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Enhancing The Acquisition Of Discipline-Specific Vocabulary Through Student Concordancing, David W. Longstreth Jr.

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This Master’s Project focuses on advanced-level English learners' acquisition of discipline-specific vocabulary as they transition from intensive English programs into English-medium university coursework. During this period, the number of discipline-specific terms students must master quickly and independently can be overwhelming. To address this problem, this M.A. Project argues that vocabulary-acquisition strategies should be foregrounded in intensive English programs, and that instructors should train students to supplement traditional vocabulary learning methods with independent concordancing strategies. Using concordancers, students can research vocabulary items by scanning a corpus (a large collection of texts) to retrieve examples of discipline-specific terms within authentic texts, revealing …