Corpus-Based Materials Analysis: Investigating the Authenticity and Recycling of Two Medical Stream ESP Coursebooks Using Keyword Lists Comparison

Abstract

Since the 1980s, word lists have been generated to facilitate the learning, teaching, and research of English for General English (EGP), English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). This thesis exploits various corpus methods of extracting keywords, word classification, generating word lists, and list comparison in favour of the analysis of the two ESP coursebook materials. Besides, this thesis aimed at comparing the keyword lists generated against two multi-million corpora using Sketch Engine to discover the extent to which the coursebooks are authentic and to determine the recycling conventions followed by the coursebooks. Results revealed that the coursebooks were 26% authentic. Furthermore, aided by AntConc, the coursebooks’ generated words which were divided into three main categories in terms of recycling and based on recent studies on vocabulary recycling: over-recycled, under-recycled, and well-recycled words. More words are found to be condensed rather than spaced in the coursebooks. The pedagogical implications of this thesis are related to the modification of vocabulary components in terms of teaching, testing, and adaptation. For students, there is an urgent need to lower the coursebooks’ vocabulary load resulting from lists, that are classified using a range of programmes not included in the 3000-word family level and academic word list level. The lists are attached in the appendix for future use by fellow teachers and researchers.