Academic Word List Vocabulary- Trends

Academic Word List trends speaking

What does all the Academic Word List vocabulary on this page have in common?

• be diminished
• be eroded
• collapse
• decline
• depress
• be eliminated
• experience an adjustment
• minimise
• phase out

 

• accumulate
• achieve a new level
• appreciate
• attain…
• be compounded by
• be enhanced
• become more widespread
• expand
• gain capacity
• be maximised
• sustain the progress

 

• brief
• of a short duration
• temporary

 

• be restored
• be unstable
• experience a cycle over regular intervals
• fluctuate
• recover
• remain within a range

 

• a shift
• a variation
• undergo a change

 

• remain constant/ stable

 

• stabilise

 

• demonstrable
• significant

How are the sections above different from each other?

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Label the categories above with headings from this list. (One heading is not needed.)

Becoming flat

 

 

 

 

Staying flat

 

 

 

 

Big changes

 

 

 

 

Going down

 

 

 

 

Going up

 

 

 

 

Going up or down (not clear which)

 

 

 

 

Going both up and down

 

 

 

 

Short changes

 

 

 

 

Small changes

 

 

 

 

Brainstorm more vocabulary for each section (including the category with no examples).

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Academic Word List trends speaking

Choose one of the things below and describe the trend until your partner guesses which one you are speaking about. They can then say if they think you have described it correctly or not.

• academic interest in popular culture
• alternative energy
• charitable foundations
• consumer credit
• corporate restructuring
• criteria you must meet to obtain welfare payments
• correspondence by mail
• depression
• deviations from social norms
• displaying your wealth
• disposable income
• distortion of the facts by politicians
• distinct dialects
• diversity in the workplace
• domination of the traditional top universities
• economic uncertainty
• efforts to teach creativity in schools
• enforcement of anti-corruption laws
• environmental degradation
• exclusion of minorities
• exploitation of workers
• exports
• exposure of companies to the world economy
• gender inequality
• importance of design
• importance of hedge funds
• jobs of short duration
• parking fees
• public debates about your field of interest
• public demonstrations
• publicly available data about your field of interest
• racial discrimination
• social security deductions
• the government’s focus on domestic consumption
• uniformity in business practices
• unrealistic undertakings by the government
• use of private detectives
• utilisation of community centres
• vehicles on the roads
• violations of international treaties
• visibility of stars in the urban sky
• voluntary redundancies
• your currency

Describing trends homework

Write an answer to the IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 line graph task that you are given. Follow the instructions closely, i.e. make sure you select, summarise and compare and contrast, but don’t attempt to think of reasons or consequences. This means that you don’t need a summary/ conclusion, but you do need an introduction paragraph that rephrases the question and explains how you have divided the data into two main paragraphs.

AND
Explain past, present and/ or future trend(s) related to your field of study, with reasons and consequences (at least 250 words). Please include a sentence in your introduction explaining the structure of your essay (similar to the one explained above for IELTS Writing Part One).

 

Suggested answers

Becoming flat

• Flatten out/ Level off
• Plateau
• Bottom out

Staying flat

• Remain stable/ Stay at the same level

Big changes

• Significant(ly)/ Substantial(ly)/ Dramatic(ally)/ Considerable(/bly), Sharp(ly)
• Dive/ Plunge/ Crash/ Plummet
• Rocket/ Shoot up/ Soar/ Take off

Going down

• To drop/ fall/ dive/ plunge/ crash/ decline/ decrease/ deteriorate/ plummet/ shrink
• A drop/ A fall/ A crash/ A decline/ A decrease/ A deterioration
• (Nearly) halve

Going up

• To rise/ go up/ increase/ escalate/ climb/ grow/ expand/ soar/ take off
• (nearly) double/ triple
• A rise/ An increase
• Reach a new high

Going up or down (not clear which)

• Change/ Vary/ Move

Going both up and down

• Fluctuate/ Be unstable
• Reach a peak
• Recover/ Bounce back/ Pick up

Short changes

• Blip
• Dip

Small changes

• Slight(ly)/ Gradual(ly)
• Creep up