ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on vocabulary in university tutorials and laboratories and the extent to which existing word lists of academic English, both single and multi-word units, can help prepare learners for the vocabulary they will encounter in the interactive, small-group academic contexts. It examines two spoken corpora: one for university laboratory sessions and one from university tutorials. The chapter illustrates how academic spoken language is different from academic written language. It shows that high-frequency vocabulary plays a large role in demonstrating content knowledge in academic speaking, so it is important that English for Academic Purposes learners have a strong knowledge of the lexical items. The chapter highlights the importance of high-frequency vocabulary in both tutorials and laboratories, and high coverage of the Academic Spoken Word List over spoken academic corpora, compared to the Academic Vocabulary List and the Academic Word List.
