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Article published In:
Journal of Second Language Studies
Vol. 2:1 (2019) ► pp.71–92

Lexical complexity of academic presentations

Similarities despite situational differences

| Old Dominion University

The present study examined the lexical complexity profiles of academic presentations of three groups of university students (N = 93) – native English speaking, English as a second language, and English as a lingua franca users. It adopted a notion of lexical complexity which includes lexical diversity, lexical density, and lexical sophistication as main dimensions of the framework. The study aimed at finding out how the three academically similar groups of presenters compared on their lexical complexity choices, what the lexical complexity profiles of high quality students’ academic presentations looked like, and whether we can identify variables that contribute to the overall lexical complexity of presentations given by each group in a unique way. The findings revealed overwhelming similarities across the three groups of presenters and also suggested that the three dimensional framework provides a holistic picture of the lexical complexity for various groups of English for academic purposes presenters.

Keywords: academic presentations, ELF in academic settings, oral academic discourse, EAP, lexical complexity, lexical richness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Perspectives on the EALF user
  • 3.Lexical complexity: Operationalization and measurement
  • 4.The study
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Data
    • 4.3Data analysis criteria
  • 5.Results
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 18 April 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.18003.zar
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