scholarly journals Evaluating lists of high-frequency words: Teachers’ and learners’ perspectives

2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882091118
Author(s):  
Thi Ngoc Yen Dang ◽  
Stuart Webb ◽  
Averil Coxhead
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Teacher Perceptions ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
American English ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
General Service ◽  
National Corpus

With a number of word lists available for teachers to choose from, teachers and students need to know which list provides the best return for learning? Four well-established lists were compared and it was found that BNC/COCA2000 (British National Corpus / Corpus of Contemporary American English 2000) and the New General Service List (New-GSL) provided the greatest lexical coverage in spoken and written corpora. The present study further compared these two lists using teacher perceptions of word usefulness and learner vocabulary knowledge as the criteria. First, 78 experienced teachers of English as a second language / English as a foreign language (ESL/EFL) rated the usefulness of 973 non-overlapping items between the two lists for their learners. Second, 135 Vietnamese EFL learners completed 15 yes/no tests which measured their knowledge of the same 973 words. Teachers perceived that the BNC/COCA2000 had more useful words. Items in this list were also better known by the learners. This suggests that the BNC/COCA2000 is the more useful high-frequency wordlist for second language (L2) learners.

Evaluating lists of high-frequency words

2016 ◽  
Vol 167 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
This Ngoc Yen Dang ◽  
Stuart Webb
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
American English ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
English Word ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Word Families ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
L2 Vocabulary ◽  
General Service ◽  
National Corpus

This study compared the lexical coverage provided by four wordlists [West’s (1953) General Service List (GSL), Nation’s (2006) most frequent 2,000 British National Corpus word families (BNC2000), Nation’s (2012) most frequent 2,000 British National Corpus and Corpus of Contemporary American-English word families (BNC/COCA2000), and Brezina and Gablasova’s (2015) New-GSL list] in 18 corpora. The comparison revealed that the headwords in the BNC/COCA2000 tended to provide the greatest average coverage. However, when the coverage of the most frequent 1,000, 1,500, and 1,996 headwords in the lists was compared, the New-GSL provided the highest coverage. The GSL had the worst performance using both criteria. Pedagogical and methodological implications related to second language (L2) vocabulary learning and teaching are discussed in detail.

The NGSL Project: Building Wordlists and Resources to help EFL Learners (and Teachers) to Succeed

2021 ◽  
Vol PCP2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Charles Browne
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
Word Lists ◽  
General Service

During my JALTCALL 2020 Plenary Address, I explained about the importance of high frequency and special purpose (SP) vocabulary for second language learners of English, and then went on to introduce our New General Service List Project, a collection of 7 open-source, corpus-based word lists offering the highest coverage in each of their specific genres, as well as the large and growing number of free apps and online tools we have either developed or utilized to help learners, teachers, researchers and materials developers to better be able to utilize our lists. This chapter is a very brief summary of this project.

scholarly journals Vocabulary Learning Using Student-Created Class Vocabulary Lists

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
G. Denison ◽  
◽  
I. Custance ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
American English ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
English Word ◽  
International Communication ◽  
English Majors ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
General Service ◽  
National Corpus

In this article, we describe the pedagogical basis for class vocabulary lists (CVLs) and their implementation using Google Sheets. CVLs allow students to collaborate and build “notebooks” of vocabulary that they feel is important to learn. CVL choices of students (N = 53) in three classes of mixed non-English majors and one informatics class were compared against frequency-based lists (British National Corpus/Corpus of Contemporary American English Word Family Lists [BNC/COCA], New General Service List [NGSL], Test of English for International Communication [TOEIC] Service List [TSL]) using the Compleat Web Vocabulary Profiler (Web VP) to determine the usefulness of the selected vocabulary. An information technology keywords list, constructed using AntConc and AntCorGen, was compared against the informatics group’s CVL to determine if those students were choosing field-appropriate vocabulary. Results suggest that when given autonomy to choose vocabulary, students generally select useful and relevant words for their contexts (e.g, simulation, virtual, privacy, artificial, denuclearization, aftershock, heatstroke) and that CVLs supplement frequency-based lists in beneficial ways.

A Corpora-Based Analysis of Rely on and Depend on

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Namkil Kang
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
American English ◽  
The Other ◽  
Information State ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of rely on and depend on in the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus. The COCA clearly shows that the expression rely on government is the most preferred by Americans, followed by rely on people, and rely on data. The COCA further indicates that the expression depend on slate is the most preferred by Americans, followed by depend on government, and depend on people. The BNC shows, on the other hand, that the expression rely on others is the most preferred by the British, followed by rely on people, and rely on friends. The BNC further indicates that depend on factors and depend on others are the most preferred by the British, followed by depend on age, and depend on food. Finally, in the COCA, the nouns government, luck, welfare, people, information, state, fossil, water, family, oil, food, and things are linked to both rely on and depend on, but many nouns are not still linked to both of them. On the other hand, in the BNC, only the nouns state, chance, government, and others are linked to both rely on and depend on, but many nouns are not still linked to both rely on and depend on. It can thus be inferred from this that rely on is slightly different from depend on in its use.

scholarly journals Semantic Modulation of the English Verbs of Leaving in Terms of the Space of Sets (On the Example of the Verbs Leave, Depart)

2020 ◽  
pp. 323-330
Author(s):  
A.S. Dautova
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Semantic Group ◽  
Surrounding World ◽  
Research Hypothesis ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Linguistic Reality

The article presents the experience of studying the semantic structure of the English verbs with the meaning of leaving. The author focuses on the problem of modulating the meaning of the English verbs “leave”, “depart” and their transition into another lexical and semantic group. The urgency of the study lies in addressing the category of space as one of the basic linguistic forms of conceptualization and interpretation of extra-linguistic reality, which man operates in the process of cognition, interpretation of the surrounding world. The problem of research is solved by describing the modulation of meaning in terms of the concept of space of sets, as one of the factors contributing to the change of meaning. The verification of the research hypothesis is based on the analysis of lexicographical data sources of the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Modern American English.

scholarly journals Linguistic Awareness of the Prepositional Phrase Complexities in the English as a Foreign Language Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Chinger Enrique Zapata-Leal ◽  
María Cecilia Ávila-Portuanto
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Internal Configuration

This essay focuses on a description of the complexities of Prepositional Phrases (PPs) and their challenges for EFL learners. The rationale is to raise language awareness of the multifaceted nature of the PP in teachers and students. The grammatical explanations offered in the literature review are based on Functional Grammar. Moreover, previous research conducted addressing the issues of EFL learners facing problems with PPs are proposed in four configurations: semantic, syntactic, lexical and socio-cultural. Such configurations address scenarios for the identification of multiple meanings, different syntactic functions and structures, regional variations, typology, formal and informal language usage, among others, which represent obstacles and difficulties in the comprehension of the topic by EFL learners. Finally, we conclude that the limited use of syntactic functions, poor internal configuration of PPs, as well as the high frequency of errors reported by previous research indicate PPs are complex to use. Thereby, explicitly reinforcing the teaching of all the configurations of PPs is suggested.

Meek as milk and large as logic: A corpus study of the non-standard poetic simile

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roi Tartakovsky ◽  
Yeshayahu Shen
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Salient Feature ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Poetic Discourse ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Operational Criteria ◽  
Unexpected Difficulty ◽  
National Corpus

A novel distinction is proposed between two types of closed similes: the standard and the non-standard. While the standard simile presents a ground that is a salient feature of the source term (e.g. meek as a lamb), the non-standard simile somewhat enigmatically supplies a non-salient ground (e.g. meek as milk). The latter thus violates a deep-seated norm of similes and presents interpreters with unexpected difficulty, whereby the concept set up to be an exemplar of a quality is actually less than ideal to fulfil this role. The main question addressed here is how these two simile types are relatively distributed across poetic and non-poetic corpora. We elaborate the criteria for what constitutes the non-standard simile, including separating it out from adjacent phenomena like the ironic simile (e.g. brave as a mouse), and go on to explain our operational criteria for salience. Then, we report culling 329 closed similes from an anthology of poetry and 350 closed similes from two corpora of non-poetic discourse, the Corpus of Historical American English and the British National Corpus. An independent judge rated the salience of each ground-and-source pair of each of the similes, presented in randomized order. Results show that while the standard simile is found in both types of discourse, the non-standard kind is only marginally present in the non-poetic corpora but makes up over 40% of the similes in the poetic corpus. We conclude by discussing the implications of these results for theories of poetic language and literariness.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Comparative Study of Learn and Acquire

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Bei Yang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

<p>As an important yet intricate linguistic feature in English language, synonymy poses a great challenge for second language learners. Using the 100 million-word British National Corpus (BNC) as data and the software Sketch Engine (SkE) as an analyzing tool, this article compares the usage of <em>learn</em> and <em>acquire </em>used in natural discourse by conducting the analysis of concordance, collocation, word sketches and sketch difference. The results show that different functions of SkE can make different contributions to the discrimination of <em>learn</em> and <em>acquire</em>. Pedagogical implications are discussed when the results are introduced into the classroom.</p>

scholarly journals A Corpus Study of the English Suffixes -ness and -acy: Productivity, Genre, and Implications for L2 Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-137
Author(s):  
Ben Naismith ◽  
Matthew Kanwit
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
American English ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Word Structure ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Construction Morphology ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
The Relationship

Despite substantial scholarship relating to word structure (Anderson, 2018), for English affixes the relationship between productivity, genre, and second language (L2) learning remains unclear. Analysis of the existing literature reveals that deadjectival noun suffixes (i.e., nouns derived from adjectives such as appropriacy or goodness) have been underexamined. To address this gap, we examine two rival suffixes, -acy and -ness, through the lens of Construction Morphology (Booij, 2010), considering numerous factors which might condition their varying usage. Critically, corpus data in the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus (Davies, 2008-) reveal the importance of considering these affixes’ productivity in relation to genre, since -acy is especially frequent in academic texts, principally within certain social sciences. The implications for learners and teachers of English as a second language are discussed, particularly higher-level learners building communicative competence in academic contexts, along with a preliminary learner corpus comparison of the two variants.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document