text citations. There are many of them, each with a slightly different meaning.
•  
• Feedback (writing process)

• June 15th, 2016

• Continuing the section on the writing process, this page gives information on responding to feedback, especially following peer editing. This page is adapted from the feedback page of the Study Skills section.
•  
• Understanding the title

• June 15th, 2016

• Continuing the section on the writing process, this page gives information on arguably the most important step, namely understanding the title.
•  
• Feedback

• June 14th, 2016

• Understand how to use feedback to improve your learning.
•  
• Learner autonomy

• April 8th, 2016

• Students are increasingly expected to take responsibility for their learning, in other words become autonomous learners. Find out more about what this means and the skills that are involved.
•  
• Note-taking styles (reading)

• April 6th, 2016

• This page is mostly a repeat of the listening and note-taking page on styles of note-taking, as linear notes and pattern notes are just as useful for reading as listening.
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• Note-taking styles (listening)

• April 6th, 2016

• Find out more about the main styles of note-taking while listening, namely linear notes and pattern notes. The page also has information on a comMon, method of note-taking, the Cornell Method.
•  
• Login

• April 1st, 2016

• The Login function is a brand new feature of the site. It will unlock additional resources for users, such as exercises and activities or resources pages.
•  
• Other discussion skills

• March 11th, 2016

• This page rounds out the discussions skills section by looking at other important discussion language such as giving suggestions and expressing uncertainty.
•  
• Asking for clarification

• March 10th, 2016

• Continuing the discussions skills section, this page gives information on why it is useful to ask for clarification, and how to do this.
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• Agreeing and disagreeing

• March 9th, 2016

• This page gives useful phrases for agreeing and politely disagreeing in academic discussions.
•  
• Giving opinions

• March 9th, 2016

• Continuing the discussions skills section, this page gives useful phrases for giving and asking for opinions.
•  
• Digressions

• February 17th, 2016

• Lecturers sometimes go off topic or 'digress'. Find out more about digressions, how to recognise them, and why this is important for your lecture comprehension.
•  
• Reading with a purpose

• February 17th, 2016

• Unlike everyday reading, which is usually done for pleasure, academic reading will have a specific purpose which will determine how you read the text - or whether you read it at all.
•  
• Skimming, scanning, surveying a text

• February 16th, 2016

• Skimming, scanning and surveying a text are three important ways to increase how quickly you read.
•  
• Reading skills

• February 15th, 2016

• With the vast number of text you need to read, finding strategies to increase reading speed is essential.
•  
• Reference section

• January 3rd, 2016

• Reference sections can be confusing and difficult to compile. Learn how to build a reference section for the three most comMon, formats, i.e. Harvard, APA and MLA.
•  
• Summarising

• December 31st, 2015

• Summarising is one of three ways of using another writer's work in your own (the other two being paraphrase and quotation). Learn the essential steps in creating an effective summary from a text.
•  
• Paraphrasing

• December 30th, 2015

• Paraphrasing is an important skill in academic writing. Find out why, and how to do it.
•  
• References & citations

• November 10th, 2015

• Understand the difference between references and citations, what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
•  
• Recycling

• July 12th, 2015

• Lecturers often paraphrase, repeat or summarise ideas. Find out why and how they do it in this section.
•  
• Definitions

• July 9th, 2015

• Learn how to write definitions.
•  
• Classification

• July 9th, 2015

• Learn how to classify according to different criteria. Includes a guide to language for classification.
•  
• Transition signals

• July 8th, 2015

• More information on transition signals, a key element of cohesion. Contains examples of different types.
•  
• Cohesion

• July 8th, 2015

• Information on cohesion and coherence, and how to improve the way your writing 'sticks together'. Includes an example essay to demonstrate different aspects of cohesion.
•  
• Persuasion essays

• July 7th, 2015

• How to write a persuasion essay. Includes information on counter-arguments, and an example essay.
•  
• Discussion essays

• July 1st, 2015

• How to structure and write discussion essays, with an example essay.
•  
• Compare & contrast essays

• June 24th, 2015

• How to structure and write compare & contrast essays, with an example essay.
•  
• Cause & effect essays

• May 23rd, 2015

• How to structure and write cause & effect essays, with an example essay.
•  
• Problem-solution essays

• May 16th, 2015

• How to write problem-solution essays, with an example essay.
•  
• IELTS writing

• May 6th, 2015

• Information about the IELTS writing test.
•  
• Presentations structure activities

• April 7th, 2015

• Some activities to focus on structuring a presentation. Includes a planning grid, with language guide.
•  
• Critical writing

• December 8th, 2014

• What is critical writing? How is it different from descriptive writing?
•  
• Academic style

• November 15th, 2014

• 10 rules for good academic style.
•  
• Note-taking (Listening)

• August 25th, 2014

• This page describes the basics of note-taking when listening.
•  
• Lecture cues

• August 24th, 2014

• Good lecturers signpost their lectures using lecture cues. Find out more about these, and how they can help you improve your note-taking.
•  
• Study Skills podcasts

• May 20th, 2014

• Podcasts have been added for the pages in the Study Skills section.
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• Podcast page

• May 5th, 2014

• A dedicated page has been added to the listening section to collect the podcasts on the site.
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• Review of '50 steps to improving academic writing' [book]

• April 17th, 2014

• Review of '50 steps to improving your academic writing', by Chris Sowton. This book is published in the EAP series by Garnet Education. Is it the right book for you? Find out in this review.
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• Writing home page

• March 11th, 2014

• A new look for the Writing home page, using a 'brainstorm' style layout with JavaScript mouseover effects.
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• Guessing unknown words

• February 17th, 2014

• How to use context and word formation (prefix, suffix, root) to deal with unknown words when reading.
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• Time management

• November 26th, 2013

• Tips on how to manage your time effectively, by identifying targets, prioritising, breaking down tasks, and creating a calendar or timetable.
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• What is academic vocabulary?

• November 11th, 2013

• Academic vocabulary is more than just a list of words you can memorise. It differs according to your individual context. Learn more about what constitutes academic vocabulary here.
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• AWL finder

• November 6th, 2013

• A tool which (when complete) will present the words in the AWL with more complete information, including word family, usage, and collocation. Needs some contribution from student volunteers (write to contact@eapfoundation.com).
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• Learning styles

• October 17th, 2013

• Information on learning styles, including Kolb styles, the VAK model, Honey & Mumford (comMon, in the UK), and the Dunn & Dunn model (more frequent in the US).
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• Review of AWL highlighters

• August 30th, 2013

• Review of 3 popular AWL (Academic Word List) highlighters available on the internet: Lextutor, Nottingham University, and EAPFoundation.com. Although they all do similar things (highlight words in the AWL), they vary in their information and usability. Find out which one is best for your study/teaching.
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• News & Reviews section

• August 28th, 2013

• This website is a work in progress, so I thought it would be useful to have a place to share updates (the section you're reading now!). This section is also a place where I can share EAP news from other websites. Reviews (of websites and books) are also included here, as are past newsletters which have been sent to subscribers of the website newsletter.
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• Using symbols & abbreviations

• August 14th, 2013

• Some basics of using symbols & abbreviations for lecture note taking.
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• Lecture comprehension

• August 14th, 2013

• Understanding lectures is about more than just listening and taking notes. You should consider what you do pre-lecture, for example reading or vocabulary work, during the lecture, and post-lecture.
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• Essay structure

• August 9th, 2013

• Information on structuring an essay, including the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Contains advice on writing thesis statements and topic sentences, with a complete (short) essay to show you how these give structure to the whole essay.
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• Brainstorming

• August 8th, 2013

• Some different approaches to brainstorming, including clustering and free writing. Complete with real student examples.
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• The writing process

• August 7th, 2013

• An overview of the writing process in two different contexts: coursework (when there is more time for researching) and exams.
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• Tools page

• July 31st, 2013

• An 'anchor' page has been added to collect together the various EAP tools which exist in different sections of the website e.g. AWL word finder, AWL highlighter & gapfill, GSL highlighter, and GSL limiter.
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• AWL highlighter - tag cloud version

• July 30th, 2013

• I was looking at a website with a nice tag cloud when it occurred to me that this would be a nice way to present words in the AWL highlighter. It was relatively easy to tweak the JavaScript from the existing AWL highlighter to make it work. This format might appeal to students who are more visual.
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• About page

• July 13th, 2013

• The About page was revamped, adding information previously contained on the Home page. Find out more about the website, some of the principles behind it, and me, the author.
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• Home page

• July 13th, 2013

• I redesigned the Home page of EAPFoundation.com following feedback from a colleague (Suzanne Littewood), to make it a simpler portal to the website. Uses some simple JavaScript to animate images for each of the sections.
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• Search function

• July 3rd, 2013

• To help users find content, a search function has been added to the website. The search code is a free php code called Sphider (available from www.sphider.eu).
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• Forum for EAPFoundation.com

• July 1st, 2013

• A Forum was added to the website so that students could ask me (and each other!) questions about EAP. The code is a free php code called GentleSource (available from www.gentlesource.com).
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• How to reflect (the learning cycle)

• May 14th, 2013

• Information on the Kolb learning cycle and how to reflect. Completed in time for my students to use when writing reflections for their end of year language learning journals. Contains a guided structure for writing reflections, using the Gibbs reflective cycle.
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• GSL limiter

• May 4th, 2013

• The GSL limiter is a tool for highlighting selected words in the GSL (General Service List). It is most useful at the higher end (i.e. less frequent words). Many of these words are perfectly fine in academic writing, but are often overlooked by students who go straight to the AWL (Academic Word list). The GSL is often a better a place to start for many students. This tool was developed alongside the GSL highlighter. Still some JavaScript bugs to fix, but mostly works fine.
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• GSL highlighter

• April 30th, 2013

• The GSL highlighter is similar to the AWL highlighter, but covering words in the GSL. It is not as useful, as words in the GSL have around 80% coverage. To try to make it more practical I have divided the GSL into 10 levels, each giving similar coverage (around 8%). This tool is interesting, but the GSL limiter is probably more useful for students.
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• Presentations section

• April 22nd, 2013

• The content of the presentations section is complete (exercises still missing). This was timed to coincide with my students assessed individual presentations for EAP. The section includes information on presentation structure, language, body language, delivery, and visual aids. Each section has a useful checklist to guide students when preparing to give a presentation.
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• Vocabulary: what to study?

• April 20th, 2013

• Some basics of studying vocabulary, looking at meaning, pronunciation, usage, collocation, etc. Tips, and a checklist.
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• The General Service List (GSL)

• April 17th, 2013

• Information on the General Service List (GSL), including words sorted by frequency (recommended) and alphabetically.
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• Sitemap

• April 17th, 2013

• Ease of navigation was one of the guiding principles in the design of this website. I thought a complete sitemap would be essential. Much of this is still 'wishful thinking' at this stage: it maps out how the site will look when it is complete. To help with this, there is also an 'active sitemap', which shows all the pages so far completed. This will show when a user clicks on a link for a section which is not yet complete.
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• AWL widget

• April 17th, 2013

• The AWL widget uses the same files as the AWL highlighter (jQuery and JavaScript), but is embedded on (almost) every page, to highlight AWL words in context. This, like the AWL highlighter and gapfill, was one of the main areas of focus when I was developing the website.
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• AWL gapfill (for AWL highlighter)

• April 17th, 2013

• Students too often focus on meaning when studying new words rather than usage, so I wanted to create a tool which would enable students to test their knowledge of word formation for AWL words. Needs to be used in conjunction with the AWL highlighter.
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• AWL highlighter

• April 17th, 2013

• After some time using the AWL (Academic Word List) highlighters on the internet, I decided I wasn't satisfied with them and wanted to make my own. Not an easy task - had to learn a lot of jQuery and JavaScript to do it - but worth the effort.
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• Launch of EAPFoundation.com

• April 17th, 2013

• The website EAPFoundation.com is officially launched. The website is specifically designed for students and teachers of EAP (English for Academic Purposes). Find out more about it in the About section.
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