Representativeness and significance factors in ESP texts.

Alejandro

Description

The development of communicative approaches and strategies in specialized discourse has led to revising notions of representative and significant language . Particularly in the work with academic genres, in science and technology (EST) settings such as our own institution, the need for determining these factors is ever growing . The application
of empirical resources such as specific language corpora, in fact, becomes convenient. In this paper, the aim is to specify the type of corpus linguistic representativeness and significance sought in the case of teaching English to our groups of Computer Science students. In that scope, we present data and samples on which to base our suggestions and claims regarding the exploitation of textual material.

Sujets

• Corpus
• Register
• Genre
• Frequency
• Range
• Representativeness heuristic
• Significance

Informations

• Publié par: erevistas
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English

Extrait

Representativeness and significance
factors in esp texts
Alejandro Curado Fuentes
Universidad de Extremadura
The devel opm ent of co m mu n i c a tive appro a ches and str a tegies in sp e ci a l i zed disco u rse
has led to revising notions of repr e sen t a tive and significant languag e . P a rt i c u l a rly in
the w o rk with academic gen re s , in sci en ce and t e ch n ol o gy (EST) set ti n gs s u ch as ou r
own inst i tu ti o n , the need for determining these fact o rs is ever grow i n g . The appl i c a ti o n
of e m p i rical r e sou rces s u ch as spe cific language co rpo ra , in fac t , b e comes co nven i en t . In
this pa per, the aim is to sp e cify the type of c o rpus linguistic repr e sen t a tiveness and
s i gn i f i c a n ce so u ght in the case of t e a ching E n glish to our groups of C o m pu ter Sci en ce
s tu d en t s . In that scop e , we pr e sent data and samples on wh i ch to b a se our su gge s ti o n s
and claims reg a rding the expl o i t a tion of textual material
Key w o rds: C O R P U S , R E G I S T E R , G E N R E , L E X I CO - G RA M M A R ,
FREQUENCY, RANGE, REPRESENTATIVENESS, SIGNIFICANCE
Introduction
The assessment of key lexis and grammar is conducted in planning courses of English
for Academic Purposes (EAP) –under which we may locate EST according to several
a ut h ors (se e , for instance , Jordan [1997]). The not i on of reg i s ter de s c ri pt i on
underlined by Johansson (1975) is highly relevant in such a line of work. He refers to
the need of d e s i gning co m p uter i zed corpora in order to satisfy d e s c ri ptive
requirements of linguistic registers. For the teaching of English for Specific Purposes
( E S P ) , in fac t , as he stat e s , f requ ency lists s u ch as West's (1953) or T h or n d i ke and
1Lor ge's (1944), " a ppear to be of l i m i ted use" in the de s i gn of co u rse syl l a bi and
material (Johansson, 1975:36). In contrast, for Francis and Kucera (1964), a large body
of texts such as the Brown Corpus holds enough data for statistical inferences of lexical
1. According to Kennedy (1992),interest in delimiting lexis for teaching purposes led some scholars to develop lists of words for
language learning in USA and Europe (Kennedy, 1992:335): Thorndike and Lorge came up with a 20 million word corpus that
served to prepare a lemmatized list of 30,000 words in 1944. Theirs was the first to indicate frequency and range for each item,
whereas West's General Service List (1953) is often taken as a reference source for lexical studies.
IBÉRICA Nº 2 43R E P R E S E N TATIVENESS AND SIGNIFICANCE FAC TO RS IN ESP TEXTS
behavior. Improving or updating its category J –the register of scientific discourse–, for
instance, may serve to provide linguistic and pedagogical awareness of change.
U n der s coring this co n cern to dep i ct linguistic va ri a ti on , the analysis of reg i s ter thus lea d s
to inv e s ti ga ting the level of wor d s . As M c Ca rt hy stat e s , " co m p uter analysis is a very good
w ay of ge t ting at the voc a bu l a ry of a regi s ter" (M c Ca rt hy, 1 9 9 0 : 6 4 ) . Wor d s , according to
h i m , " acqu i re regi s terial appropr i acy o n ly in co n text" (103). The re l a ti onship is thu s , i n
C a rter's wor d s , " dynamic" or "instanti a l " : Words "make unique part n erships or co m bi n e
or asso c i a te to prod u ce meaning specific to that indivi dual text" (C a rter, 1 9 9 7 : 1 7 7 ) .
The notion of academic genre is also important in this respect. In contrast with that of
register above, the former refers to textual distinctions or similarities `on the basis of
external criteria relating to the author's or speaker's purpose´(Biber, 1988:206).
T h ere may be two different ge n re s , according to this v i ew, and o n ly one reg i s ter of
texts, such as biography and academic prose, which both have the narrative linguistic
for m . Even more str i ct ly, as Swales (1990:53) stat e s , s u b - ge n re dist i n ct i on may be
i de n ti f i ed within a given ge n re , as a d m i n i s tr a tive `good news´ le t ters vs . ` b ad new s ´
letters may prove. Bhatia (1993) claims a similar analysis.
The type of a pproach introdu ced makes the crucial disti n cti on bet ween gen re and regi s ter
d i m en s i ons of s pe c i a l i zed languages or s u b - l a n g u a ge s . Not on ly Swales (1990) but H a ll i d ay
and Hasan (1985) are implicitly pr e s ent in this con cepti on . The factors of c o h ere n ce and
co h e s i on are of prime impor t a n ce ,i n dee d , in marking out gen re traits by focusing on word s .
Ca rter and Mc Ca rt hy's joint asserti on that lexis is " con d i ti on ed by ge n re" thus increases "the
2r e ader's pre d i ctive power and ab i l i ty to cr e a te c o h ere n ce" (C a rter & M c Ca rt hy, 1 9 9 7 : 2 0 5 ) .
As A s ton asserts (1997:61), the syntag m a tic level should thus be c l o s ely analy zed in
re l a ti on to the para d i gm a tic plane. Within s u ch a scop e , co m p uter corpora play a
s i gnificant r o l e , as these set the stage on wh i ch lexical items interact and perform bon d s
or asso c i a ti on s . Set ting the te x tual envi ro n m ent should be done ju d i c i o u s ly in terms of
e s t a blishing language t e aching pr i or i ti e s , e . g. grading s u i t a ble co n tent and language
wh i ch lear n ers can profit from in terms of co m peten ce devel op m en t . In this r e s pec t , t h e
key for the opportune ou t s et of s u ch en de avors seems to be a well - fo u n ded se l ect i on of
s i gnificant te x t s . For our purpo s e s , this is pr i m a ri ly acco m p l i s h ed by dem a rc a ting the
r a n ge of a pp l i c a bi l i ty on the EST curr i c u lu m . In other wor d s , by defining the act u a l
n eeds of l a n g u a ge learning in a c ademic set ti n gs as drawn from the eva lu a ti on of s o u rce s .
2 Swales’s w ork enables the distinction of text t ypes in EAP and EST –e.g. research papers, reports,and other sources of task
design. Halliday and Hasan (1985:61) state that "obligatory elements that define the genre to which a text belongs" (1985:61) are
"text-specific" lexical relations,including collocations for grouping and defining words in texts (also cf. Hasan,1984:183).
44 IBÉRICA Nº 2R E P R E S E N TATIVENESS AN D SIGNIFICANCE FAC TORS IN ESP TEXTS
With these cr i teria in mind, we app ly meas u ring devi ces of tex tual repre s en t a tiveness and
l exical sign i f i c a n ce to our current ESP progr a m s . In the f o ll owing sect i on s , the focus is
p l aced on the d e s c ri pt i on of these two factors as given by a cor p u s - b a s ed analysis of
r h etorical and le x i co - gr a m m a tical fe a tu res in our own sel ect i on of ac ademic material for
Co m p uter Scie n ce English (te x tbo o k s , technical reports and r e s e a rch art i cl e s ) .
Methodology
D u ring the se l ect i on of texts for our pe d a gogical purp o s e s , the en h a n ce m ent of
learning stages plays a crucial role. In Computer Science English, as James claims, it is
very difficult to compile a corpus that is "representative of the language of Computer
Science as a whole" (James, 1994:34). His aim is to work with "first-year Science and
Technology texts, and to inform the construction of language tea ching and learning
materials in the light of these" (ibid.,34). Texts may thus be "differentiated according to
subject matter, according to genre, or according to concept structure (information flow
or topic type)" (ib i d . , 3 5 ) . These factors are eq u a lly va lu ed in our case; so that, i n
deve l oping an analysis of d i f ferent ge n res in the regi s ter of a c ademic wr i ting for
Computer Science, we distinguish between three learner levels.
In a first stage , it seems that excerp t s , t a ken mainly from te x tbooks wr i t ten by sing l e
a ut h ors are parti c u l a rly s u i t a ble for first and second year univer s i ty st u den t s , w h o
should be able to iden tify key topics and co n cepts from the samples. The ge n re of
technical reports may be a d ded d u ring this per i od of l e a rn i n g, s i n ce a large n u m ber of
examples of this type are publ i s h ed on the I n ter n et ,i n c re a s i n gly ava i l a ble to the r e ader s .
S u b s eq u en t ly, because of t h eir refere n ce and freq u ency of use at hig h er stage s , j o u rn a l
3a rt i cles tend to oc c u py the adv a n ced level of Co m p uter Scie n ce English lear n i n g.
The point of de p a rt u re should therefore inv o lve those a c ademic approaches to
Co m p uter Scie n ce wr i t ten e x po s i ti on . The se l ect i on of what is meant as repr e s en t a tive
and significant language obey s , in this r e s pec t , t wo different par a m eter s : The analysis of
" l i n g u i s tic va ri a ti on" (B i ber, 1988:13) a c ross the text typ e s , a ll owing for the percept i on
of prevailing le x i co - gr a m m a tical f e a tu re s , a n d , s eco n dly, the e x a m i n a ti on of p a t ter n s
and c o ll oc a ti ons of wor d s , w h i ch aims at the d e s c ri pt i on of s u b - technical le x i s .
In the first process of a n n o t a ti on me n ti on ed , the key is to determine the
representativeness factor in our ESP course by means of text analysis