Evaluating Lexical Complexity From EGP to ESP Textbooks

Abstract

ESP classes are usually designed for college students after they finish EGP learning. Accordingly, ESP textbooks are used after they use the EGP ones. Logically, ESP textbooks should be lexically more sophisticated than EGP ones, because linguistic contents are also important concerns for ESP teaching, and ESP classes should also promote students’ language development in addition to their professional advancement. This research aims to compare lexical complexity between EGP and ESP textbooks used among college students. With lexical sophistication as an index for lexical complexity, this study found some ESP textbooks were lexically easier than the EGP ones in this study, which contrasts with input hypothesis. This implicates that ESP textbook writers should consider the contents of EGP textbooks when writing textbooks.