Academic language is the language used in textbooks, in classrooms, and on tests.
It is different in structure and vocabulary from the everyday spoken English of social interactions. Many students who speak English well have trouble comprehending the academic language of high school and college classrooms. Low academic language skills have been shown to be associated with low academic performance in a variety of educational settings. The main barrier to student comprehension of texts and lectures is low academic vocabulary knowledge. Academic vocabulary is sub-technical vocabulary.