![]() (Nation & Waring, 1997) This key observation by Nation and Waring (1997) sets forth what should be the axiomatic principle for EAP vocabulary study: attaining a level of word knowledge that permits the learner to proficiently (if not effortlessly) read typical university texts and to generally comprehend (if not completely absorb) academic lectures in English. At least 95% coverage is needed for that. Research by Na and Nation (1985) has shown that this ratio of unknown to known words is not sufficient to allow reasonably successful guessing of the meaning of the unknown words. Issue With a vocabulary size of 2,000 words, a learner knows 80% of the words in a text which means that one word in every five (approximately two words in every line) are unknown. ![]() This article provides the rationale behind the creation of the GAV. But exactly what words do university learners need to know to achieve such a level of coverage? The GAV provides one important answer to this question by combining the headwords from the three most significant long-standing corpus-based vocabulary studies to date: the University Word List (UWL), the Academic Word List (AWL), and the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) word lists, with a fourth, the New Academic Word List (NAWL), now being added. Research by Na and Nation has shown that understanding of about 95% of the words in an academic text is required for learners to confidently comprehend its meaning. This article describes the Global Academic Vocabulary (GAV) lexicon, lessons, and platform that was initially implemented at International Christian University in Tokyo and is now under significant further development at the University of Melbourne and NYU-Tokyo.
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