Vocabulary learning through reading: Does an ELT course book provide good opportunities?
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This study investigates the vocabulary learning opportunities in an ELT course book designed for upper-intermediate learners. All the words appearing in the 12 chapters of the text were analyzed. The results suggest that the text would provide opportunities to deepen knowledge of the second 1,000 most frequent words in English, and would provide a context for pre-teaching of academic words met in the text for learners on an academic pathway. The results also suggest that the text would provide minimal opportunities for learners to develop vocabulary knowledge beyond high frequency and academic words. The findings suggest a need to supplement use of such texts with an extensive reading program and other forms of language rich input to promote vocabulary development.
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Most of the vocabulary employed in the upper intermediate New Headway English textbook was high frequency vocabulary, suggesting limited vocabulary learning opportunities.
“They found most of the vocabulary employed in the textbook was high frequency vocabulary, which suggests limited vocabulary learning opportunities.”
From The Vocabulary Knowledge of Saudi EFL Tertiary Students (2019) · cites this paper as Matsuoka and Hirsh (2010)
Table 2 (section labeled Conclusions; page unavailable) shows that the first 2,000 most frequent words account for 90% of the textbook's running words. The Conclusions say the book offers few opportunities to expand vocabulary beyond those words and academic words, but also finds favorable opportunities to deepen knowledge of the second 1,000 words. Calling its vocabulary-learning opportunities limited without that qualification overstates the finding. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- About the Authors Warren Matsuoka recently commenced his PhD in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. This paper is based on a dissertation completed as part of his Master of Education (TESOL) studies at the University of Sydney. Warren has previously taught EFL extensively in Japan and Taiwan. His current research interests include vocabulary studies, English language education in Asia, and language use in L2 classrooms. E-mail: wmat7124@uni.sydney.edu.au David Hirsh is a lecturer in TESOL at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on vocabulary studies, language assessment and academic acculturation. Recent publications are Teaching academic writing (University of Michigan Press, 2009, with Paltridge et al.), Researching vocabulary in the edited volume Companion to research methods in applied linguistics (Paltridge & Phakiti, 2010, Continuum) and articles in French Review of Applied Linguistics and Asian EFL Journal (forthcoming). E-mail: david.hirsh@sydney.edu.au
- Authors
- Matsuoka, W., & Hirsh, D.
- Affiliations
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Venue
- Reading in a Foreign Language
- Published
- 2010-04-01
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 56-70
- ISSN
- 0264-2425 (ISSN-L)
- 1539-0578
- OpenAlex
- W2140886578
- Cited by
- 113
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 6.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Reading in a Foreign Language (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ScholarSpace (University of Hawaii at Manoa) (submittedVersion)
- Reading in a Foreign Language
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Keywords
- vocabulary acquisition, extensive reading, English as a foreign language, upper-intermediate learners, high-frequency words, academic vocabulary, pre-teaching, vocabulary development
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