General spoken language and school language
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Paola Leone
Abstract
The current study uses keyness to identify the essential lexicon and lexical patterns of history textbooks and match them to the out-of-school input to which a young learner might be exposed. Two frequency-ordered lists have been compared using the KeyWords component of WordSmith Tools v. 5.0 (Scott 2008). The first, compiled from a corpus of history textbooks used in lower secondary schools in Italy, named CoMaS (Corpus di Manuali di Storia), ascertains words needed to study history at school. The other, compiled from a published corpus of Italian spoken language, called LIP (Lessico di Frequenza dell’Italiano Parlato), specifies words frequent in daily communication. Results show discoursal, lexical, semantic, and morphological features which may be unfamiliar to the learner, and which should therefore be considered in a syllabus designed to develop students’ ability to interpret and express historical discourse.
Abstract
The current study uses keyness to identify the essential lexicon and lexical patterns of history textbooks and match them to the out-of-school input to which a young learner might be exposed. Two frequency-ordered lists have been compared using the KeyWords component of WordSmith Tools v. 5.0 (Scott 2008). The first, compiled from a corpus of history textbooks used in lower secondary schools in Italy, named CoMaS (Corpus di Manuali di Storia), ascertains words needed to study history at school. The other, compiled from a published corpus of Italian spoken language, called LIP (Lessico di Frequenza dell’Italiano Parlato), specifies words frequent in daily communication. Results show discoursal, lexical, semantic, and morphological features which may be unfamiliar to the learner, and which should therefore be considered in a syllabus designed to develop students’ ability to interpret and express historical discourse.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on keywords and keyness 1
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Section I. Exploring keyness
- Three concepts of keywords 21
- Problems in investigating keyness, or clearing the undergrowth and marking out trails… 43
- Closed-class keywords and corpus-driven discourse analysis 59
- Hyperlinks 79
- Web Semantics vs the Semantic Web? 93
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Section II. Keyness in specialised discourse
- Identifying aboutgrams in engineering texts 113
- Keywords and phrases in political speeches 127
- Key words and key phrases in a corpus of travel writing 147
- History v. marketing 169
- Metaphorical keyness in specialised corpora 185
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Section III. Critical and educational perspectives
- A contrastive analysis of keywords in newspaper articles on the “Kyoto Protocol” 207
- Keywords in Korean national consciousness 219
- General spoken language and school language 235
- Index 249
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on keywords and keyness 1
-
Section I. Exploring keyness
- Three concepts of keywords 21
- Problems in investigating keyness, or clearing the undergrowth and marking out trails… 43
- Closed-class keywords and corpus-driven discourse analysis 59
- Hyperlinks 79
- Web Semantics vs the Semantic Web? 93
-
Section II. Keyness in specialised discourse
- Identifying aboutgrams in engineering texts 113
- Keywords and phrases in political speeches 127
- Key words and key phrases in a corpus of travel writing 147
- History v. marketing 169
- Metaphorical keyness in specialised corpora 185
-
Section III. Critical and educational perspectives
- A contrastive analysis of keywords in newspaper articles on the “Kyoto Protocol” 207
- Keywords in Korean national consciousness 219
- General spoken language and school language 235
- Index 249
