Backgrounds, Prospects, Applications and Challenges in Studying Lexis in Academic Texts: The Growing Need for Particular Attention to Persian and Persian Speaking Language Learners

Ghafar Samar, Reza; Shirazizadeh, Mohsen; Kiany, G. Reza

Backgrounds, Prospects, Applications and Challenges in Studying Lexis in Academic Texts: The Growing Need for Particular Attention to Persian and Persian Speaking Language Learners

Authors

R. Ghafar Samar ¹

M. Shirazizadeh ²

G. R. Kiany ¹

¹ Associate Professor of English Language Teaching, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

² Ph.D. Candidate in English Language Teaching, Tarbiat Modares University/ Assistant Professor in English Language Teaching, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The present article takes a critical and analytic look at various dimensions of studying vocabulary in academic texts, hence providing a quite clear prospect of the requirements, methods and challenges of this line of inquiry. The basic focus of the article is however to draw attention to the paucity of corpus-informed research on Persian academic texts as well as the linguistic productions of Persian speakers in other languages. In the first section, a holistic picture as to the significance of learning academic vocabulary is drawn. Then, some academic word and phrase lists and some academic corpora are briefly introduced. In the next section, different aspects which should be taken into consideration (e.g. collocation, lexical bundles, intra and inter-text lexical variation) in such type of research are elaborated and some of precautions to be taken by researchers are discussed. In the final section, some of the challenges and limitations of this type of research are mentioned and a scheme of the ecology of “studying academic vocabulary” is given. The scheme is supposed to act as a synoptic road map for interested researchers who are at the beginning of their academic endeavor.

Keywords

Language for academic purposes

Corpus

vocabulary

collocation