Oliveira Pisani Martini, Juliane (2012) High Frequency Vocabulary in a Secondary Quebec ESL Textbook Corpus. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
|PDF (Thesis Document (PDF/A)) - Accepted Version|
It is widely accepted that high-frequency vocabulary must be taught in ESL/EFL classrooms, and that learners benefit from learning it (Schmitt, 2011; Nation, 2001). Research also confirms that recycling vocabulary is beneficial in facilitating the acquisition of vocabulary knowledge Milton (2009). In order to understand the lexical characteristics of classroom input secondary ESL learners in Québec are exposed to, I gathered and analyzed a corpus of Ministry-approved textbooks (Collection Quest for cycle 2 published by Chenelière Éducation). Subsequently, I used the corpus findings to develop a pedagogical word list that targets high frequency words that may need more emphasis or be missing entirely. Results showed that there are considerable deficits in the vocabulary presented in the three books. The 1k level was considered well represented because most words at this level occur in the books frequently and are widely recycled across the volumes. At the 2k and 3k levels, most words also occur in the books; however their frequency and range of occurrence are not satisfactory in terms of promoting successful acquisition. As for the mid-frequency vocabulary, results show that students have very few opportunities to encounter these words in their books. Most of the words between the 3k and the 9k levels are not recycled frequently in the corpus.
|Divisions:||Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Education|
|Item Type:||Thesis (Masters)|
|Authors:||Oliveira Pisani Martini, Juliane|
|Date:||16 August 2012|
|Thesis Supervisor(s):||Horst, Marlise|
|Keywords:||Vocabulary, Corpus Linguistics, Textbook Corpus, Applied Linguistics, English as a Second Language|
|Deposited By:||JULIANE MARTINI|
|Deposited On:||25 Oct 2012 11:42|
|Last Modified:||15 Nov 2012 16:06|
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