Word frequency and vocabulary for the language demands of textbooks
Abstract
The value of high-frequency terms in foreign language education has been examined and emphasized from several perspectives. This article deals with the qualitative and quantitative frequency data analysis from chronological selected 30 German foreign language (GFL) textbooks. The study examines and compares the core vocabulary included in the course books to the first 2,384 entries of the German Reference Wordlist (DeReWo) frequency list. In addition, the reference book "Profiles Deutsch" is used, which includes a corpus selection based on the different levels of the "CEFR" terms from A1 to B1. The analysis results demonstrated the coverage of the core vocabulary in the examined textbooks with the 2,384 most frequently used lexemes and the frequency development over the three individual levels (CEFR levels Al-Bl). The qualitative outcome of the present study has underlined a discrepancy between vocabulary frequency and practical relevance. The quantitative analysis results demonstrated that the core vocabularies of the five textbooks were significantly different in comparison with the majority of the lexemes being listed in DeReWo with minor overlapping.
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