Learn the AWL with AWL Word Finder

Published on 30 April 2025
by Rheanne Anderson, English Language Centre, School of Languages, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Target skill(s)

Set-ups

Students must have devices (suggested laptop or tablet, rather than phone).

Procedure:

Step 1:

Students use their device along with the teacher to navigate the site (Link here). (See Image 1.)

Step 2:

Students use their assigned or found text, copying it into the text box. (See Image 2 with a brief sample sentence.)

Step 3: 

There are many tools available once the text is submitted. The classic is that the program will

highlight any AWL words in the text. You can see that both “text” and “demonstration” are highlighted in grey in Image 3. This means that they are both AWL words. The Sublist list below tells which list they belong to (in order of decreasing frequency).

*This stage is not super helpful for most students, although it can be very helpful for teachers in lesson planning.

However, students CAN use this for learning, as the program allows them to click into the underlined/highlighted words to study their definitions, word forms, and pronunciation.

Image 3

Step 4: 

The most useful tools are the following three (see Image 4), all of which can help the students test their own AWL vocabulary knowledge:

• a) Simple gap fill: the AWL words are removed for the student to then put them back in (see Image 5).
• b) Headword gap fill: each of the AWL words will be replaced by the head word (from the list). This may not be very useful unless the student knows the lists very well. ‘Headwords’ are used in the AWL list to mean the base word of the word family. They are the most common form of the word (for example: ‘abandon’ is the Headword, and ‘abandonment’ is in that word family – both in List 8). These headwords are the most likely to be included on AWL tests, whether formal or online. (Image 6)

Step 5:

Another great tool is that the students can choose to focus on certain levels of words. For example, Sublists 1-5 are highlighted in grey, and lists 6-10 are in Yellow (as the default). Students can play with these squares to make each level a new colour by using the “Customise” menu on the left of the page. They should stay with the same text so the colour change is more apparent. (See Image 8.)

Step 6: 

After the teacher has demonstrated all the different tools, the students should pair up and use some/all of their chosen text to make a Simple Gap Fill for a partner.  One way to use this is for at home practice with a partner (Student A makes one for Student B, and vice versa). This could also be done in class if students have their devices and you have the time. (See Image 9.)

Image 8

Image 9

Caveats:

Be careful of all the ads. The site is free and does not need registering, but the trade-off is all the pop ups.