Schedule: 2009-09-11 (12:00 - 12:45)
Parallel Session 5 (Room A-31)

Title: Authorized Junior High School English Textbooks in Japan: A Corpus-Based Study of Vocabulary Level and Readability
Authors: Kenji Kitao, Shosaku Tanaka
Abstract: English language instruction in Japanese schools generally begins in the seventh grade (although some elementry schools offer English courses), and virtually all junior high school students study English. Through junior and senior high school, students study the basics of English, and many continue in college. The Ministry of Education and Science's Course of Study determines the content of subjects taught in junior high school, and all authorized junior high school textbooks are based on those guidelines. These authorized textbooks influence the content of English courses in all junior high schools. Therefore, an analysis of these textbooks can be useful in understanding how much English is taught and how difficult it is. However, there are no studies analyzing all junior high school English textbooks, and so the characteristics of textbooks are not well understood.

In this presentation, we will discuss the results of our analyses of a corpus made up of the main reading passages of seven junior high school English series for each of the three years of junior high (21 books) used from 2002-2005. We have used software available on the Internet to analyze vocabulary levels and readability based on vocabulary lists and a well-known readability scale as well as Perl programs. These results will be presented for each grade level: frequency of vocabulary, tokens and types among the seven series; the number of sentences; the average number of words per sentence; the number of letters in a word; and readability levels. We will also discuss how the English taught changes for higher grades.
Keywords: secondary school education, readability, vocabulary frequency, textbooks

Main topic: Corpora

Biodata: Kenji Kitao is a professor in the Faculty of Culture and Information Science at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of books and textbooks related to commmunication and English language teaching. He does research in the area of CALL and corpus linguistics. Shosaku Tanaka teaches at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan.
Type of presentation Paper presentation

Paper category Research

Target educational sector Secondary education

Language of delivery English

EU-funded project No

Schedule:	2009-09-11 (12:00 - 12:45) Parallel Session 5 (Room A-31)
Title:	Authorized Junior High School English Textbooks in Japan: A Corpus-Based Study of Vocabulary Level and Readability
Authors:	Kenji Kitao, Shosaku Tanaka
Abstract:	English language instruction in Japanese schools generally begins in the seventh grade (although some elementry schools offer English courses), and virtually all junior high school students study English. Through junior and senior high school, students study the basics of English, and many continue in college. The Ministry of Education and Science's Course of Study determines the content of subjects taught in junior high school, and all authorized junior high school textbooks are based on those guidelines. These authorized textbooks influence the content of English courses in all junior high schools. Therefore, an analysis of these textbooks can be useful in understanding how much English is taught and how difficult it is. However, there are no studies analyzing all junior high school English textbooks, and so the characteristics of textbooks are not well understood. In this presentation, we will discuss the results of our analyses of a corpus made up of the main reading passages of seven junior high school English series for each of the three years of junior high (21 books) used from 2002-2005. We have used software available on the Internet to analyze vocabulary levels and readability based on vocabulary lists and a well-known readability scale as well as Perl programs. These results will be presented for each grade level: frequency of vocabulary, tokens and types among the seven series; the number of sentences; the average number of words per sentence; the number of letters in a word; and readability levels. We will also discuss how the English taught changes for higher grades.
Keywords:	secondary school education, readability, vocabulary frequency, textbooks
Main topic:	Corpora
Biodata:	Kenji Kitao is a professor in the Faculty of Culture and Information Science at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of books and textbooks related to commmunication and English language teaching. He does research in the area of CALL and corpus linguistics. Shosaku Tanaka teaches at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan.
Type of presentation	Paper presentation
Paper category	Research
Target educational sector	Secondary education
Language of delivery	English
EU-funded project	No