A Study of TVES College Students' Vocabulary Size and the Vocabulary of Their English Field-Specific Textbooks

• Main Authors: Wei-tien Lin, 林維恬
• Other Authors: Shih-guey Joe
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/58289065835444184839

碩士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 應用外語系碩士班 === 91 === A Study of TVES College Students’ Vocabulary Size and the Vocabulary of Their English Field-Specific Textbooks Student : Lin, Wei-Tien Advisor : Dr. Joe, Shih-Guey Institute of Applied Foreign Languages National Yunlin University of Science & Technology ABSTRACT The present study aimed to investigate if there was any gap between the vocabulary size of TVES college students and the vocabulary level of their field-specific English textbooks in order to detect if TVES college students have enough vocabulary knowledge for understanding their field-specific textbooks. The study included two major tasks: 1) to measure the vocabulary size of TVES college students; and 2) to analyze the vocabulary level of TVES college students’ English textbooks in terms of the amount, the different types, and the characteristics of vocabulary. Then, the results of these two tasks were examined to see if there was any discrepancy between them. Two hundred and ninety-one freshmen from the college of management at one national university of science and technology participated in the vocabulary level test. Equal time was given to each participant to take the vocabulary level test which included 1,000-word, 2,000-word, 3,000-word, 5,000-word, and academic words levels. Meanwhile, based upon the curriculum designed for the participants, ten field-specific English textbooks in the participants’ field-required courses were chosen to build up a 450,162-word corpus by randomly sampling parts of the textbook contents. Through one software, the word frequency and the word coverage for each word in the corpus were shown for further vocabulary analysis. The findings were: 1) On average, 67.4% of the participants could pass the 1,000-word level, 19.6% of them could pass the 2,000-word level, 6.9% of them could pass the 3,000-word level, 0.3% of them could pass the 5,000-word level, and 0.7% of them could pass the academic word level. 2) About 1,625 words could give 95% text coverage which was Laufer’s (1988) threshold for reasonable comprehension. Regarding these 1,625 words, 44% of them were the first 1,000 general high-frequency words, 14% of them were the second 1,000 general high-frequency words, 23% of them were the academic words, 20% of them were other words outside the range of general high-frequency and academic words. In terms of text coverage, for 95% text coverage, the first 1,000 words gave 73.81% coverage, the second gave 4.79%, the academic words gave 11.93%, and the other words gave 4.61%. Concluded from the above, neither did the participants reach 2,000 general-word level nor did they possess general academic words which appear frequently in academic texts. With this fact, even though they had acquired all the technical terms, their vocabulary level still could not enable them to understand the textbook contents comprehensively. This study suggested that TVES college students not only should build up their vocabulary size about general high-frequency words but also about academic words in order to read their field-specific textbooks. Moreover, it is expected that teachers could emphasize the important role of academic words in academic texts and hence develop more activities and materials to help their students acquire the necessary words for reading field-specific English textbooks as early as possible. Key words: Vocabulary size, field-specific textbooks, general high-frequency words, academic words