Using a Corpus-Based Approach to Select Medical Vocabulary for an ESP Course: The Case for High-Frequency Vocabulary

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the use of multiple corpora and word lists made from corpora to select ESP vocabulary and on the integration of that lexis into an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. The first part of the chapter discusses the compilation of a corpus of medical textbooks in English which are commonly used in many Latin American countries, such as Venezuela, in undergraduate medical courses. A second corpus, this time of general English, was used as a comparison to the medical textbook corpus. Both corpora were analyzed for vocabulary load using Nation’s (2012) BNC/COCA lists, Coxhead’s AWL (2000) and Coxhead and Hirsh’s (2007) Science List. The study found that the first 3000 words constitute a vital set of vocabulary for ESP medical students at the beginning of their studies and that the vocabulary load of the medical textbooks is far greater than the loads of university texts (see Nation 2006). Bringing these corpus-based findings into ESP courses is an important task. The second part of the chapter discussed integrating these findings into an ESP course for medical students, using Nation’s (2013) framework of planning, strategy training, testing, and teaching vocabulary.