Vocabulary Links for ESL


Online Dictionaries/Glossaries  |  Quizzes and Games  |  Additional Vocab Info
 
 

Online Dictionaries/Glossaries

Business
    • BuzzWhack: The Buzzword Compliant Dictionary
      This is a glossary of business slang with definitions that are meant to be humorous rather than helpful, but it might be worth taking a look at if there's a "buzzword" you want to understand in a different way.

    • The Economics Glossary
      The terms you find here are all related to economics. You may search the site for a particular word or browse the entire glossary. The site also includes a guide to acronyms and abbreviations (biz/ed, bizednet.bris.ac.uk).
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General


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Law

Medicine

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Quizzes and Games

Business English Crossword
This page uses crossword puzzles to test knowledge of business English (www.better-english.com)

Business English Hangman
Here you'll find another game for guessing business English words (www.better-english.com)

Greek and Latin Roots Skills
This page links you to several games which test your knowledge of the meanings of Greek and Latin word parts. (www.quia.com)

Multi-Word Verbs
This page links you to dozens of quizzes focusing on multi-word verbs. (www.better-english.com)

Play SharkTalk [legal terminology]
This is a game similar to Hangman, featuring legal terminology. (www.nolo.com)

Vocabulary
This page links you to a broad range of vocabulary quizzes in categories including Business, Telephone Vocabulary, Idioms, and more. (www.better-english.com)

Vocabulary: Collocations
This page links you to 14 quizzes that test your intuitive knowledge for which words naturally "go together" according to native English speakers and which ones don't. (www.better-english.com)


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Additional Vocabulary Info


The Academic Word List
This list represents 570 words (or, more accurately, "word families") that are the most frequent in academic English (Averil Coxhead, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand). Click on "sublists" or "headwords" to get the actual list.

Using the Academic Word List (AWL)
This site helps you create your own vocabulary exercises using the text of your choice. Use the AWL Highlighter to paste text into a box and highlight the words from the AWL. Use the AWL Gapmaker to make a gap-fill exercise, again from the text of your choice (Sandra Haywood, The University of Nottingham, UK).

The Business English Lexis Site
This site summarizes the results found by a researcher who investigated how the vocabulary of Business English differs from that of general English. About 80% of his corpus was drawn from British English and about 20% from U.S. English. Downloadable teaching materials are included (Mike Nelson, University of Manchester).

Cobuild Concordance and Collocations Sampler
This site helps you investigate the usage of a word. For example, what kinds of verbs can be used with the noun "contract" as an object? Further examples about making the most of this resource will be provided/practiced in class.

Greek and Latin Roots
This site, maintained by Kent School District, presents charts with various spellings of Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and bases and their meanings.

Phrasal Verb Word of the Day
Here you can subscribe to receive an e-mail message every day featuring a different phrasal verb. Each week the verbs follow a theme, and you receive a quiz via e-mail each Monday so that you can test your knowledge of the words of the previous week. Note: This is a British site, so not all of the phrasal verbs have the same usage and meaning in North America. (www.churchillhouse.com)

Vocabulary Exercises for the Academic Word List
Here you will find dozens of online exercises to help you become more familiar with the AWL (Gerry Luton, University of Victoria, Canada).

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Karen Schwelle
Instructor, English Language Programs
Washington University
Campus Box 1083
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO  63130
kschwell@artsci.wustl.edu

Last updated August 11, 2005