Exploring the Essential Word Lists for Engineering Education: Engaging the Vocabulary Profiling Approach (VPA)

Abstract

Concerning English as second or foreign language users, it may be difficult to learn technical information such as engineering disciplines in English. Context understanding, or text comprehension, success is frequently correlated with the size of the learners' vocabulary and the amount to which the intended resources are lexically covered in terms of word families. In retrospect, the type of vocabulary they have or are taught matters more to these learners for efficient learning than the number of their vocabulary. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the necessary vocabulary types for engineering text comprehension, as determined by the percentage of lexical coverage in terms of strategically selected word lists. The vocabulary threshold for engineering materials comprehension was set at 95% coverage, which is believed to be sufficient for students to comprehend the texts. The study adopts and analyses three-word lists, computing the lexical coverage in which it fits the needed vocabulary threshold for engineering texts comprehension. The sample used for the cross-reference analysis was the materials from the latest 2021 industrial electronics magazine articles, published by IEEE Xplore. The adopted word lists fulfill the vocabulary threshold with less than 5000-word families involved, as compared to higher reported vocabulary size or demand needed to understand engineering texts at 95% coverage. Hence, teachers of English for Engineering Purposes (EEP) should prepare pedagogically to meet students' vocabulary requirements in terms of vocabulary word lists. Students are expected to utilise the Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (VSS) to learn the words from the suggested word lists.