Delivering an ESP Pedagogic Word List: Integrating Corpus Analysis, Materials Design, and Software Development

With vocabulary playing an essential role in the learning of English for Specific Purposes, teachers face the challenge of organising and teaching lexis in a way that maximises opportunities for acquisition. Specialised word lists offer a solution, but a major obstacle is how to integrate these lists into learning materials containing items used in actual discourse. In this paper, we report on research involving the creation of a medical English word list (MEWL), integrated into a set of specially designed materials for students at a national university in Japan. These materials, developed through needs analysis at the university’s medical school, are primarily organised around body systems, with an additional focus on doctor–patient communication. The MEWL is complemented by a list of word parts, aiming to sensitise students to complex medical terms. We describe the delivery of the list, first through the courses and materials, and then via the development of a vocabulary learning tool, Hi-Lex, which analyses texts against any word lists it contains. Hi-Lex allows learners to create personalised word lists and understand word usage in context. The findings of a small trial study of Hi-Lex (N = 31) illustrate how the software provides insight into students’ selections of words in specialised texts.