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Hello and welcome to Learn English Vocabulary. My name is Jack and I’m making this podcast for you to learn or revise English vocabulary. You can find a transcript of this podcast on LearnEnglishVocabulary.co.uk. There’s a page for this podcast with the transcript, an activity and a task for you to do in the comments section.

I recently received an email from a listener from Iran who asked for some vocabulary for IELTS. The IELTS tests are quite difficult to prepare for as they are good tests of English. You can’t really learn how to cheat the test. However, a researcher in Australia came up with the IELTS Academic Word List as a project for her Masters degree. This list is a set of 570 word families that the researcher, Averil Coxhead compiled after looking at lots of IELTS papers. The list is divided into 10 sub lists with the most frequently used words in Sub list 1 and then less frequently used words in Sub list 2 and so on.

In this series of Learn English Vocabulary podcasts, I am going to present and review the first sub list with the most commonly used academic language. I have put the head words from the first sub list through a vocabulary profiler and will start with the B1 items and then I’ll move on to the B2 and C1 items.

The list is of word families. So for example, as well as the headword: available, there are the related words: availability and unavailable. Some of the word families have a lot more members.

In this series of podcasts, I’m going to focus on the headwords from the first sublist. I’ll start by telling you the headwords for the episode and then I’m going to challenge you. I’m going to read you a sentence from a news story that I’ve found with the word from the Academic Word List missing. When you listen, try to work out what the word is. I will tell you the answer and describe the word and then at the end of the podcast , I’ll challenge you with a quiz. There will be a quiz on Learn English Vocabulary as well, with the same sentences so you can complete the quiz to see if you have the right answers.

In this episode, I’m going to focus on the following head words:

• Area
• Available
• Approach
• Benefit
• Consist
• Contract

Now, I want you to try to work out what word is missing from the following excerpts from news stories. Remember, the missing word might not be the head word, but will be part of the word family.

Listen to this:

The lack of GP and dentistry services ___________ to Southend residents has been criticised by a healthcare watchdog.

The lack of GP and dentistry services ___________ to Southend residents has been criticised by a healthcare watchdog.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is available.

THE lack of GP and dentistry services available to Southend residents has been criticised by a healthcare watchdog.

This is one of the lowest level headwords. Available is an adjective that describes something that you can get or buy or a person that you can meet or talk to. You might ask someone: Are you available this afternoon for a quick chat? This means, do you have some free time or at least, no other appointments.

Another common use of the adjective available is:

Documents are available on request. This means that you can write and ask for documents. There are some documents that you can get, if you ask.

The noun availability describes the fact that something is available. If something is in high demand, there might be limited availability. In the UK, you often hear about the high cost of housing and the limited availability of housing for young people.

OK. Let’s move on to the next head word. Listen to this:

If there ever was a particular vegetable revered for its health ___________ , the humble beetroot, would win.

If there ever was a particular vegetable revered for its health ___________ , the humble beetroot, would win.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is benefits.

If there ever was a particular vegetable revered for its health benefits, the humble beetroot, would win.

A benefit is something that is good or helpful. You might ask: What are the benefits of studying English? What are the good things about studying English? The word is also used in the UK to talk about money that people receive from the government if they are out of work or have a disability and cannot work. You can claim benefits, which means you can go to a government office and register to receive money if you do not have a job.

In the word family, there is an adjective beneficial which means that something is good or useful and the noun beneficiary which is a person or group that receives benefits, usually money. You might hear about a new government program that promises to be beneficial for children and young people. The young people who receive the benefits of the programme will be the beneficiaries of the programme.

Time for the next headword. Listen to this:

Lewis Hamilton was reluctant to give away too much on Thursday about his negotiations for a new Mercedes ___________ but admitted progress has been made.

Lewis Hamilton was reluctant to give away too much on Thursday about his negotiations for a new Mercedes ___________ but admitted progress has been made.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is contract.

Lewis Hamilton was reluctant to give away too much on Thursday about his negotiations for a new Mercedes contract but admitted progress has been made.

The word contract has 4 different meanings, though 2 are related. The most common use is the noun form. That was the form missing from the sentence I read. It means a legal document that describes a formal agreement. I think most people have a contract with the company they work for. You can use the word contract as a verb to mean to make a legal agreement with someone to do something.

When the word is a noun, the stress is on the first syllable and you can hear the /ɒ/ sound. /ˈkɒntrəkt/ When it’s a verb, the stress is on the second syllable and the weak first syllable has the schwa sound – /ə/. /kənˈtrækt/ You can contract a builder to build a house. People who work on short term contracts are known as contractors.

There are two more meanings. The first is the opposite of expand. If something gets smaller then it contracts.

The last meaning is to catch an illness or a disease. So if you travel in a tropical country, you might contract malaria if you get bitten by a nasty mosquito.

Time for the next headword. Listen to this:

As soon as it started pouring in Chennai in the early hours of Monday, many _________ plunged into darkness due to interruptions in the power supply.

As soon as it started pouring in Chennai in the early hours of Monday, many _________ plunged into darkness due to interruptions in the power supply.
Do you know what word is missing?0

The answer is areas.

As soon as it started pouring in Chennai in the early hours of Monday, many areas plunged into darkness due to interruptions in the power supply.

An area is part of a place. You can talk about an area of a room or an area of a town or an area of a country or even an area of the world. This is one of the lowest level words on the academic word list and the family only includes area and areas.

In academic language, we also use the word to talk about an academic field or to specify a subject that someone is studying. You might hear someone say they are interested in different areas of academic research or someone might say that they can’t answer a question because it’s not their area of expertise.

Time for the next headword. Listen to this:

What did a typical cowboy diet _________ of in the Old West?

What did a typical cowboy diet _________ of in the Old West?

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is consist.

What did a typical cowboy diet consist of in the Old West?

If something consists of something then it is made of that thing. We always say consists of. So a water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom.

In the word family, there are two more useful members. The first is consistent. This means that something always happens in a similar way or is of a similar quality. So you might complain about your teacher if you think that they are not consistent in the way they grade your homework. We also use the adverb form. Your teacher might praise you and say that you are consistently working above the level of the group.

The second useful member of the word family is consistency. This is a noun that means the physical nature of a substance. I think it’s most commonly used to describe a paste or a thick liquid. If you are making pancakes, you need to add milk to eggs and flour until it has the consistency of single cream.

Time for the last headword for today. This time, I’ve not chosen the headword for you to guess. Listen to this:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are keen to change their titles whilst on royal business. They want to be more _________ , less formal, less stuffy and break away with a lot of the tradition.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are keen to change their titles whilst on royal business. They want to be more _________ , less formal, less stuffy and break away with a lot of the tradition.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is approachable.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are keen to change their titles whilst on royal business. They want to be more approachable, less formal, less stuffy and break away with a lot of the tradition.

The headword is approach which means to come near to something. Normally, we use the word to talk about people and things. So I was sitting on a bench in town when a young man approached me and asked me the way to the museum. I tell my children to be careful when they approach dogs that they don’t know. They love dogs and think all dogs are as friendly as our pet so I have to warn them to approach strange dogs with care. When you are at the station, you will see the train approaching as it arrives at the station. As well as things approaching in space, we talk about future times and dates approaching. As his wedding day approached, he started worrying about whether he was making a big mistake.

The verb can also be used in quite a formal way to talk about getting in contact with someone to ask them to do something for you. So you might approach a design company if you want to commission a new website.

Another interesting use is for the method or strategy that you use to achieve something. How you go about doing something is your approach to a task or problem. If you see someone trying something new, you might say: that’s a novel approach. Or if your strategy isn’t working, you might have to work out a new approach.

In the sentence with the missing word, I had removed the adjective approachable. If someone is approachable, you will feel comfortable talking to them and asking them questions. If someone is cold and unfriendly, you might think that they are not very approachable. You feel uncomfortable approaching them – physically and also asking them questions.

OK. Those are the first six keywords from the first sub list of the academic world list. I am planning to complete the full sub list so if you are going to take an IELTS test, look out for future episodes of the Learn English Vocabulary podcast.

Before I finish, I’m going to quiz you once again. I have another six extracts from news stories that I have found online. Again, I have removed the words from the Academic word list and I want you to try to fill in the gaps. If you want to know the answers, check out the activity on the page for this podcast on the learn English Vocabulary website. There is a link in the description of this podcast. You’ll also be able to find the transcript so you can read the text from this episode.

What are the missing words?

Number 1. Tickets are currently _________ at reduced prices from the festival office.

Number 2. An Australian travel firm, previously criticised for its handling of Covid quarantine hotels, has been quietly handed a £1.6bn _________ covering the UK’s new asylum accommodation.#

Number 3. As we grow up, we need to remind ourselves that our ability to appear _________ becomes increasingly crucial for starting conversations and building new relationships.

Number 4. Shropshire Council says a new partnership with WSP Is set to deliver a wide range of _________ for Shropshire.

Number 5. Nissan has named its Dealer Ambassador of the Year, praising the winner for ‘_________ excellent customer care’

Number 6. A new report has suggested that there are links between mental health problems in students and their chosen _________ of study.

I hope you have enjoyed this podcast. As always, I love reading your comments so please leave me a comment on the site or a rating or a review on Apple podcasts. I love to hear from you and any comments or suggestions you have. Thank you also to those of you that have bought me a coffee. I really appreciate it.

If you are interested in joining my beta conversation course please do get in touch or if you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you so please visit LearnEnglishVocabulary.co.uk and say hello.

Thanks for listening.