Cover not available
Part of
Corpus-based Research in Applied Linguistics: Studies in Honor of Doug Biber
Edited by Viviana Cortes and Eniko Csomay
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 66] 2015
► pp. 123–146

The challenge of constructing a reliable word list: An exploratory corpus-based analysis of lexical variability in introductory Psychology textbooks

This study highlights the methodological challenges inherent in reliably capturing meaningful sets of vocabulary for instructional focus. An analysis of a 3.1 million-word corpus of introductory psychology textbooks suggests that, while comparatively large, and, thus, presumably representative of the lexical variability in the target domain, this corpus was unable to capture a stable list of “important” words. Findings highlight an important issue requiring further investigation in corpus-based vocabulary research: the extent to which corpora – and the word lists based on them – reliably represent the lexical variability of their target domains. Keywords: Corpus representativeness; lexical diversity; word list reliability

Published online: 14 January 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.66.06mil
References
Atkins, Sue, Clear, Jeremy & Ostler, Nicholas
1992 Corpus design criteria. Literary and Linguistic Computing 7: 1-16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas
1988 Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993 Representativeness in corpus design. Literary & Linguistic Computing 8: 243-257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas, Conrad, Susan & Reppen, Randi
1998 Corpus Linguistics: Investigating Structure and Use. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas, Conrad, Susan, Reppen, Randi, Byrd, Pat, Helt, Marie, Clark, Victoria, Cortes, Viviana, Csomay, Eniko & Urzúa, Alfredo
2004 Representing Language Use in the University: Analysis of the TOEFL 2000 Spoken and Written Academic Language Corpus [ETS TOEFL Monograph Series, MS-25]. Princeton NJ: Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Bowker, Lynne & Pearson, Jennifer
2002 Working with Specialized Language: A Practical Guide to Using Corpora. London: Routlege. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brysbaert, Marc & New, Boris
2009 Moving beyond Kucera and Francis: A critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English. Behavior Research Methods 41(4): 977-990. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burgmeier, Arline & Zimmerman, Cheryl Boyd
2007 Inside Reading 1 Student Book Pack: The Academic Word List in Context. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Chen, Qi & Ge, Guang-Chun
2007 A corpus-based lexical study on frequency and distribution of Coxhead’s AWL word families in medical research articles (RAs). English for Specific Purposes 26: 502–514. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
The College Board
2010 CLEP® Introductory psychology: At a glance. [URL]
Coxhead, Averil
2000 A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly 34(2): 213-238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coxhead, Averil & Hirsh, David
2007 A pilot science word list for EAP. Revue Française de Linguistique Appliquée XII(2): 65-78.Google Scholar
2010 The Corpus of Contemporary American English as the first reliable monitor corpus of English. Literary and Linguistic Computing 25(4): 447–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davies, Mark & Gardner, Dee
2010 A Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary American English. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Durrant, Philip
2009 Investigating the viability of a collocation list for students of English for academic purposes. English for Specific Purposes 28: 157–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Francis, W. Nelson & Kucera, Henry
1982 Frequency Analysis of English Usage: Lexicon and Grammar. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Heatley, A. & Nation, Paul
1994 Range. Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. Sofware. [URL]Google Scholar
Huntley, Helen
2005 Essential Academic Vocabulary: Mastering the Complete Academic Word List. New York NY: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Hyland, Ken & Tse, Polly
2007 Is there an “academic vocabulary?” TESOL Quarterly 41(2): 235-253.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Graeme
1998 An Introduction to Corpus Linguistics. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey, Rayson, Paul & Wilson, Andrew
2001 Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English: Based on the British National Corpus. London: Pearson.Google Scholar
Li, Yongyan, & Qian, David
2010 Profiling Academic Word List (AWL) in a financial corpus. System 38: 402-411. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martínez, Illiana, Beck, Silvia & Panza, Carolina
2009 Academic vocabulary in agricultural research articles: A corpus-based study. English for Specific Purposes 28(3): 183-198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McEnery, Tony & Wilson, Andrew
1996 Corpus Linguistics. Edinburgh: EUP.Google Scholar
McEnery, Tony, Xiao, Richard & Tono, Yukio
2006 Corpus-based Language Studies: An Advanced Resource Book. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Millar, Neil & Budgell, Brian
2008 The language of public health: A corpus-based analysis. Journal of Public Health 16: 369-374. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mudraya, Olga
2006 Engineering English: A lexical frequency instructional model. English for Specific Purposes 25(2): 235–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nation, Paul
2001 Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 A study of the most frequent word families in the British National Corpus. In Vocabulary in a Second Language [Language Learning & Language Teaching 10], Paul Bogaards & Bahtia Laufer (eds), 3-14. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, Norbert
2010 Researching Vocabulary: A Vocabulary Research Manual. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, Diane & Schmitt, Norbert
2005 Focus on Vocabulary: Mastering the Academic Word List. New York NY: Pearson.Google Scholar
Sinclair, John
1991 Corpus, Concordance, Collocation: Describing English Language. Oxford: OUPGoogle Scholar
Upton, Thomas
2004 Reading Skills for Success: A Guide to Academic Texts. Ann Arbor MI: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Vongpumivitch, Viphavee, Huang, Ju-yu, & Chang, Yu-Chia
2009 Frequency analysis of the words in the Academic Word List (AWL) and non-AL content words in applied linguistics research papers. English for Specific Purposes 28(1): 33-41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Jing, Liang, Shao-lan & Ge, Guang-chun
2008 Establishment of a medical academic word list. English for Specific Purposes 27(4): 442-458. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
West, Michael
1953 A General Service List of English Words. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Xue, Guo-yi & Nation, Paul
1984 A university word list. Language Learning and Communication 3(2): 215-229.Google Scholar