书海撷英 | 学术英语词汇教学

导语

子曰：“知之者不如好之者，好之者不如乐之者。”因何而乐，趣舍万殊，自有不同，似古今学者，多以读书为乐。若论及学术图书，言乐者愈少，或以为严肃板正，或苦其艰涩难懂，然真如此乎？若因之而生畏，倒失了一大乐趣。学术图书之乐，非一时之快，乃精神共鸣之乐，深造自得之乐也。本公众号现推出专栏“书海撷英”，从学术书海中撷取精粹，或有雅趣，或有深思，或有新意，以飨读者，愿你我皆有此乐。

导读专家

许宏晨，北京语言大学外国语学部英语学院教授。主要研究领域：社会语言学与外语教学、应用语言学量化研究方法。

《学术英语导论》（Introducing English for Academic Purposes）一书的第八章“学术英语词汇”主要介绍与学术英语词汇教学相关的话题。首先，作者介绍了常见的词汇分类方式：通用词汇、学术词汇和术语。所谓通用词汇，是指2000个左右常见词族；术语因各学科不同而不同，最为少见；学术词汇介于两者之间。目前，学术词语表（Academic Word List，简称AWL）、学术关键词汇表（Academic Keyword List，简称AKL）、学术词汇表（Academic Vocabulary List，简称AVL）是三个比较常用的学术词汇表。除了单个词语之外，学术英语语篇中的多词单位（multi-word unit，简称MWU）也值得关注，它也称为词族、语块、词丛等。对教师和学生而言，多词单位的两个关键特征是透明度和稳定性。鉴于多词单位的加工优势及其在学术语篇中标记语步等作用，多词单位很值得被纳入学术英语教学范围。

（图片来自网络）

从学习角度看，关于一个词语（包括多词单位）的知识包括它的发音、拼写、语法、搭配、语义和语用。从教学角度看，在进行词汇教学之前有必要进行前测和需求分析，并根据结果决定是否教授通用英语词汇。此外，教学还应尽量避开各学科特有术语，将注意力放在通用核心学术词汇上。就具体教学方法而言，一是采用显性形式教学法，二是通过选取难度、相关性合适的文本促进学生词汇附带习得的发生。作者强调，教师需要提升学生对词汇知识多面性的意识。教师应该鼓励学生记录所学到的词汇知识，并引导学生使用学生词典。从测试的角度看，可以采用词汇量水平测试（Vocabulary Levels Test，简称VLT）或者词汇知识量表（Vocabulary Knowledge Scale，简称VKS）等工具分别测量词汇的广度和深度。

教学实践分享

在《学术英语导论》第八章临近章节末尾处，几位学术英语教师分享了自己教授学术英语词汇时所采用的方法，请带着以下几个思考题阅读他们分享的内容。

1. Have you used any of these approaches?

2. Which one(s) would work best for your students?

3. Are there any which are unsuitable in your context? Why or why not?   

Elisabeth

At the beginning of the term, I explain what the Academic Word List is. I show students where to find a copy of it, and I tell them that there will be a test on the AWL at the end of the term. Each week in class we look at twenty items from the AWL. Students do exercises using them, and can ask questions. However, they have to do most of the work of learning the AWL on their own.

John

I teach English to students of physics, and my own first degree was in physics. I have a list of terms which I think are important for all students of physics, regardless of level or specialization. Students in my class have to pick one of the terms and give a short presentation on it. That helps them understand what it means to feel as though you understand a term thoroughly, and I think it motivates them to learn the other terms on the list as well.

Miguel

I ask my students to keep a vocabulary log and enter new words into it. At the beginning of the class I teach them what things they can write in the log: the meaning of the word; the translation in Spanish; whether it has any irregular forms. I encourage them to write down whole sentences where they see the word being used so that they can notice patterns in collocation, etc.

Sarah

Every week we read an article from the Economist. The articles there are well written and there are a lot of words which students don’t know but find useful. They have to mark the words they don’t know when they read the article at home and then look up the meaning of ten of them in the dictionary. In class everyone has to present one or two words they didn’t know but have learned from the article. I note down the words they present. Every two weeks we have a vocabulary quiz based on those words.

本期内容摘自《学术英语导论》第八章“学术英语词汇”及该书“导读”部分。

温馨提示

《学术英语导论》一书已于2022年1月由外研社出版。本书从宏观到微观系统地描绘了学术英语领域的概貌，包括学术英语的定义、学科定位、课程设计、教材选取与编写、话语特征、词汇特征、评估与反馈等内容。欢迎大家购书阅读！（长按识别下方图中小程序，进入店铺即可购买。）

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