4.3 Identifying specialised and general academic vocabulary
One of the ways of selecting the words you want to learn consists in distinguishing between specialised vocabulary (technical terms that are specific to a particular subject) and general academic vocabulary (formal vocabulary that you may find in many subject areas).
Activity 12
The text from ‘The global threat of infectious diseases’ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] is copied below (under the main source heading 'A force in human history'). Some words and word groups have been highlighted in bold. Decide whether each one is specialised vocabulary (which in this text means medical terminology) or general academic vocabulary. Highlight in yellow the words or word groups that you think are specialised vocabulary, and in green the words or word groups that you think are general academic vocabulary.
Answer
| Specialised vocabulary | General academic vocabulary |
|---|---|
| infectious disease | re-emerged |
| antibiotic therapy | eliminate |
| mass vaccination programmes | claimed |
| pandemic | accelerated |
| human immunodeficiency virus | review |
| epidemics | downward trend |
| impact | |
| potential |
Comment
As you notice new specialised vocabulary related to your field of study, you may want to build a glossary of terms which you can use in your essays.