Dang, TNY orcid.org/0000-0002-3189-7776 (2018) The nature of vocabulary in academic speech of hard and soft-sciences. English for Specific Purposes, 51. pp. 69-83. ISSN 0889-4906
Abstract
Little is known about the similarities and differences between the vocabulary in hard-sciences (e.g., Maths, Engineering, Medicine) and soft-sciences (e.g., Business, Law, History), especially in spoken discourse. To address this gap, a Soft Science Spoken Word List (SSWL) was developed for second language learners of soft-sciences at English-medium universities. The list consists of the 1,964 most frequent and wide-ranging word-families in a 6.5 million word corpus of soft-science speech, which represents 12 subjects across two equally-sized sub-corpora. The list may allow learners to recognize 94%–97% of the words in academic speech of soft-sciences. A comparison of the SSWL with Dang's (2018) Hard Science Spoken Word List revealed that although the most frequent 3,000 words are important for comprehending academic speech of both soft- and hard-sciences, the value of these words in soft-sciences is greater than in hard-sciences. Pedagogical implications related to this nature of vocabulary in hard- and soft-science speech are provided.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018, Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper published in English for Specific Purposes. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Hard science; Soft science; Academic spoken discourse; Vocabulary; Word list; Corpora |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Education (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Sep 2018 13:38 |
Last Modified: | 07 Apr 2020 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.esp.2018.03.004 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:135475 |