Lexical Sophistication and Collocational Development in EAP Learner Writing: A Corpus-Based Study Using PELIC
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65405/.11.ملحق%2041.2215الكلمات المفتاحية:
learner corpus research; PELIC; lexical sophistication; academic vocabulary; collocation; EAP writing; TESOLالملخص
This manuscript presents an APA-style corpus-based study framework for investigating lexical sophistication and collocational development in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) learner writing using the University of Pittsburgh English Language Institute Corpus (PELIC). The study is motivated by the pedagogical problem that learners may know individual academic words but still struggle to use them in academically appropriate combinations. Drawing on verified PELIC documentation, the paper describes the corpus as a large EAP learner corpus containing 1,177 students, 46,230 texts, and 4,250,703 tokens. It outlines a defensible analysis plan for examining lexical frequency bands, academic vocabulary, and multiword combinations across proficiency levels. The manuscript does not report unverified lexical measures; instead, it provides corpus profile results and a transparent procedure for completing the empirical extraction. The proposed analysis has implications for TESOL vocabulary teaching, EAP writing instruction, and corpus-informed materials design. Specifically, it supports a shift from teaching academic vocabulary as isolated items toward teaching word families, phraseological patterns, and collocations in context. The paper also highlights limitations related to secondary corpus use, task variation, automated analysis, and the need for careful interpretation of learner corpus evidence.
التنزيلات
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