A corpus-based environmental academic word list building and its validity test

作者：Liu, Jia; Han, Lina^*

来源：English for Specific Purposes, 2015, 39: 1-11.

DOI：10.1016/j.esp.2015.03.001

• AWL
• Word selection criteria
• Validity

This study discusses the necessity of creating field-specific academic word lists and seeks to establish the compilation criteria and the validity test criteria for field-specific academic word lists. These three aspects are explored with reference to an environmental science corpus.
The results indicate that the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000) is not entirely useful for environmental science learners because of the narrow coverage of some word families and the shortage of frequently used environmental academic words. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a field-specific word list that better reflects specialized features. Referring to Juilland's 'usage' (Juilland & Chang-Rodriguez, 1964), this study proposes 'optimized usage' to determine whether words should be included in an academic word list. It also establishes the first academic word list for environmental science, the Environmental Academic Word List (EAWL). Moreover, the list's validity test criteria are established by way of coverage comparison and hypothesis testing. The EAWL established in this study aims to be maximally useful for environmental science learners.

• 出版日期2015-7
• 单位南开大学