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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.

This is the second episode in a series of podcasts I’m making in response to a request from a listener from Iran who asked for some vocabulary for IELTS. In this series, I’m looking at the Academic Word List which was compiled by a researcher from Australia called Averil Coxhead. This is a list of the most useful academic language for the IELTS exam.

The full list includes 570 head words and lots more items in the 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.

So I can’t go through the whole list as this podcast would be way too long. Fortunately, the list is split into 10 sub lists and they are arranged from 1-10 according to the frequency that the words are useful. So the first sub list has 60 word families and these are the most useful words for students who take an IELTS exam. I can manage 60 word families, but even these will need to be spread over a series of podcasts.

This is the second episode in this series. All of the headwords today are B1, but some of the items in the word families are B2 and C1 and C2.

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

• Create
• Environment
• Individual
• Involve
• Issue
• Method

To present these head words and the other items in their families, I am going to start by testing you. I have found examples of language from news stories that use these words. I have removed the word from the example and I want you to try to guess what the missing word is. Remember, it’s going to be one of the head words:

• Create
• Environment
• Individual
• Involve
• Issue
• Method

After you have tried to work out what word is missing, I’ll talk about the head word and the word family. And then at the end, I’ll test you again.

Now, it’s time for the first word.

Listen to this extract from a news website and try to fill in the gap:

AI has the potential to increase productivity and ___________ new job opportunities.

AI has the potential to increase productivity and ___________ new job opportunities.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is create.

AI has the potential to increase productivity and create new job opportunities.

To create means to make something new, something that has never existed before. Writers create characters, inventors create new machines, chefs create new meals and menus. The noun form, creation, is used for the object that a person, a creator, creates. One common use is the phrase to create a good impression. An impression is the judgement a person makes when they meet someone for the first time. So on your first day at a new job, you will want to create a good impression, you will want to act so that your new colleagues have a positive idea about you from the first time you meet them.

As well as the verb create, the adjective creative is on the sub list. If someone is creative, they will have original ideas and be able to approach problems in original and unusual ways. They may also enjoy producing artwork or writing.

The last of the words in the create family is to recreate which means to make something exist or happen in the same way that it happened in the past or exists somewhere else. There is a trend for people to recreate old photographs. There are loads of examples online of families and old friends who took a photo 20 or more years ago, often when they were children and have recreated the scene now. There is a fantastic instagram person called Celeste Barber, I’m not sure what the correct term is, a content creator on instagram who recreates posts by fashion models.

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

For many years a front runner in its tobacco control efforts, Canada is to take the further step of labelling ___________ cigarettes with health warnings

For many years a front runner in its tobacco control efforts, Canada is to take the further step of labelling ___________ cigarettes with health warnings

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is individual.

For many years a front runner in its tobacco control efforts, Canada is to take the further step of labelling individual cigarettes with health warnings.

Individual, in the example, is an adjective that means single or existing separately apart from the group. So the example was about cigarettes in a pack. In a pack of 20 cigarettes, there are 20 individual cigarettes and the Canadian government is going to put health warnings on the individual cigarettes as well as the pack.

The adverb form, individually, means separately or one at a time. So a teacher might ask to speak to their learners individually, meaning they will speak to each student on their own.

Individual is also commonly a noun. It means a single thing in the context of a group. So a class may be comprised of 30 individuals. It’s often used as a synonym for person. You might hear people say they like spending time with creative individuals or that every individual deserves to be treated equally.

There is another meaning of individual that is quite common, though I’m not sure it really means much. If a person is described as an individual, they are unusual and behave according to their own ideas. Often, teenagers like to think of themselves as individuals. They don’t want to just follow the trends and copy what everyone else does, they want to express their own ideas, their own individuality, the things that make them different from everyone else. However, there’s a great book by Herman Hesse called Steppenwolf that dismantles the notion of an individual or at least argues that in an attempt to be different, an individual is just as dependent on the trends and fashions that they avoid as the followers. This is not the place for that discussion, but it’s a great book that I wish I had read when I was 15.

The adjective individualised is sometimes used to describe a programme, perhaps a learning plan or an exercise plan, that has been designed around the needs of a specific person, around the needs of an individual.

Time for the next headword. Listen to this:

A new quick testing ___________ for COVID-19 has been developed by scientists at New York University.

A new quick testing ___________ for COVID-19 has been developed by scientists at New York University.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is method.

A new quick testing method for COVID-19 has been developed by scientists at New York University.

The noun method means a way of doing something. I think the most common use is in the phrase methods of transport. Travelling by different types of vehicle or on foot are different methods of transport. We also talk about the scientific method, which is the way scientific principles are discovered through observation, hypothesis, experimentation, etc.
As I am an English teacher, I have learned about different teaching methods, that is, ways to teach.

In universities, it is also common to talk about methodologies. So a methodology is the reasons and theories behind your choice of method. Most commonly, I think people talk about different types of data. Some studies are based on quantitative data and some on qualitative data. If you are doing research, you need to justify what sort of data you are going to collect and that justification will form your methodology. How you actually collect the data, whether you use questionnaires or interviews or other ways are your methods. You can also use the adjective methodological to describe your ideas and the things you are thinking about regarding your methodology.

One last item in the word family is methodical. Methodical describes the way that someone does something. It means they complete their task in a very organised, careful way. So my oldest son is very good at building lego models because he organises his lego bricks first and approaches the task in a methodical way. Whereas my younger son tends to open all the bags and get building right away and gets bored too quickly.

Time for the next headword. Listen to this:

In today’s fast-paced and demanding work environment, stress has become a prevalent ___________ that affects both employees and organizations.

In today’s fast-paced and demanding work environment, stress has become a prevalent ___________ that affects both employees and organizations.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is environment

In today’s fast-paced and demanding work environment, stress has become a prevalent issue that affects both employees and organizations.

The word environment is interesting because it has two very distinct or very individual meanings. The most common meaning is the air and land and rivers, lakes and the sea, the natural world that we all live in. Factories that create lots of toxic waste are bad for the environment. We all need to work to reduce the negative impact that our lifestyles have on the environment. We also use the noun environmentalist to describe people or individuals who have a special interest in the environment and who work or campaigns to protect the environment. Greta Thunberg is one of the most famous environmentalists.

The second meaning of the noun environment is the conditions you live and work in. So where you work is your working environment. I once worked in a school in Indonesia and one of the teachers there was quite mean and said rude things about Indonesia and about Jakarta. In the end, he was sacked for creating a negative working environment. You might also talk about someone’s home life and say they have a loving and supportive home environment.

The adjective environmental can be used to talk about both meanings of environment. Often, environmental problems will mean problems for the natural world, but the adjective is sometimes used in the other way, most commonly in the phrase environmental health. This is part of public health that is concerned about the impact of people’s working and home environments, especially things like air quality and the problems people have that are caused by their working conditions.

Time for the next headword. Listen to this:

Demonstrators descended on Meta’s London office on Friday to protest at the alleged censorship of women’s health ___________ on Facebook.

Demonstrators descended on Meta’s London office on Friday to protest at the alleged censorship of women’s health ___________ on Facebook.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is issue.

Demonstrators descended on Meta’s London office on Friday to protest at the alleged censorship of women’s health issues on Facebook.

Normally an issue is a problem or a subject that people are talking about. If you are at a meeting, the different topics you talk about are different issues. At the end of the meeting, you might conclude by saying: We have covered a wide range of issues in this meeting. A lot of issues are problems. Someone might suffer from health issues or emotional issues or confidence issues. When I searched for the word, I got loads of lists of problems like homelessness and drug abuse as well as environmental issues like deforestation and the destruction of the natural world.

The word issue can also be used as a verb. This means to produce or provide something in an official way. So in the UK, the DVLA or driver and vehicle licensing agency issues driving licences. Sometimes, official organisations issue statements. The government regularly issues statements on its policies and updates on programmes.

From this, we also get the noun issue which means an example of a magazine or newspaper. So someone might ask you if you have read the latest issue of a newspaper.

Time for the last headword for today. Listen to this:

A recent study has found the majority of all fatal collisions in the UK ___________ young male drivers.

A recent study has found the majority of all fatal collisions in the UK ___________ young male drivers.

Do you know what word is missing?

The answer is involve.

A recent study has found the majority of all fatal collisions involve young male drivers in the UK.

The word involve comes from Latin and originally meant something like rolled in or folded in. So when something is involved in a situation, it is rolled into or entangled in the situation. Today, involved means to be part of something. So you can get involved in groups and campaigns. My dad is involved in a number of philosophy groups. I have a friend who is heavily involved in the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion. If a person is involved in an accident, then they are affected by it. My other website is designed around speaking practice because I believe methods for learning a language are most effective when they involve lots of speaking practice.

The noun form involvement is used to talk about a person’s connection with a group or campaign. You might hear a politician insist that they had very little involvement with a failed policy or programme.

OK. Those are the second 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. New research suggests that one species of rock ants search their environment in a ___________ way

Number 2. ___________ with 999 calls are continuing after a technical fault caused problems with location services, BT has said.

Number 3. Calderdale Council is looking for a specialist developer to partner it on ambitious plans to develop a major business park in Calderdale that could ___________ 1,300 new jobs.

Number 4. Data from the Active Adversary Report reveals that almost three-quarters of the cyber security incidents it responded to in 2022 ___________ ransomware.

Number 5. Avian flu was detected in 2 ___________ taking part in the testing programme

Number 6. A teenage ___________ from Ullapool has been named as one of Scotland’s young unsung heroes.

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.