Establishing English Science Textbook Word Lists (ESTWL) for Thai EFL Secondary Students: A Corpus-based Approach

Abstract

A number of researchers have worked on creating word lists focused on science to help students in their specific academic fields. However, these lists are usually intended for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in university-level EFL programs and may not be suitable for EFL students at other educational levels, like secondary or primary school students. The goal of this study was to use a corpus-based method to explore the technical vocabulary found in lower secondary school science textbooks used in English programs at Thai schools. The study involved 46 science textbooks in the English Science Textbook Corpus (ESTC). To analyze the frequency of the 2,076,389 words in the corpus, the software AntWordProfiler (Anthony, 2022) was used, which helped develop word lists for lower secondary students. After reviewing the word list, 408-word types met the criteria set by science teachers using a rating scale approach. The final list, which was reviewed by 15 subject experts and adapted from the scale by Chung and Nation (2004), included 480-word types considered technically appropriate. These words were divided into three categories: Physical Science, Biological Science, and Earth & Space Science Word Lists. The English Science Textbook Word Lists (ESTWL) aim to support lower secondary students in preparing for science lessons. In addition, the ESTWL can help science and language teachers choose suitable vocabulary for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classes. You can access the ESTWL at https://sites.google.com/view/estwl.