基于语料库的通用学术词表在专业英语学习中的适用性研究——以“学术词表”和环境科学专业为例

A Corpus-based Adaptability Research of General Academic Word Lists in Field-specific English Studies——Taking Coxhead's Academic Word List and Environmental English as an Example

本研究以环境科学为例,基于语料库考察了以Coxhead(2000)编制的"学术词表"(Academic Word List,简称AWL)为代表的通用学术词表在专业学科中的适应性,通过对比AWL词汇与非AWL词汇在环境科学英语语料库及其子库中的覆盖率,讨论AWL在专业学科里的适用性,并借此探讨编制专业学术词表的必要性与可行性。研究发现,AWL虽然适用于环境科学专业,但其中部分词汇不能反映环境科学领域的特征,而非AWL词汇中包含了许多具有环境科学学术意义的词汇。结论认为,应该基于AWL词表编制特定专业的学术词表,帮助学习者专注学习与专业有关的学术词汇。

This research, taking environmental science as an example, is a corpus-based lexical investigation of the adaptability of general academic word lists, represented by Coxhead’s（2000） Academic Word List（AWL）. A comparison is made between the coverage of AWL words and that of non-AWL words both in the environmental science English corpus and its 10 sub-corpuses. The research investigates the adaptability of AWL in specific disciplines and explores the necessity and feasibility of compiling a field-specific academic word list. The study reports that AWL could be applied in environmental science major but some AWL words seldom or never appear in relevant research articles. On the other hand, most non-AWL words are specialized terms in environmental science. Therefore, a field-specific academic word list should be produced on the basis of AWL so as to help learners concentrate on academic words specific to their majors.