The Effect of Academic Vocabulary Use on Graduate Students’ Writing Assignment Scores

Abstract

Since students are increasingly expected to use academic vocabulary while at university, this study was conducted to determine whether a statistical correlation existed between the use of academic vocabulary in assignments and the marks obtained by graduate students, using a purposive sample of graduate students (n = 11). The students were asked to provide some of their assignments and to take part in an interview. Twenty-three assignments were collected, and five students were interviewed. Textual analyses and interviews were conducted to measure correlations between variables and address other questions. To determine words that could be identified as being academic, I used the academic word list (AWL) created by Coxhead in 2000. No significant correlation was found between the use of the academic vocabulary in the assignments and the marks the students received. Additionally, this study investigated certain other variables, such as: the importance of academic vocabulary from the students’ perspective, their understanding of academic vocabulary, and their attitudes towards the choice of academic vocabulary.