What Is Academic English?
This differs from every day spoken English. It’s for students who wish to pursue an academic or a high-level career in the maritime industry.
Let’s look at how The Open University describes it.
“You may be confident in using English in everyday situations, but the English you need to study is rather different. It is what is known as ‘academic English’ and is the type of English you need for:
- Reading and understanding your study materials
- Writing about your subject
The main features of academic English are that:
- It is usually formal in tone and impersonal in style
- Avoids contractions or shortened forms of verbs, such as won’t, doesn’t or it’s
- Avoids using a linking word such as ‘and’ or ‘but’ at the beginning of a sentence
- Avoids personal pronouns such as I, me, you, your
- May use the passive form of verbs
- Voids verbs that are composed of multiple words, such as ‘give up’, ‘put up with’
- Tends to employ a cautious way of explaining findings, using expressions such as ‘may’, ‘it is possible that...’, ‘could’
- May use specialised vocabulary.”
Academic English will help you with critical thinking, research, writing and communication skills.
This is important if you want to boost your employment opportunities.
Here are some free and paid resources to improve your Academic English.
- Open University: https://help.open.ac.uk/what-is-academic-english
- World Maritime University: https://www.wmu.se/programmes/english-and-study-skills
- Swansea University: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/english-language-training-services/summer-academic-pre-sessional-programmes
- Southampton University: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/pre-sessional-language-courses.page
- Plymouth University: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-life/services/international-students/english-language-centre
- Using English for Academic Purposes For Students in Higher Education: http://www.uefap.com
- Flo-Joe: resources aimed at candidates for Cambridge examinations: https://www.flo-joe.co.uk
