Academic Word List (AWL) comprises 570 words, which cover approximately 10% of most academic texts. The success of students of non - English speaking backgrounds in English medium education depends on the command of these words. This study investigated the level of command over AWL of Xi'an Jiaotong - Liverpool University (XJTLU) final year students. Overall, the students’ writing was similar in profile to native speaker academic writing, with an approximately 12% AWL coverage. A total of 233 AWL - related errors found in the 453,801 - word electronic corpus were mostly related to word form, its part of speech and context, with analysis, focus and affect being the most difficult words
