The use of lexical verbs in ESL engineering student writing: A corpus-based investigation.

Radina, Mohamad Deli and Ting, Su Hie (2023) The use of lexical verbs in ESL engineering student writing: A corpus-based investigation. Taiwan International ESP Journal, 14 (1). pp. 31-61.

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Abstract

Learners' writing in specific fields has not been studied to determine whether engineering writing exhibits distinct academic or non-academic lexical features. This corpus-based study examined the use and distribution of lexical verbs in the academic writing of L2 engineering undergraduates. To compile the Malaysian Mechanical, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Corpus of Student Writing (MECSW), 50 texts consisting of examination scripts, assignments, laboratory reports, project reports, proposals, and final year projects were annotated and analyzed. The MECSW comprises 151,227 tokens and 7,974-word types. The engineering students used all six verb forms totaling 14,629 words, but the past participle verb form was the most frequently used (n = 5,159) while the past tense form was the least used (n = 813). The top three words used in the past participle form were "used," "shown" and "based," reflecting the expository nature and report-writing style of the texts, and an emphasis on certain discourse segments. The results also showed that the base form (no conjugation) ranked third in frequency (n = 2,358) but learners often used the form inaccurately in place of other more "complex" conjugated verb forms. To profile the lexical verbs, the MECSW was compared to the British National Corpus for written texts. The top 50 lexical verbs in the MECSW were found to contain 70% academic vocabulary as listed in the Academic Keyword List. Another 20% of the verbs, which are not in the new-General Service List, can therefore potentially be described as specialized vocabulary, although the majority are non-technical in nature. The lexical verbs used by the students are largely in line with what is expected in academic writing. The study suggests that academic vocabulary instruction in the ESL classroom should emphasize verbs and verb forms as well as specialized non-technical or semi-technical verbs for new engineering students who are non-native speakers of English.

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