A corpus-based approach to the study of vocabulary in English textbooks for Iraqi intermediate schools

الملخص EN

Learning the vocabulary of a language has great impact on acquiring that language.

Many scholars in the field of language learning emphasize the importance of vocabulary as part of the learner's communicative competence, considering it the heart of language.

One of the best methods of learning vocabulary is to focus on those words of high frequency.

The present article is a corpus based approach to the study of vocabulary whereby the research data are analyzed quantitatively using the software program "AntWordprofiler".

This program analyses new input research data in terms of already stored reliable corpora.

The aim of this article is to find out whether the vocabularies used in the English textbook for Intermediate Schools in Iraq are consistent with the vocabulary selection criteria already established in the field in terms of high/low frequency, coverage, word families and recycling.

The findings of this study reveal that the Iraqi first intermediate school English textbook (English for Iraq) contains numerous number of vocabulary with low frequency, low number of word families, an average around 90% of coverage, and no/ or insufficient recycling.

Therefore, a re-evaluation and modification was suggested to be done for this course.