Averil Jean Coxhead (born 1966) is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

, specialising in applied linguistics. She is known for creating the

Academic Word List The Academic Word List (AWL) is a word list of 570 English word families which appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts. The target readership is English as a second or foreign language students intending to enter English- ...

, which is a

list A list is a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...

of 570 English word families that appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts. She has also created wordlists for other uses, such as rugby terms for referees and players, and building terms for Tongan tradespeople.

Academic career

Coxhead completed a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

titled ''Using vocabulary from input texts in writing tasks'' at Victoria University of Wellington in 2008. Coxhead then joined the faculty of Victoria University, rising to full professor in 2022. As of 2024, Coxhead is the Head of School in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. Coxhead is known for creating the

, which is a list of 570 English word families that appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts. Coxhead created the list when she noticed how much she relied on reading for her own foreign language learning, but had difficulty accessing appropriate texts. She had tried reading children's books but found they contained too many low-frequency words. She also saw how learners in a programme she taught in benefited from an approach called extensive reading. Coxhead went on to create a list of words, such as 'ruck', 'loosie', 'maul', and phrases such 'swing it away' and 'clean out', that occur more often in rugby-related situations than ordinary English. The list is designed to be useful to anyone needing to learn the technical terms associated with rugby, but especially players, referees and coaches working internationally. With colleague Jean Parkinson, Coxhead has researched the language used in trades such as plumbing, building and automotive fabrication, and written bilingual books for Tongan tradespeople.

Selected works

Books

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Journal articles

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References

External links

Sailing in another direction
Coxhead's inaugural professorial lecture, 30 June 2022
Interview with Karyn Hay
on Radio New Zealand about language of trades, 9 May 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Coxhead, Averil 1966 births Living people New Zealand academics New Zealand women academics 21st-century New Zealand linguists Victoria University of Wellington alumni Academic staff of Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand women writers