Compiling a custom corpus and word list for ESAP: The case of English for Geographers

The study presents a step-by-step procedure for building a specialised corpus and compiling a technical word list to support instruction in English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP). Recognising the lack of suitable textbooks for a highly specialised ESAP course, a custom corpus of 1.4 million words was constructed to support the development of corpus-informed teaching materials for undergraduate geography students. The corpus was compiled from textbook chapters and journal articles that geography professors recommended as directly relevant to students. To ensure representativeness, the corpus was aligned with the first-year BA geography curriculum. A combined approach of keyword analysis and technicality was used to compile a geographical word list according to the following criteria: (1) simple maths keyness score in Sketch Engine, (2) minimum document frequency, (3) technicality (the inclusion of a term in a technical dictionary or its validation by a discipline-specific expert). Keyword analysis has shown that the vast majority (94.24%) of keywords and multi-word items extracted by Sketch Engine are technical and have thus been included in the final word list, which comprises 507 geographical terms relevant to students’ academic needs. More than half of these terms were incorporated into teaching materials, primarily selected based on topic relevance. This study proposes a corpus-informed methodology for designing teaching materials that is straightforward and user-friendly. It offers a practical and methodologically sound framework for ESP practitioners seeking to develop curriculum-aligned, custom corpora and discipline-specific word lists for teaching. • Corpora tailored to students' needs yield robust word lists for instructional use. • Creating a corpus in collaboration with subject experts is highly effective. • Lexical profiling using keyword analysis and technicality is a rigorous method. • Tailored word lists ensure relevant ESAP vocabulary, making learning more efficient. • Custom corpora built with experts will guide future specialised word list design.