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English Vocabulary Frequency and Its Use at Lower Secondary Schools

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English Vocabulary Frequency and Its Use at Lower Secondary Schools UNIVERZITA PALACKÉHO V OLOMOUCI PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA Ústav cizích jazyků Diplomová práce Bc. Vojtěch Přecechtěl English Vocabulary Frequency and Its Use at Lower Secondary Schools Supervisor Olomouc 2016 Doc. PhDr. Václav Řeřicha, CSc. Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou práci vypracoval samostatně a všechny použité prameny a literaturu uvádím v seznamu použitých zdrojů a literatury. V Olomouci 20. 4. 2016 ……………………………………………… vlastnoruční podpis Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Doc. PhDr. Václav Řeřicha, CSc. for his support and valuable comments on the content, style and presentation of my final project. Abstract Vocabulary frequency is a topic that has raised interest of many researchers and teachers over the last seventy years. It appears to be a reasonable and objective criterion for vocabulary selection. This thesis deals with the possible impact of the vocabulary frequency aspect on English foreign language (EFL) teaching at lower secondary schools. Vocabulary frequency lists provide support for vocabulary level analysis and teachers can use the related tools in order to classify the language level of a text, determine the text difficulties and create new learning materials based on this objective method. The subjects of the research in this thesis are wordlists of six English textbooks for lower secondary school learners. The aim of the research is to point out the frequency aspect presence amongst other vocabulary aspects and discuss its contribution to the EFL teaching. The results show the distribution of the six wordlists in the frequency levels of two reference vocabulary frequency lists. The NGSL covers 60 – 82 % of the six textbook wordlists. This proportion of the wordlists stands for the high frequency vocabulary. The research proves that the high-frequency vocabulary is present and covers the majority of items in the six textbook wordlists. Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 8 1 INTRODUCTION TO VOCABULARY FREQUENCY....................................................................................... 9 1.1 VOCABULARY ................................................................................................................................................ 9 1.2 PASSIVE AND ACTIVE VOCABULARY ................................................................................................................... 11 1.3 VOCABULARY SIZE ........................................................................................................................................ 12 1.4 VOCABULARY FREQUENCY .............................................................................................................................. 13 1.4.1 High-frequency vocabulary ............................................................................................................ 13 1.4.2 Mid-frequency vocabulary ............................................................................................................. 14 1.4.3 Low-frequency vocabulary ............................................................................................................. 15 1.4.4 Vocabulary coverage ..................................................................................................................... 15 1.5 ENGLISH CORPORA ....................................................................................................................................... 16 1.5.1 Types of corpora ............................................................................................................................ 17 1.5.2 Data processing ............................................................................................................................. 18 1.6 FREQUENCY LISTS ......................................................................................................................................... 19 1.6.1 General Service List ........................................................................................................................ 20 1.6.2 Academic Word List ....................................................................................................................... 23 1.6.3 New General Service List ................................................................................................................ 24 1.6.4 New Academic Wordlist ................................................................................................................. 26 1.6.5 GSL, New-GSL and NGSL comparison ............................................................................................ 26 1.6.6 BNC-COCA ...................................................................................................................................... 27 1.6.7 Vocabulary profilers ....................................................................................................................... 28 1.7 VOCABULARY OF A CZECH LEARNER OF ENGLISH ................................................................................................. 30 2 EFL VOCABULARY TEACHING .................................................................................................................31 2.1 FRAMEWORKS ............................................................................................................................................. 31 2.2 TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES .............................................................................................................. 33 2.2.1 Classroom English .......................................................................................................................... 35 2.2.2 CLIL................................................................................................................................................. 35 2.2.3 Vocabulary selection ...................................................................................................................... 36 2.3 MATERIALS BASED ON WORD FREQUENCY ......................................................................................................... 36 2.3.1 Dictionaries .................................................................................................................................... 37 2.3.2 Textbooks ....................................................................................................................................... 38 2.3.3 Wordlists ........................................................................................................................................ 39 2.3.4 Graded readers .............................................................................................................................. 40 2.3.5 Software ........................................................................................................................................ 41 2.3.6 Games ............................................................................................................................................ 42 3 RESEARCH ..............................................................................................................................................45 3.1 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................... 45 3.1.1 Textbooks selection........................................................................................................................ 45 3.1.2 Description of the wordlists ........................................................................................................... 46 3.1.3 Data processing ............................................................................................................................. 48 3.1.4 Reference list selection .................................................................................................................. 48 3.1.5 Vocabulary profiler tool selection .................................................................................................. 49 3.2 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................................... 50 3.2.1 Project 4 the Third Edition ............................................................................................................. 50 3.2.2 Hello Kids! Angličtina pro 7. ročník ZŠ ........................................................................................... 52 3.2.3 More! L3 ........................................................................................................................................ 54 3.2.4 English Plus 2 ................................................................................................................................. 56 3.2.5 Messages 3 .................................................................................................................................... 58 3.2.6 Angličtina 7 Way to Win ................................................................................................................ 60 3.3 RESEARCH SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................... 62 3.4 METHODOLOGY DISCUSSION .........................................................................................................................
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