Learning vocabulary is a central but yet complex aspect of learning a language. Hence, researchers stress the importance of facilitating vocabulary development via a structured approach to target words and recycling. While teaching materials have the potential to provide this structure to all students in a classroom, few studies have investigated the vocabulary component of textbooks and the learning opportunities they provide. In the present study, the texts in five series of EFL materials aimed at intermediate learners in Swedish secondary school (years 7–9) were investigated, using corpus-based methods. The results indicate that the texts encompass a suitable amount of unknown vocabulary for vocabulary learning from reading and provide exposure to mid-frequency vocabulary. However, it was also found that these items are not recycled sufficiently. Rather, the materials mainly recycle lexical items that students are likely to know already. It is therefore concluded that although the materials offer input suitable for the target students, they are not structured in a way that supports vocabulary development.

English proficiency is a core skill for Swedish students today, as is visible in the curriculum for compulsory school where it is stated that school has a responsibility for ensuring that each student can “communicate in English, both in the spoken and written language” (Skolverket,2022, p. 13, our translation). To reach English language proficiency a substantial knowledge of vocabulary, both in terms of size and depth (Nation, 2022), is necessary. Vocabulary is, however, not prominent in the syllabus for English in Swedish compulsory school and studies have indicated that Swedish EFL teachers do not prioritize vocabulary instruction (Bergström et al., 2022). It has also been found that vocabulary learning is facilitated by systematicity and structure (Schmitt, 2019). The teaching material used in the classroom can be of support in reaching this structure in vocabulary learning, if it provides well-planned input. We have carried out a number of analyses of the vocabulary learning opportunities provided in Swedish EFL teaching materials for compulsory school. Taken together, the results indicate that thereis a lack of systematic approach to vocabulary in textbooks throughout compulsory school. Combined with the vague writings in the curriculum, this questions the support given to students in this respect. In this paper, we report on the compiled research findings and discuss the implications for equal opportunities in Swedish schools. We also present future directions for lexical analyses of teaching materials, informed by advances in linguistic research.  

References:

Bergström, D., Norberg, C., & Nordlund, M. (2022). “Words are picked up along the way” –Swedish EFL teachers’ conceptualizations of vocabulary knowledge and learning. Language Awareness, 31(4), 393–409. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2021.1893326

Nation, I. S. P. (2022). Learning vocabulary in another language (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Schmitt, N. (2019). Understanding vocabulary acquisition, instruction, and assessment: Aresearch agenda. Language Teaching, 52(2), 261–274. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444819000053

Skolverket. (2022). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2022 [Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation centre 2022].Skolverket. 

The school day does not have to begin only when the school bell calls. It could actually start already when pupils leave their homes, as their way to school could be used to promote language learning as well as physical health. In this paper, we present the development of quests aimed to support teachers in working with EFL learning in an active school transportation intervention. Active school transportation (AST), such as biking or walking to school, is a programme developed to promote more daily physical activity (Lindqvist & Rutberg, 2018), as it has been shown that a majority of Swedish children do not meet the WHO recommendations of 60 minutes of daily physical activity. The idea behind AST is that pupils are given quests to perform on their way to school, to gamify the transportation route and enhance motivation. In the English quests, current EFL research and the curriculum were used to form activities that would facilitate learning and empower pupils by using their experiencesas a starting point for working with, for example, grammar or vocabulary. We present tasks developed to support physical activity and language learning and reflect on how learning English can be a motivational tool in health promotion. By integrating learning activities to the quests on the way to school and using the quests as a starting point for teaching, the intervention can be a way to facilitate pupils’ learning, both in and outside of the classroom.  

Reference:

Lindqvist, A. K., & Rutberg, S. (2018). One step forward: Development of a program promoting active school transportation. JMIR Research Protocols, 7(5), e123. https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.9505 

All school leavers should have efficient online searching skills, defined here as the ability to select suitable search terms, feed them into a search engine, and make active decisions about which options to open from the results page. An additional element in our study includes the ability to search in English. As less than 1% of the Internet is in Swedish and about 60% is in English, this study assumes that Swedish school leavers will need to be able to use both languages. The study provides a qualitative, naturalistic account of the searching activities of Swedish teenagers in English classes from Grade 8 through to English 6 (ages 14-18 years). Screen recordings from normal English lessons were analysed and supplemented with stimulated recall interviews with 40% of the pupils. The study reveals low levels of ambition and limited digital competence combined with high levels of confidence. Most pupils were unaware that they could have achieved more. The same pattern emerged across four school years in eight different classes. We conclude that improvements in digital competence education require more modelling of skills such as searching, so that teenagers recognize the value of aiming high.

As English dominates the Internet, most education systems need to prepare pupils to perform L2 information searches. Generating efficient search terms and understanding the information retrieved requires good vocabulary knowledge. This study examined the relationship between vocabulary knowledge, L2 online searching, and attitudes towards online searching. A sample of Swedish pupils’ abilities in locating suitably difficult texts and learning words were tested by comparing their Vocabulary Size Test scores with the lexical density of their search results and subsequent text production. Long-term vocabulary recall and self-efficacy for searching online were also tested. The results indicate that pupils tended to read and write texts below their ability level. They were unaware that they could achieve more as their self-efficacy measures indicated high confidence levels despite rather modest skills. The challenge posed by the findings is to enable teenagers to recognize how much more effectively they could use the Internet, without damaging their confidence.

One core aspect of learning a language is developing vocabulary, an endeavor that requires a structured and principled focus in the classroom. As the EFL textbook has a central position in the language learning classroom, it should have an important role to play in structuring vocabulary development. Yet, what guides decisions concerning the vocabulary content in textbooks has not been thoroughly studied. This paper presents an interview study with eight Swedish materials developers of frequently used EFL teaching materials aimed at school years 7–9. The results show that the materials developers focus primarily on providing engaging texts and base the vocabulary content on end users’ opinions and their own intuition. The study also indicates that word lists are construed as a tool primarily for reading comprehension rather than for vocabulary learning. The study concludes that vocabulary research findings appear to have a limited impact on decisions about vocabulary content.

The importance of word frequency for vocabulary development is generally agreed on (e.g., Ellis, 2002; Webb, 2014): the more frequently learners encounter a lexical item, the more likely they are to acquire it. As a result, it has been argued that it is beneficial for language learning if vocabulary input is structured in a way that ensures repeated encounters with target vocabulary. In the foreign language classroom, where the language input is limited, it can be difficult for the individual teacher to ensure that learners are encountering target words frequently enough (cf. Schmitt, 2019). Teaching materials can thus play a valuable role in the language classroom by being the source of structured vocabulary input, where target vocabulary is systematically recycled. Studies have evaluated teaching materials and their function as learning tools by investigating the amount of recycling in the books, using either the raw frequency of words or a type-token ratio. However, given that some words are inherently more frequent in the language, figures representing the extent of recycling may be misleading, as the recycled items may be words already known to the target students. 

This paper presents a corpus-based textbook analysis where recycling is investigated numerically and the nature of the recycled items is also considered, that is, how frequent the recycled items are in general discourse. The corpus encompasses the texts from five series of intermediate EFL materials used in Swedish secondary schools (years 7–9)­. Lemmas occurring ten or more times were considered frequently recycled and thus possible to learn from the exposure. As the target students are intermediate learners, particular attention was paid to the amount of recycled mid-frequency vocabulary (cf. Schmitt & Schmitt, 2014) in the materials.

The results indicate that although a considerable proportion of the lexical input is recycled ten or more times in the materials, the vast majority of the recycled items are high-frequency words, which students are likely to already know. Considering the target students, this means that the recycling figures cannot be considered favorable for vocabulary development. It thus appears that investigations of the recurrence of words may have to be complemented with analyses of their frequency profile to understand the vocabulary learning opportunities in language learning materials.