Averil Jean Coxhead (born 1966)[1][2] is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at Victoria University of Wellington, specialising in applied linguistics.
Coxhead completed a PhD titled Using vocabulary from input texts in writing tasks at Victoria University of Wellington in 2008.
Coxhead created the list when she noticed how much she relied on reading for her own foreign language learning, but had difficulty accessing appropriate texts.
The list is designed to be useful to anyone needing to learn the technical terms associated with rugby, but especially players, referees and coaches working internationally.
[10] With colleague Jean Parkinson, Coxhead has researched the language used in trades such as plumbing, building and automotive fabrication, and written bilingual books for Tongan tradespeople.