How can the use of frequency information from corpora be used in foreign language teaching? A corpus-based study on vocabulary in course books

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• Introduction
• Coursebook vocabulary
• Project coursebooks in primary education
  • Project home study program
• Word frequency in current learner's dictionaries
  • Oxford defining vocabulary
  • Longman defining vocabulary
  • Corpus linguistics in language learning
• Research
  • Goal of research
  • Development of methods and tasks
    • Coursebook series selection
    • Acquisition of data
    • Questionnaires
    • Mistakes and errors
  • Compliance of the corpus
    • Corpus compliance/builder programs
    • Corpus preparation and importation
    • Part of speech tagging and lemmatization
    • Co-occurrence analysis
    • Thematic analysis
    • Comparative analysis
    • Oxford 3000 corpus
• Output interpretation
  • Questionnaires
  • Project 1
    • Word list derived analysis
    • Co-occurrence analysis
    • Thematic analysis and data mining
    • Comparative analysis
    • Mistakes and errors
  • Project 2
    • Word list derived analysis
    • Co-occurrence analysis
    • Thematic analysis and data mining
    • Comparative analysis
    • Mistakes
  • Project 3
    • Word list derived analysis
    • Co-occurrence analysis
    • Thematic analysis and data mining
    • Comparative analysis
    • Mistakes
  • Project 4
    • Word list derived analysis
    • Co-occurrence analysis
    • Thematic analysis and data mining
    • Comparative analysis
    • Mistakes
  • Project 5
    • Word list derived analysis
    • Co-occurrence analysis

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

The aim of this thesis is to examine the fourth edition Project coursebooks series using corpora created specifically for this study, applying corpus linguistics principles. The analysis compares the vocabulary representation in these corpora, both individually and collectively, to the content of The Oxford 3000 list of essential words.

• Corpus linguistics application in analyzing coursebooks
• Vocabulary representation in Project coursebooks
• Comparison of coursebook vocabulary with The Oxford 3000 list
• Analysis of word frequency and co-occurrence patterns
• Investigation of thematic trends within the corpus

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

The thesis commences with an introduction providing context and outlining the research objectives. The next chapter delves into the concept of coursebook vocabulary, followed by an exploration of the Project coursebooks in primary education, including the home study program. The fourth chapter examines word frequency in dictionaries, focusing on Oxford and Longman defining vocabulary, and the role of corpus linguistics in language learning.

The research section details the goals, methodology, and specific tasks employed. This includes the selection of the coursebook series, data acquisition, questionnaires, and the analysis of mistakes and errors. The chapter also describes the compliance of the corpus, outlining the processes of corpus building, preparation, part of speech tagging, lemmatization, co-occurrence analysis, thematic analysis, comparative analysis, and the use of the Oxford 3000 corpus.

The output interpretation section analyzes the findings from the questionnaires and focuses on individual Project coursebooks, examining the word list derived analysis, co-occurrence analysis, thematic analysis and data mining, comparative analysis, and mistakes and errors. These analyses are conducted for Project 1, Project 2, Project 3, Project 4, and Project 5.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

The primary keywords and focus topics of this thesis include corpus linguistics, Project coursebooks series, vocabulary, English language teaching, The Oxford 3000 list, word frequency, co-occurrence analysis, thematic analysis, and error analysis. This study utilizes corpus linguistics tools to investigate the vocabulary representation and thematic patterns within the Project coursebooks series, comparing these findings to a benchmark vocabulary list.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can corpus linguistics be used in English language teaching (ELT)?

It allows for the analysis of word frequencies and occurrence patterns, helping teachers choose the most essential vocabulary for students based on real-world usage.

What is the "Oxford 3000" list?

It is a list of the 3000 most essential and frequent words in English, used as a benchmark to evaluate the vocabulary content of language coursebooks.

What was the goal of the research on "Project" coursebooks?

The goal was to investigate the linguistic attributes of the vocabulary in the Project coursebook series and see how well it aligns with essential word lists like the Oxford 3000.

What is "lemmatization" in the context of this study?

Lemmatization is the process of grouping together the inflected forms of a word (e.g., "running," "ran") so they can be analyzed as a single item (the lemma "run").

Why is frequency information important for young learners?

Focusing on high-frequency words ensures that students learn the vocabulary they are most likely to encounter and need in everyday communication first.

What are "co-occurrence patterns"?

These are patterns showing which words frequently appear together in a text, providing insight into collocations and typical language use in coursebooks.