Generating the Specialized Engineering Word List for Students at Tertiary Level Education

Background: Research findings provide evidence that the use of word list may assist students in learning selected words which they may need to know for the purpose of reading and understanding a technical text. Objective: The objectives of the paper are to determine the specialised engineering word contained in the engineering textbooks as well as to identify the percentage of words contain in Specialised Engineering Word List (SEWL) as it is compared to AWL. Results: This study has found that there are 66 words in SEWL and less than 20% of the words listed in SEWL are available in AWL. Conclusion: The findings enhance our understanding that developing a specialised word list requires a systematic process. And the use of corpora instead of dictionary is more appropriate for researchers attempting to generate a word list. © 2014 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved. To Cite This Article: Zuraina Ali, Hafizoah Kassim, Nurul Nadia Mohammad, Rosnani Ismail, Siti Norzaimalina Abd Majid, Mohd Amir Izuddin Mohamad Ghazali., Generating the Specialized Engineering Word List for Students at Tertiary Level Education. Aust. J. Basic & Appl. Sci., 8(24): 353-358, 2014 INTRODUCTION One of the most significant current discussions in learning vocabulary concerns with the use of the word list for specialised fields in assisting students" curriculum development (Jin, Ling, Tong, Sahiddan, Philip, Azmi and Tarmizi, 2012). The specialised vocabulary is recognisably specific to a particular topic, field, or discipline In a further research, On the other hand, Brown In understanding technical vocabulary, Chung and Nation Using a rating scale: This interrater reliability can be used to estimate whether there is a reasonable degree of agreement by different raters as to where a lexical item falls on the scale. While using the rating scale, the researchers agreed that in order for them to fully understand the meaning that the words conveyed, they have to be looked at in context. However, for the rating scale to be used efficiently, it requires good knowledge of the subject area as well as the training of the raters should be done using the same kinds of materials that are used for the research. Using a technical dictionary: The technical dictionary chosen for this method is Dorland"s Illustrated Medical Dictionary (2000). The dictionary was chosen for three reasons: the content was updated, large and has been created over 100 years ago. Using clues provided in the text: For this method, three major clues were included such as definitions, typographical clues like bolding, italics, and brackets and labels in diagrams or illustration. Using a computer-based approach: By employing RANGE -software which could calculate how often a word occurred (its frequency) and in how many different texts in the corpus it occurred (its range) as a tool to extract terms from the sample text together with a spreadsheet program like Excel, it requires a minimal amount of skill in using both of the programs. In view of the previous studies conducted on word list, it was found that the recent attention has focused on several aspects of using it in the classroom. One aspect concerns with comparing the use of the word list with other methods of learning vocabulary. Kuo and Ho (2012) conducted a study in a public junior high school in which four intact classes of ninth graders were chosen randomly. Each of the classes was also randomly assigned to four groups which were card-spaced, card-massed, list-spaced and list-massed. All of the students whom average age was 15 were taught by the same instructor/researcher equally. The students were asked to study 120 target words that were selected from the "Basic Word 2000" that was prepared by Taiwan"s Ministry of Education (MOE). By employing questionnaire, test and interview, the finding showed that word card strategy left significant effects on vocabulary retention among the students. Similarly, Baleghizadeh and Ashoori (2010) conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of using keyword method to teach vocabulary over word list method. The study involved 44 female students at Ansari Junior High School in Astara, Iran. Two intact classes were chosen randomly with an average age of 13.5. Unlike the previous study (Kuo & Ho, 2012), the students did not have any knowledge on the use of keyword method and at the elementary level of English language proficiency. In Baleghizadeh and Ashoori"s (2010) study, however, a list of 20 English words with corresponding keyword and their Persian equivalents were randomly selected. In order to make sure that none of the target words have been encountered by the students, the researcher consulted the teacher in charge for both classes. As a result, Another aspect of using word list is to examine its various implementations in classes. Hoshino (2010) determined to prove that word list can be an excellent tool in teaching ESL to the learners. The purpose of his study was to examine which of the five types of word list (antonyms, synonyms, categorical, thematic and arbitrary) assisted L2 vocabulary learning. Conducted the study in Japan, a total of 119 Japanese university students were chosen. In term of the materials, Hoshino (2010) used forty English words for each of the word type. It was evident that among all types of word list, categorical was the most effective list for the L2 vocabulary learning. At the same, the study proved that word list can benefit the learner. In addition, Jeon and Shin (2011) investigated two different types of vocabulary learning condition; receptive learning and productive learning by using word list. The study that took place in a local private elementary school in Korea. Fifty English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners in the third grade have been selected. All of the students have studied English for at least 3 years and received English lessons five hours per week at school. A vocabulary lesson and tests were administered in an 85 minutes block class. 30 lexical items that were originally selected from the textbook which was used in the school was used for the purpose of this study in which later, it tested to verify that the students were unfamiliar with those items. In between those two learning conditions, the finding proved that productive learning aided learners to retain a substantial amount of vocabulary knowledge. Foley"s (2009) in his study integrated the use of word list in three main reading activities which were prereading, while reading and post-reading activities. Such was the implementation of word list in his study due to he argued that teachers need to be creative and inventive in using the resource in teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program. Meanwhile, Wang, Liang and Ge (2008) created the Medical Academic Word List (MAWL) with the intention to help the medical English learners as well as to provide guidelines for the designing and publishing of medical course books. Similar to MAWL, Fraser (2008) has presented the Pharmacology Word List that he claimed can save the learner"s time from learning words that would not be used in their pharmacology study. On the other hand, Ward (1999) came up with a vocabulary list specifically designed for the Engineering students. The list contained 2000 word families that covered 95% of the engineering texts. In addition to that, another set of words for the new engineering students was created by Ward (2009). He claimed that these undergraduates needed to be given attention as well since they were new to the world of engineering. In addition, Engineering Technology Word List (ETWL) is developed for English for Engineering Purposes (EEP). The study that was conducted by Jin, Ling, Tong, Sahiddan, Philip, Azmi and Tarmizi (2012) succeeded in developing Engineering Technology Word List (ETWL) consisted of 313 words. The study used corpus namely British National Corpus (BNC) to develop their list. It can be identified in the literatures that most studies on word list for technical vocabulary were focused mainly on comparing its use with other vocabulary methods. Despite previous researchers" effort in examining the use of technical word lists for EAP, medical and enginering fields, it seems that little is known about developing a word list using engineering online dictionary. Also, no research has been found to compare the word exist in ones word list; in particular engineering word list, with AWL, thus far. Having said this, the purpose of the study, therefore, aim at identifying the specialised engineering word list exist in engineering textbooks. In addition, it compares the word list that is obtained by the current study with AWL. This study, therefore, attempted to answer two research questions: 1. What are the specialised engineering word contained in the engineering textbooks? 2. What is the percentage of words contain in Specialised Engineering Word List (SEWL) as it is compared to AWL? MATERIALS AND METHODS Content analysis was used as the method to collect the data for the study. It is a technique that enables researchers to obtain written contents of a communication from newspaper editorials, graffiti, musical compositions, magazine, articles, advertisements and films (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2009). In the present study, content analysis was used to determine the words printed in two (2) textbooks namely AutoCAD and Circuit Analysis I. These books are used by the undergraduate students in Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). The former books are used by the majority of students in all the faculties in the university while the latter is a course book that is used by the students in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Faculty. The first process of collecting data required the researchers to identify the objective of conducting the content analysis. In the study, the aim of using the method is to obtain specialised engineering words printed in the textbooks. The process also involved defining term to be analyzed for the study. As far as this is concerned, the term in the current study referred to the engineering words itself. Also, they were the units or elements that were analysed in the study. The second process involved locating relevant data for the study. In this process, two engineering textbooks were selected and their pages were scanned. Since the objective of the study is to identif