Corpus software in EFL teaching: Examination of language exposure

Abstract

Introduction. High-quality language education in technical universities requires its interdisciplinary relation to the content of highly specialised subjects corresponding to the training programmes aimed at instructing the future specialists. Educational materials in a foreign language are highly productive if they emphasise the terminology and professional vocabulary authentic to the current state of the scientific field.The aim of the study presented in the article was to assess the validity of the lexical material delivered in the course “English for Business Communication”, to determine the selection criteria for this vocabulary as well as the methods for its assimilation and practical application.Methodology and research methods. The applied corpus software enabled to obtain quantitative indicators of the distribution of foreign-language business vocabulary in the given training course. The lexical material being currently offered to students and the professional thesaurus identified via linguistic databases was compared with the use of comparative analysis and synthesis.Results and scientific novelty. The lexical units (terms, set expressions), which are the most active in the business sphere, were identified on the basis of its frequency. The authors established the correlation between them and educational vocabulary, both from the perspective of its integration into the course without block concentration throughout the course of university training, and from the perspective of the variety of methods used to practice this vocabulary. It is concluded that the applied educational material needs to be substantially adjusted. The vocabulary does not completely reflect the realities of the business communication sphere and the distribution of active vocational vocabulary regulated by methodological guidelines does not entirely contribute to its strong assimilation. According to the authors, the necessary changes to the approaches and methods for selecting and compiling lexical material and to the methodology for designing a foreign language course should be made on the basis of integrating pedagogical and linguistic knowledge, in particular, the methodology of teaching foreign languages and the corpus linguistics.Practical significance. The ways of integrating corpus programs in the process of developing the content of language disciplines, which are part of the main educational program of technical universities, are demonstrated as one of the methods to increase the effectiveness of teaching foreign languages to students of non-linguistic specialties.