A Survey of Issues, Practices and Views Related to Corpus-based Word Lists for English Language Teaching and Learning

Paul Thompson,Sarah Nasser Alzeer

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.8n.6p.43

Paul Thompson, Sarah Nasser Alzeer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.8n.6p.43

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Abstract

Word lists have been recognized as a valuable pedagogical resource that can be used by language teachers and learners, materials developers and syllabus designers to identify vocabulary that needs attention. The increase in the accessibility of electronic corpora and the recent advances in corpus software tools has led to a proliferation of various types of corpus-based word lists informed by frequency counts, in some cases combined with other measures. However, there is a lack of research into how word lists are used in real pedagogical contexts. This exploratory study explores current practices and views related to the exploitation, construction, and evaluation of corpus-based word lists for English language teaching and learning purposes. The survey results indicate that word lists are used for a variety of purposes and in different settings, and that the context and goals for use of the word list should determine the nature of the list. Furthermore, while word lists are thought to be useful, several factors need to be considered to ensure successful implementation of lists into pedagogical contexts. Finally, the survey captured misuses and misconceptions of word lists that practitioners need to be aware of.

Highlights

The use of language corpora for compiling lists of important vocabulary items to be focused on in the language teaching and learning process has a long tradition that can be traced back to Thorndike’s (1921) Teacher Word Book (Fries & Traver, 1950)
The increase in the accessibility of electronic corpora and the recent advances in corpus software tools has led to a proliferation of various types of corpus-based word lists informed by frequency counts, in some cases combined with other measures
The present study aims to address this shortcoming by exploring current practices and views related to the exploitation, construction, and evaluation of corpus-based word lists for English language teaching and learning purposes

Summary

Introduction

The use of language corpora for compiling lists of important vocabulary items to be focused on in the language teaching and learning process has a long tradition that can be traced back to Thorndike’s (1921) Teacher Word Book (Fries & Traver, 1950). Recent advances in corpus software tools have led to a proliferation of various types of corpus-based word lists informed by frequency counts, sometimes combined with other measures (Schmitt, 2016). While there is a growing number of corpus-based word lists, the problem is that there is a lack of research on how they are used in real pedagogical contexts and how they are perceived by L2 practitioners and learners (Folse & Youngblood, 2017). The present study aims to address this shortcoming by exploring current practices and views related to the exploitation, construction, and evaluation of corpus-based word lists for English language teaching and learning purposes. It is intended that the results of the study will inform the development of pedagogical word lists in future, and their implementation for language teaching and learning purposes

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