Abstract
In response to the call for additional support for undergraduates who may experience difficulties in English medium learning upon matriculation (Evans & Morrison, 2011), two compulsory civil engineering courses are taken as a testbed to implement subject-specific language support. Based on the pre-course survey, discipline-specific vocabulary is most frequently suggested by students (approx. 36%) as their major obstacle in English. A lack of vocabulary and understanding of their meanings and contextual use is well documented in the students’ qualitative feedback. It not only affects textbook comprehension and slows down the reading pace, but also hinders students’ idea expression in essay
writing and presentation or makes it difficult to follow lecturers’ instruction. Through an in-class vocabulary quiz of multiple choice questions, we know that students on average perform better in general English (e.g. ‘density’ ‘of’ a jet) yet have a lower mean score in subject-specific words (e.g. ‘stagnation pressure’). Although ESP materials driven from engineering corpus can be found in pioneering research (see Cheng, 2009; 2010a; 2010b; 2011), studies are limited to discipline- but not subject-specific text. Since civil engineering is one branch of the engineering umbrella and numerous areas (c.g. fluid mechanics) fall under the civil branch, each division shall develop its own corpus which
can yield lists of vocabularies exclusively used in the respective course.
Two corpora of textbook and reading materials are compiled and compared against the BNC for keyness. The highest lexical keywords are singled out to be judged by subject lecturers for suitability, and their designates help fill in the word meanings. After complemented with authentic examples, the words are
visualised in an interactive cloud form for students to click on each word for interpretations and concordances. A semester end survey will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the subject-specific wordclouds.
writing and presentation or makes it difficult to follow lecturers’ instruction. Through an in-class vocabulary quiz of multiple choice questions, we know that students on average perform better in general English (e.g. ‘density’ ‘of’ a jet) yet have a lower mean score in subject-specific words (e.g. ‘stagnation pressure’). Although ESP materials driven from engineering corpus can be found in pioneering research (see Cheng, 2009; 2010a; 2010b; 2011), studies are limited to discipline- but not subject-specific text. Since civil engineering is one branch of the engineering umbrella and numerous areas (c.g. fluid mechanics) fall under the civil branch, each division shall develop its own corpus which
can yield lists of vocabularies exclusively used in the respective course.
Two corpora of textbook and reading materials are compiled and compared against the BNC for keyness. The highest lexical keywords are singled out to be judged by subject lecturers for suitability, and their designates help fill in the word meanings. After complemented with authentic examples, the words are
visualised in an interactive cloud form for students to click on each word for interpretations and concordances. A semester end survey will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the subject-specific wordclouds.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |
| Event | International Conference on English Language Education in the Chinese Context - The Education University of Hong Kong Duration: 4 May 2018 → 5 Aug 2018 https://www.eduhk.hk/lml/elecc/ |
Conference
| Conference | International Conference on English Language Education in the Chinese Context |
|---|---|
| Period | 4/05/18 → 5/08/18 |
| Internet address |