Comparing Iraqi EFL learners' lexical production and vocabulary profile of their respective textbooks: A Study in Second Intermediate Grade

Abstract

The current study is concerned with comparing the lexical production of the second intermediate grade Iraqi EFL learners to the vocabulary profile of their respective textbook, English for Iraq grade 2. It shows how much these learners have learned of English vocabulary of the textbook and to what extent the textbook addresses the most frequent English words. In this endeavor, the research has utilized a sample of 50 Iraqi students, who were given a lexical availability task consisting of 5 family English words. The lexical availability task can detect the level of mastering English vocabulary through showing the lexical repertoire that the students have raised during the course of their study. In addition, the vocabulary content of the textbook has been analyzed by the RANGE software to be compared with the students’ responses to the lexical availability task. The results show that the textbook includes undeniable proportion of vocabulary (i.e., around 99 percent of the running words in the text) lying within the first 10 high frequency level lists of the most frequent English words affecting as such the progress of the students’ learning of English vocabulary. The textbook, therefore, contains to some extent the essential feature of the proper vocabulary profiling necessary for the current Iraqi EFL learners.