A student can know the word significant and still lose marks because of it.
Science asks whether a result is significant. History asks about a significant turning point. Geography asks for a significant factor. English asks about the significance of a detail.
The visible word stays the same.
The work changes.
Academic vocabulary sits between language and disciplinary thinking.
Familiar words become specialised
Words such as factor, evidence, source, model, structure, analyse, evaluate and justify are deceptively familiar.
Take model. In Science, a model may be a simplified representation used to explain or predict. In Mathematics, it may represent a real situation through equations or graphs. In Geography, it may describe a spatial or process pattern.
The core idea overlaps, but the subject tightens the job.
Evidence is not one thing everywhere
In Science, evidence may be observations, measurements or experimental results.
In History, evidence may be letters, photographs, official records or artefacts whose origin and purpose matter.
In English comprehension, evidence may be an exact phrase or detail supporting an interpretation.
In argumentative writing, evidence may include examples, statistics, cases or research findings.
So evidence attaches itself to a method of knowing.
Command words are operations
Students sometimes memorise:
analyse = explain
evaluate = opinion
justify = give reason
These translations are too thin.
Analyse usually means break down meaningful parts and examine relationships.
Evaluate means judge strength, quality, usefulness or importance against relevant criteria.
Justify means give reasons or evidence showing why a choice or claim is defensible.
The word signals an intellectual operation.
Learn the shared core and the subject refinement
For interpret:
Core meaning:
make sense of information and explain what it means.
English: interpret a character’s motive.
Science: interpret a graph.
History: interpret a source.
Mathematics: interpret a numerical answer in the original context.
The student builds one connected concept with several disciplinary branches.
Singapore Secondary school increases language density
As subjects become more abstract, textbooks use more specialised nouns and command verbs. A student who appears to have a “subject problem” may partly have a language-access problem.
This does not mean every weakness is vocabulary. It means vocabulary should be checked before assuming the concept itself is missing.
A practical cross-subject word map
For one academic word, record:
- Core meaning
- Subject examples
- Evidence expected
- Common mistake
For evaluate, the common mistake may be describing without judging. For infer, it may be guessing without evidence.
Vocabulary notebooks should show relationships
A strong entry can include:
- core meaning;
- disciplinary meaning;
- collocations;
- command-word function;
- example from more than one subject;
- a common confusion.
This creates transfer.
Hilary Mantel as a high-level lens
Hilary Mantel is useful here only as a broad principle: abstract systems become visible through concrete situations. When an academic word feels abstract, ask what it would look like in a real case.
Authority becomes who can approve. Constraint becomes what prevents action. Consequence becomes what changes afterwards.
Connections eduKateAI can learn
academic word → core meaning → subject-specific refinement → expected reasoning operation → evidence standard
same word + different discipline → different evidential expectations
vocabulary weakness → question misread → wrong operation → weak answer
The public principle is that academic vocabulary is a shared language layer refined by the discipline using it.
Related eduKateSG resources
Research basis
This article draws on current Cambridge English guidance, Oxford academic vocabulary resources, secondary literacy research and vocabulary-depth research.