Vocabulary in Textbooks

It has been emphasized that students’ voice and needs are so significant that they should be put into consideration during the process of textbook evaluation and

selection. According to Huang’s (1997) research, the results showed that many

Taiwanese students face difficulties in reading English textbooks and these difficulties might result from inadequate vocabulary knowledge. Thus, it is also the teachers’ duty to understand why and what the vocabulary is selected in the textbooks (Chang, 2002).

2.4.3.1 Vocabulary in Language Teaching Syllabi

In addition to the discussion on the neglect of vocabulary in previous sections, McCarthy (1984) also demonstrated that textbooks, or coursebooks, suffered from the dominance of syntax and notion/functions, at the expense of lexical development (Cited in Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997, p.261). Towards the second half of the 1980s, syllabus theorist began to direct attention to lexis, as Dubin and Olshtain (1986) described:

“Lexis has failed to receive enough attention either in older grammatical syllabuses, or in more recent communicative approaches. In fact, lay people believe that ‘knowing a language’ consists of knowing words, while modern linguistic theories have placed little emphasis on vocabulary, focusing more on structures, functions, notions and communication strategies. However, it may be the case the possessing a good vocabulary stock is what enables many learners to use their knowledge of the language effectively and in ways which fit their specific needs” (pp. 111-112).

One reason for the increase in interest in lexis in EFL can be put down to the influence of modern technology (O’Dell, 1997). The development of huge computer

corpora of language data allows linguist to make “a far more detailed, extensive and objective study of how language is actually used than was ever the case previously”

(p. 261). For syllabus designers, these large corpora have provided two tools: better word frequency lists and broader data for concordancers. The former allows more confident decisions on which frequency vocabulary to include and the latter provides an easy overview of how any word is “used” in practice, sometimes in ways different from our intuitions. O’Dell (1997) further explained that an increasing tendency to give pride of place in EFL syllabuses to lexis, rather than grammar notions or function, was due to the clear wish of language planners and teachers to share such information with their learners.

2.4.3.2 The Criteria for Lexical Selection in Textbooks

Lewis (1993) advocated that lexis should play a much more prominent role in planning any syllabus. For many teachers, the coursebook itself determines the syllabus (O’Dell, 1997). Therefore, based on the discussion in previous sections, the teachers’ best, if not the only, control over vocabulary to teach is through the textbook selection with a clear understanding of how vocabulary in textbooks is designed (Chang, 2002).

The well-known “I+1 Comprehensible Input Hypothesis” by Krashen (1982) pinpoints that ideal EFL reading materials should be comprehensive and a little beyond readers’ current level of competence. Applying this to lexical selection in textbooks, vocabulary should match students’ ability and learning experiences with reasonable amount, order, and repetitions.

For the issue of the amount of new words in a text, Freebody and Anderson (1983) proposed that the maximum was 15% of the words. In addition, an acceptable textbook should be presented in a context facilitating guessability. From

Cunningsworth’s (1995) point of view, corresponding to Nation’s (2001)

“probabilistic threshold,” the number of new words in a text should be less than 5%

of the total so that students could have a reasonable learning load and sufficient familiar words for the comprehension of new words.

However, the learning of a large amount of words was not the center of lexical syllabus. From the viewpoint of the vocabulary introduction order, Gower et al. (1995) interpreted lexical syllabus: the easy words before the difficult, the concrete before the abstract, the most frequent before the uncommon, and the most generative before those in a more restricted use (p.145). Thus, lexical syllabus should focus on full and extended use of old words (Chang, 2002).

As for repetitions, Nation (1990) promoted the importance of “the density index of textbooks” in readability. In accordance with his definition, “the density index of a passage or a lesson or a book is the proportion of different words to the total number of words. If this proportion is high, reading is relatively easy” (p.44). After observing the number of repetitions in various textbooks, he found that in some of the textbooks examined, half of the graphic words occurred only once and most of the words

re-occurred less than five times. This density index was close to that of unsimplified English, and, in his opinion, reading would be considerably difficult for EFL learners.

He suggested that for the first year of EFL learning, a textbook with a density index of around 1:20 and low number of “one-timer” was efficient and for later years, a density index of 1:10 or 1:12 could be sufficient. In addition, Kachroo (1962) also discovered that if words were repeated seven or more times in a textbook, then students could learn them. However, over half of the words featured only once or twice in the book were not learned by most of the class (Cited in Nation, 1990). Textbooks,

consequently, should recycle words in a thorough way.

Based on the theories and findings, there could be seven key issues proposed by White (1998) in deciding the words taught or introduced first or earlier:

(1) Frequency of use—high frequency words;

(2) Coverage—words with a broader coverage;

(3) Range—words found in different text types;

(4) Availability—words easy available to native speakers;

(5) Learnability—easy words;

(6) Opportunism—words connected with learners’ immediate situation;

(7) Centers of interest—words interesting to learners (pp. 48-50).

2.5 Related Studies on Vocabulary in the Textbooks