Developing targeted vocabulary lists for English language learners in English-medium university courses: A collaborative approach

This study examines an approach to developing vocabulary lists tailored to the needs of English language learner (ELL) students enrolled in English‑medium university courses. Previous research suggests that ELL students face considerable challenges in English‑medium lecture contexts, particularly due to limited vocabulary knowledge. Although corpus‑based word lists have proven valuable for vocabulary learning, their length often makes them impractical for ELL students to master within the timeframe of a single course. This study proposes a novel method that combines input from subject lecturers, who identify key disciplinary vocabulary, with words that ELL students themselves identify as unknown from lecture transcripts. It is framed as a methodological foundation for a multistage research project aimed at supporting ELLs in English‑medium lectures at an international university in Japan. The methodology was applied to an English‑medium International Relations (IR) course at this institution. The findings revealed that a substantial proportion of words identified as unknown by ELLs fell within the 3,000 most frequent words in English, demonstrating that instructor‑generated lists alone are insufficient to address learners’ actual lexical needs. The study concludes that subject lecturers should develop course glossaries that balance high‑frequency vocabulary identified by students with subject‑specific terminology identified collaboratively by students and lecturers.