A Corpus-based study of ESP vocabulary characteristics

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Date
2023
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University of Oum El Bouaghi
Abstract
This corpus-based study investigates the vocabulary characteristics of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) within the domain of commercial sciences. With the aim of enhancing our understanding of the specialized language in this field, the research analyzes a carefully selected corpus consisting of 27 files, encompassing a total of 29,414 tokens. These course materials, designed by proficient English teachers, offer a comprehensive representation of the language used in commercial sciences. The study follows a systematic approach, employing the AntConc software for data analysis. By utilizing AntConc, the study uncovers the lexical units, collocation patterns, syntactic roles, and semantic associations of the vocabulary items within the corpus. The results of the analysis reveal several significant findings. The frequency analysis highlights the most commonly occurring vocabulary items, providing insights into the essential terms and expressions in commercial sciences. The examination of collocation patterns uncovers recurrent word associations, shedding light on the typical language usage within the domain. The analysis of distributional characteristics and word context elucidates the syntactic roles, semantic relationships, and functional significance of the vocabulary items. Concordance analysis offers a comprehensive view of the contextual usage, revealing the precise usage patterns and contextual nuances of specific words and phrases. Finally, the Keyword-in-Context (KWIC) analysis provides a broader understanding of the vocabulary items in different linguistic contexts. In conclusion, this corpus-based study contributes to our understanding of ESP vocabulary characteristics within the commercial sciences domain. The findings highlight the prominent vocabulary items, typical word associations, syntactic patterns, and semantic relationships specific to this field. The pedagogical implications of the study can inform ESP instruction, curriculum design, and materials development. However, it is important to note the limitations of the study, such as the corpus size and the domain-specific focus, which may impact the generalizability of the findings. Further research in related domains and the exploration of additional corpora would strengthen our knowledge of ESP vocabulary characteristics and their applications in language teaching and learning.
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Keywords
ESP vocabulary characteristics; A Corpus-based
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