Academic vocabulary at the word and formula level: An examination of test-taker discourse

The Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000) is an influential resource for EAP teaching and testing. Recent interest in formulaic language over the past decade has prompted the development a comparable set, the Academic Formula List (AFL) (Simpson-Vlach & Ellis, submitted). The AFL is a list of formulaic expressions occurring frequently in academic discourse, compiled from both spoken and written corpora, and subdivided into three sublists: the AFL Core, AFL Written, and AFL Spoken. The AFL Core list contains formulas regularly occurring in both speech and writing, while the AFL Written and Spoken lists contain formulas primarily occurring in only one modality.;The validity of such lists centers around their corpus-based origins. However, the corpora used to develop these lists consisted largely of native speaker discourse. Little is known about the use of academic vocabulary by nonnative speakers. Still less is known about what role proficiency level plays in the production of academic vocabulary. The present study examines a corpus of compositions written for a test of academic English. Amount of academic vocabulary is compared against proficiency level. Results indicate an increased use of AWL words and AFL Core formulas by higher proficiency students, but no interaction between proficiency level and use of AFL Written or Spoken formulas. Additionally, individual lexical items and formulas exhibiting substantial variation in frequency of use across proficiency level are examined.