High frequency words, which are key to a text, must be mastered to achieve minimum levels of reading proficiency. However, knowledge about the frequency of items in a language is very limited. Given this consideration, WordSift (www.wordsift.org), a word cloud tool based on high frequency and key words can assist English as a Foreign Language…

The words in a language or language variety are often rank ordered in lists that are meant to reflect the relative importance of those words to language users and learners of a language. This rank ordering is done on the basis of the relative prevalence of words in a corpus. Lexical prevalence is often operationalized as measures of frequency,…

When learning high- and mid-frequency words, approximately 5,000 words might be inadequate for learners to survive in a career as a tourist guide. This paper aims to construct technical word lists for Thai tourist guides to serve as supplementary learning materials. Different word lists need different criteria for their construction. Three main…

The availability of corpora has greatly strengthened the possibilities of identifying high-frequency lexical items in a more systematic and objective manner than has typically been used for vocabulary instruction. This article adopts a corpus-based approach to accommodate the vocabulary instructional needs of students enrolled in university…

This paper reviews WordUp, a mobile application which fosters English vocabulary learning through exposure to new words in authentic and engaging contexts such as excerpts of movies, songs, and news programme. The samples of use are introduced after the definition of the target words have been provided in both the learners' first language and…

Age of acquisition (AoA) is a measure of word complexity which refers to the age at which a word is typically learned. AoA measures have shown strong correlations with reading comprehension, lexical decision times, and writing quality. AoA scores based on both adult and child data have limitations that allow for error in measurement, and increase…

Jeff McQuillan offers case studies of intermediate level language learners who read young adult and adult fiction successfully as an argument against explicit vocabulary instruction. Case studies provide useful insights into whatever is being investigated but may not always be generalizable. However, McQuillan's reference to case studies has made…

English as a foreign language (EFL) is a global issue that extends to thousands of learners worldwide who share a similar classroom situation. However, researchers have often considered learners to have homogeneous linguistic profiles, overlooking the fact that EFL classrooms in primary and secondary education include learners with different…

This paper charts the construction of a technical vocabulary list called the Islamic Religious Studies Textbooks Vocabulary (IRSTV) which was developed from the Corpus of Islamic religious studies textbooks (CIRST) in an Indonesian Islamic State Institute (IISI). The study is aimed to meet the need of first-year English language learners studying…

Sentence-level grammar skills are of the important foundations in the mastery of reading skills in second language (L2). Previous studies showed inconclusive findings about the effect of grammar knowledge on L2 reading. This study examines the relationship between L2 reading outcomes and reader-based grammar knowledge as it is moderated by…

It is difficult for most of the second language learners in Malaysia to function proficiently in English language due to limited vocabulary knowledge. It has also been challenging for TESL graduates to fit in as ENP teachers due to the lack of specialized vocabulary knowledge in nursing field. Thus, a course books has always been a highly…

With the advances in technology, wordlists retrieved from computer corpora have become increasingly popular in recent years. The lexical items in those wordlists are usually selected, according to a set of robust frequency and dispersion criteria, from large corpora of authentic and naturally occurring language. Corpus wordlists are of great value…

When it comes to language learning, vocabulary learning is the main activity focused on. Vocabulary learning is the main problem and also the goal of new language learners. It is one of the major problems that language learners encounter during learning a new language. Krashen (1989) (cited in Tokac, 2005) points out the role of vocabulary in a…

This research combines corpus-based and intuition-based approaches in developing a list of important words in business news that Thai learners of business English need to know. The Thai corpus of English for Business and Economic News (Thai-EBEN) has been compiled from English business news articles in the Thai press. A computer concordancing…

For second language learners vocabulary growth is of major importance, and for many learners commercially published coursebooks will be the source of this vocabulary learning. In this preliminary study, input from three levels of the coursebook series "New English File" (Oxenden and Latham-Koenig, 2006; Oxenden, Latham-Koenig, and Seligson, 2004,…