Seth Waring

Seth Waring is an American author and educator, known primarily for his work in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL) and applied linguistics. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Liverpool, where he served as a professor in the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment (CRELLA).

Waring's research interests include vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary teaching methodologies, and the role of extensive reading in language learning. He is a strong advocate for the use of corpus linguistics to inform language teaching practices and has contributed significantly to the development and understanding of formulaic language in English.

His publications include numerous books and articles on vocabulary and language learning, many of which are widely used in ESL teacher training programs. He is considered a key figure in the development of the academic word list (AWL), a list of high-frequency words found in academic texts. His work emphasizes the importance of encountering words repeatedly in meaningful contexts for effective vocabulary acquisition.

Waring continues to be actively involved in research and writing in the field of applied linguistics.