Beware the range in RANGE, and the academic in AWL

Abstract

This article examines a recent example of published research on the vocabulary profile of a financial corpus based on the Academic Word List (AWL) to illustrate not only the erroneous output from vocabulary profiling tools but also the pitfalls of using the AWL as a filter for academic lexis. Recent research has cautioned against eschewing high frequency common words in deference to the indiscriminate use of the AWL as the basis of a syllabus to teach academic English. Researchers, however, continue to use the AWL as a measure of academic vocabulary and vocabulary profiling of texts and corpora. The resulting misconceptions about the nature of academic lexis are further compounded by the limitations of profiling tools that can lead to anomalies in statistical analysis and consequent misinterpretation of the data. The evidence provided clearly mitigates against excluding 'common' words in English from any academic word list, and suggests that academic word lists of any type may, in fact, be entirely redundant. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.