Analysing the effectiveness of textbooks for vocabulary retention

Abstract

Although many language educators are aware of factors necessary for vocabulary acquisition and retention, in many institutions around the world instructors are required to use textbooks as a basis for instruction, yet, to date, little has been done to analyze the effectiveness of textbooks to foster vocabulary acquisition and retention. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to analyze the vocabulary content of a range of textbooks. The number of target words, frequency level of those words and length of reading texts were analyzed in reading texts and their associated activities of 20 English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. It was found that each text had as little as no target words and on average 10, while the average text length was 639 words. In terms of the frequency level of the target vocabulary, although the textbooks claimed to be at an intermediate level or above, the frequency level of the target vocabulary was very inconsistent, with as many as 60% of target words coming from the first 1000 words or as many as 100% of target words being low frequency ‘offlist’ words. Furthermore, it was found that integrated skills textbooks had significantly fewer target words and significantly shorter reading texts than reading textbooks, while they also had a significantly higher percentage of words from the 1000 word list and a significantly lower percentage from the Academic Word List (AWL).