A Hard Science Spoken Word List

Abstract A Hard Science Spoken Word List (HSWL) was developed and validated to help second language learners of hard sciences better comprehend academic speech at English-medium universities. It consists of the 1,595 most frequent and wide ranging word families in a 6.5-million running word hard science spoken corpus which represents 12 subjects across two equally-sized sub-corpora. Its coverage in different discourse types indicates that the HSWL truly reflects the language in hard science academic speech. The comparison between the HSWL with Dang, Coxhead, and Webb’s (2017) Academic Spoken Word List shows that the HSWL focuses more on specialized vocabulary in hard science speech. Depending on their vocabulary levels, learners may achieve 93%–96% coverage of hard science academic speech with knowledge of the HSWL words.

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Using lexical indices to predict produced and not produced words in second language learners

The Mental Lexicon ◽

10.1075/ml.5.1.05cro ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 115-147 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Scott Crossley ◽

Tom Salsbury

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Word List ◽

Word Production ◽

Word Knowledge ◽

Lexical Knowledge ◽

Data Set ◽

Discriminant Function Analyses

The paper explores how linguistic indices related to lexical networks and psycholinguistic models of lexical knowledge can be used to predict produced and not produced words in second language (L2) speakers. Two hypotheses are tested in this study. The first addresses how lexical properties thought to be important in word knowledge interrelate with word production. The second addresses which lexical properties are most predictive of word production. To test these hypotheses, a set of 45 frequent nouns and verbs produced by L2 learners were collected. A comparison word list of 45 frequent nouns and verbs produced by native speakers, but not found in the L2 data set were also collected. Polysemy and hypernymy values from the WordNet database along with word meaningfulness, concreteness, familiarity, and imagability values from the MRC Psycholinguistic Database and frequency values from SUBTLEXus were collected for each word. ANOVA analyses of variance and discriminant function analyses were conducted for each data set to examine which lexical indices discriminated between produced and not produced words and how these indices interrelated. The results of the noun analysis indicate that produced nouns are more frequent, more meaningful, and more familiar than not produced nouns. Results from the verb analysis show that produced verbs are more frequent, more meaningful, less specific, and more familiar than not produced verbs. These findings provide evidence for the importance of word properties in lexical production.

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An English Cover Letter Essential Wordlist for Second Language Learners

The Language Teacher - The Language Teacher 39.1 ◽

10.37546/jalttlt43.1-2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 3

Author(s):

MacPaul Hirata

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Word List ◽

Cover Letter ◽

Application Process ◽

Lexical Frequency ◽

Writing Ability ◽

Frequency Profile ◽

Job Application

Writing a cover letter is an essential part of the job application process. To find ways to improve second language learners’ cover letter writing ability, this author examined cover letters to create a list of words that are essential for writing English cover letters. A Cover Letter Essential Word List (CLEWL) of 347 words was created from a corpus of 400 cover letters. The CLEWL was analyzed in terms of its make-up, lexical coverage, and lexical frequency profile. This study presents those findings, as well as suggestions for teaching words from the CLEWL. カバーレターを書くことは就職活動に不可欠な部分である。本論では第2言語学習者のカバーレター作成能力を向上させる方法を見つけるために、英語のカバーレターの文例を調査し、カバーレターを書く上で不可欠な単語リストを作成した。400枚のカバーレターのコーパスから、カバーレターの必須単語リスト（CLEWL）347語を作成し、それを構成、語彙の範囲、および語彙頻度プロファイルの観点から分析した。本論ではその調査結果について述べ、CLEWLの単語を教える方法を提案する。

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Recognition and Application of Reading Strategies : Case of Tunisian University Learners

Journal of Practical Studies in Education ◽

10.46809/jpse.v2i2.19 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 14-24

Author(s):

Maha Dallagi

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Reading Strategies ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Strategy Use ◽

Statistical Analyses ◽

Tertiary Level ◽

Hard Science ◽

Proficiency Level ◽

And Gender

Reading is perhaps the most important skill for second language learners in academic contexts (Grabe, 2014; Lynch & Hudson, 1991). The need to be able to read in English is especially felt at the tertiary level where most of the academic sources are in English. Yet, Reading is one of the skills that learners often find extremely difficult (Littlewood & Liu, 1996). One major reason for these difficulties is the use of reading strategies and importance of lower-level processes in reading. This study investigated to the choice and frequency of reading strategies by Tunisian tertiary level students (N=147). It aimed to point out whether variables such as Specialty, Proficiency and Gender correlated with the broad categories of Reading strategies identified by Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002). Results unveiled little difference between Hard Science and Soft Science majors in their use of Reading strategies. Statistical analyses demonstrated no relationship between proficiency level, gender, and strategy use.

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