A corpus Based Comparative Analysis of Vocabulary in Published Saudi EFL coursebooks

Abstract

Saudi government officials and educators are seriously concerned about low English achievement levels among Saudi school and university students. In fact, although English has been a compulsory subject in Saudi public schools for nine years, researchers have repeatedly concluded that the English vocabulary of high school graduates only contains around 1,000 words. The present study, therefore, aims to investigate the inclusion of vocabulary in eighteen English as foreign language (EFL) coursebooks from three current Saudi high school curricula (Mega Goal, Flying High, and Traveller) used for learners at the same levels in different KSA regions, in order to assess whether the books potentially contribute to students’ low levels of English achievement. The study is a corpus-based comparative analysis of the vocabulary from different perspectives. Firstly, the coursebooks’ vocabulary was compared with lists of the 2,000 most frequently used words in English, the most commonly used words in academic contexts, mid- and low-frequency English, proper nouns, and Arabic words. The number and frequency of the words new to coursebooks were assessed as well as opportunities provided in the coursebooks to strengthen students’ knowledge and use of the new words. The main purpose of this study is to provide solid evidence of the strengths and weaknesses of the three EFL curricula to: a) distinguish which one best prepares students to learn the most common and useful English words, b) offer an adequate number of words and reiterations, and c) provide different kinds of learning opportunities to strengthen their knowledge of newly-learned vocabulary. Data were collected and analysed using a quantitative and mixed qualitative approach with the help of corpus tools Compleat Lexical Tutor and AntConc. The research design is based upon the sequential explanatory design developed by Creswell, Clark, Gutmann, and Hanson (2003) with some modifications. The key findings of the study reveal that the words included in the coursebooks most often come from the 2,000 most frequently used words in English, mostly appeared in the Traveller coursebooks. The Traveller coursebooks in particular present the new words in a sequence that privileges learning the 2,000 most commonly used English words before the most commonly used academic words. A reasonable number of the former appears in the coursebooks, while the other investigated word lists (mid- and low-frequency vocabulary in English, proper nouns, and Arabic words) occur less frequently. The coursebooks present a considerable number of new words per level; however, this was not consistent across the levels in either the Mega Goal or Flying High coursebooks compared to Traveller. Although the newly introduced words were not sufficiently repeated in all the coursebooks, they do provide several vocabulary learning opportunities, especially Traveller. However, all the coursebooks are in need of pedagogical intervention from instructors and materials developers.