8-A Corpus-based Comparative Study of Semi-technical and Technical Vocabulary-new (original) (raw)
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English for Specific Purposes (ESP) was designed to fulfil the needs of learners learning languages in specific disciplines. ESP concerns on words or terms that are created specifically or have their own definition in specific fields. As engineering students read abundance of technical texts such as manuals and reports that contain numerous technical terms that have specific meaning in the engineering field, the vocabulary knowledge of technical terms is essential for them in order to understand and comprehend the texts. However, engineering students were found to have difficulties whenever they encountered texts filled with abundance of technical terms. Hence, this study aims to investigate the vocabulary size of technical vocabulary among engineering students at Universiti Malaysia Pahang. This research employs two instruments which are technical vocabulary test and semi-structured interview. The test was used in collecting quantitative data while the semi-structured interview was...
The importance of vocabulary learning has been underlined in the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) because non-English majors who require reading English texts in their fields of study have to expand their English vocabulary knowledge much more efficiently than ordinary ESL/EFL learners. Since academic vocabulary instruction in Iranian universities is realized through the use of General English (GE) textbooks, the present study pursued a dual purpose of evaluating Iranian engineering undergraduates' knowledge of academic vocabulary, as well as conducting a comparative corpus analysis of the academic vocabulary content of GE textbooks, electrical/electronic engineering Master's Entrance Examinations, and authentic electrical and electronic engineering texts. The participants were 520 engineering students from ten universities. The corpora under study comprised a total of 1,180,000 running words. The results revealed an inadequacy of academic vocabulary knowledge among Iranian engineering undergraduates, as well as the fact that GE textbooks for engineering students do not have sufficient coverage of academic vocabulary as compared to M.S. examinations and authentic electronic engineering corpora. There was also insufficient correspondence between academic words in M.A. entrance exams and the authentic texts.
COMPUTERIZED CORPUS ANALYSIS OF KEY TERMINOLOGY USE IN ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS IN TURKEY
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Lexical approaches to Academic and Technical English have been well documented by scholars from as early as . More recent work demonstrates how computer technology can assist in the effective analysis of corpus-based data . For teaching purposes, this recent research has shown that the distinction between common coreness and diversity is a crucial issue. This paper outlines a way of dealing with vocabulary in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction in the light of insights provided by empirical observation. Focusing mainly on collocation in the context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and, more precisely, within English for Information Science and Technology, we show how the results of the contrastive study of lexical items in small specific corpora can become the basis for teaching / learning ESP at the tertiary level. In the process of this study, an account is given of the functions of academic and technical lexis, aspects of keywords and word frequency are defined, and the value of corpus-derived collocation information is demonstrated for the specific textual environment.
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Knowledge of technical vocabulary has become increasingly important over the last few decades along with the advances in various subject disciplines. ESP teachers and book authors need to know what words are considered technical vocabulary when creating ESP learning materials. LSP lexicographers need to know how to determine technical vocabulary when deciding the entries for LSP dictionaries. This paper examines four methods which have been used for determining technical vocabulary. These four methods are called vocabulary classifications, keyword analysis, term extraction, and systematic classifications. A financial text taken from the Chartered Financial Analyst book is used to analyze the merits and demerits of each method. Realizing the problems with those four methods, this paper rounds up with a proposal called a hybrid method for determining technical vocabulary. This hybrid method does not only present a better way to determine technical vocabulary but also expand the concept of words in order to obtain a more comprehensive coverage of the items that constitute technical vocabulary.
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Academic vocabulary has been identified as one of the main challenges for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Nowadays, many institutions offer formal education programs by employing English immersion, however, big gaps appear when the students are required to read academic texts as well as to write academic writings. This study examines the frequency of academic vocabulary in students’ writing by comparing between male and female, and between students from java and outside of Java. There are three methods of analysis being employed to analyze the word frequency, i.e. Academic Word List, AntConc3.2.4w and Wordandphrase.info. The result shows that percentage number of academic vocabulary used in certain group does not simultaneously mean that the students have better performance with their academic vocabulary. There are some possible factors related to their language background and cultural belief underlying this phenomenon.
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Many Asian countries are moving towards English medium instruction in tertiary education (Fan, 2001) because English is gaining currency as a global language. However, studies have revealed student face problems in coping with the demands of their studies due to lack of language proficiency that stems from poor vocabulary knowledge. Within this context it is heartening that vocabulary research posits that 80% of academic texts are covered by the 2000 high frequency words (Coxhead and Nation 2001), 10% by the 570 academic words given in the Academic Word List by Coxhead (2000) and 10% by low frequency or technical words. Nonetheless, there is a question as to the possibility of one core academic word list serving students from different disciplines. Another significant issue that needs to be addressed in terms of vocabulary knowledge is that meaning in texts is derived through word partnerships or collocations ((Lewis 1997b). The current study was carried out to investigate the feasibility of the idea that one core academic word list can serve students following different disciplines. It also aimed to find keywords or subject specific words and collocations in the corpus. The Arts subject stream was selected as a case study. An academic corpus, comprising texts from Sociology, Economics, History and International Relations, Political Science and Demography was compiled. The findings revealed the occurrence of 548 out of the 570 words in the Academic Word List, in the specialized academic corpus that was compiled. The search for keywords that occur in the five sub corpora revealed around 350 keywords in each of the sub-corpora that characterize the vocabulary of each corpus. Many significant collocations were also extracted. These findings emphasized the relevance and validity of the words in the Academic Word List and reveal that awareness of discipline-specific keywords and collocations are also significant in forming the threshold vocabulary requirement for academic study 1 .