Helen Huntley, director of the Intensive English Program at West Virginia University, has written an advanced vocabulary textbook for teaching English as a second language.

Huntley’s book,”Essential Academic Vocabulary: Mastering the Complete Academic Word List,”was recently published by the Houghton Mifflin Co. She has also developed a student and instructor Web site to accompany the book.

The textbook provides extensive practice through reading, writing and speaking activities to master the 750 words that are the most frequently used in academic texts across all disciplines. Mastery of these words will help ESL students understand their lectures, read academic textbooks and write term papers.

Huntley’s teaching and research focus on teaching English as a second language and include issues ranging from academic vocabulary acquisition to technologies for pronunciation improvement.

She has a bachelor’s degree in French studies from Manchester University in England and a master’s degree in foreign languages from WVU .

WVU ’s Intensive English Program assists international students who need to improve their English proficiency prior to entering an academic course of study. The program, housed in the Department of Foreign Languages in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year.