Academic Vocabulary:The Need of the Hour for Regional Medium Engineering Students

Abstract

Abstract

Vocabulary is the amount of words that characterize a given language. Without this Vocabulary, the learner would be unable to use and comprehend the target Language. Therefore, Vocabulary, as a bearer of meaning, is considered to be very important in the Language acquisition process. It is becoming increasingly apparent that teachers must enable students to learn and acquire a lexical base in order to achieve success in language learning in general. A young University ESL learner is expected to acquire the knowledge of 5000 families as listed in the Academic Word List (AWL). The AWL is a list of words which appear with high frequency in English-language academic texts. Unfortunately, due to many reasons the University Learners, who are the Engineering Students in this Study, from pre dominant Regional Medium backgrounds fail to acquire the Vocabulary necessary for communication and comprehension of the messages. This paper attempts to present the reasons for their inability to acquire the required vocabulary and will also study the indispensible fundamental concepts of Vocabulary like defining word, importance of vocabulary and its frequency types, and also to have a comprehensive understanding of Academic Word List and its importance to a university learner.