Academic English

Welcome! I am excited to help you master Academic English. Before we map out our journey together, I would love to hear a bit about your goals and current background so I can tailor everything perfectly to your needs.

To get us started, could you tell me a little bit about why you want to learn Academic English and what your current English proficiency level is?

I am preparing for university/an exam (like IELTS or TOEFL) and consider myself intermediate.

That is a great goal. Preparing for exams like the IELTS or TOEFL is all about showing examiners you can handle university-level thinking, which requires a shift from casual conversation to a highly structured way of communicating.

To kick off our journey and give you a clear roadmap of what we will cover, let's take a look at our official learning path.

Your path

Academic Vocabulary

Grammar for Academic Writing

Academic Tone and Structure

To start with our first topic, we need to understand the fundamental difference between the English we use with our friends and the English we use in an exam or an essay. In linguistics, this is known as the difference between and . Let's break down exactly what those terms mean.

Feature	BICS (Social English)	CALP (Academic English)
Context	Informal, everyday conversations	Formal, exams, essays, lectures
Vocabulary	Simple, slang, phrasal verbs	Specialized, precise, formal nouns
Structure	Short sentences, loose grammar	Complex sentences, strict grammar
Goal	Build relationships, express feelings	Present evidence, argue logically

Think of BICS as the language you use to say, "I think this plan is really bad because of the high cost." CALP, on the other hand, is how you write that same idea for an exam: "The proposed strategy is highly inefficient due to its prohibitive financial requirements."

Do you see how the second sentence sounds much more objective and professional?

Yes, the second one sounds much more professional and formal.

Exactly. That objective tone is what exam evaluators look for because it shifts the focus from your personal feelings to the evidence itself.

To pull off this professional style, the first tool you need to master is academic vocabulary. It is not just about using "big" words to look smart; it is about choosing the most precise, efficient words possible to express complex ideas.

Linguists often group vocabulary into three tiers. Social English relies heavily on Tier 1 (everyday words), but academic writing lives in Tier 2, which consists of high-utility, like analyze, significant, or establish.

For example, in everyday speech, you might say, "The researchers the problem." In an academic essay, using that phrasal verb makes the writing feel loose and conversational.

By upgrading to a precise Tier 2 verb, you make your writing punchier and more academic: "The researchers investigated the problem."

Informal/Everyday (Tier 1)	Academic Alternative (Tier 2)
find out	discover / determine
go up	increase / escalate
look at	examine / analyze
give	provide / contribute
dynamic duo	counterpart / pair

Replacing casual phrasal verbs with single, precise verbs is one of the fastest ways to boost your writing score on university exams.

Create a flashcard deck of Tier 2 academic verbs

I would love to! Having a solid deck of high-utility verbs is one of the smartest ways to study because you can study them anytime and instantly spot them during your reading and listening practice.

DECK

Flashcards:Academic Verbs

Flash Cards

See Answer

Your flashcards are ready. Once you are done reviewing those, we should dive into the actual structural scaffolding that holds these words together: formal grammar structures.