2009 개정 교육과정 중학교 영어교과서 읽기 지문의 어휘수준 분석

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the English vocabulary levels from the reading sections of the English textbooks used in middle school in South Korea. Three different middle school English textbooks from three of each grade were randomly chosen for this study. In order to analyze vocabulary used in the reading sections of the English textbooks, two types of programs were used. One is 2009RV-KBEWL-RANGE which processes how much vocabulary is used in each of the three wordlists based on the vocabulary list suggested by the Ministry of Education. The other is VocabProfile BNC-COCA 25,000 to measure the frequency of types of vocabulary that is not included in any lists. The results of this study are as follows: firstly, each ratio of the vocabulary analyzed with the wordlists, slightly differs among the three different English textbooks. As the ratio of elementary school level vocabulary, which is considered as quite easy, gradually decreases, the ratio of middle school level vocabulary generally increases. However, the ratio of the loanword, proper name and the words which are not included in any lists has no effect on the difficulty of the reading section. Thus the appropriate levels of vocabulary are used in each grade of the English textbooks. Next, vocabulary in the reading sections are not arranged in order of difficulty in each unit of the English textbooks. These findings suggest that there should be more consideration about the specific guidelines of editing the English textbooks. The authors of the textbooks should make sure that there is no sharp change of the difficulties between reading sections. This would help writers of English textbooks to choose the right level of vocabulary for middle school students.