Analysis of Lexical Sophistication Using a Natural Language Processing Tool: A Corpus Study of English Picture Books
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This study investigates lexical sophistication in children's picture books across different reading levels. We analyzed a corpus of 107 picture books (Park & Ahn, 2021) across ATOS levels 0-5 using TAALES (Kyle & Crossley, 2015), a natural language processing tool. Lexical indices including word frequency, range, and psycholinguistic information (familiarity, concreteness, imageability, meaningfulness, age of acquisition) were computed and compared across book levels. Results revealed that as book levels increased, word frequency and range decreased, indicating higher-level books contain less common words with narrower usage. Psycholinguistic features also showed significant changes: words in higher-level books were less familiar and meaningful, but more concrete, imageable, and acquired later. These findings suggest that higher-level picture books employ more sophisticated vocabulary, underscoring their potential as a valuable resource for exposing young L2 learners to rich and diverse language. Our study highlights the need to choose picture books considering specific lexical features and reading levels. Such careful selection is crucial for achieving language teaching goals and enhancing vocabulary development.
Abstract
This study investigates lexical sophistication in children's picture books across different reading levels. We analyzed a corpus of 107 picture books (Park & Ahn, 2021) across ATOS levels 0-5 using TAALES (Kyle & Crossley, 2015), a natural language processing tool. Lexical indices including word frequency, range, and psycholinguistic information (familiarity, concreteness, imageability, meaningfulness, age of acquisition) were computed and compared across book levels. Results revealed that as book levels increased, word frequency and range decreased, indicating higher-level books contain less common words with narrower usage. Psycholinguistic features also showed significant changes: words in higher-level books were less familiar and meaningful, but more concrete, imageable, and acquired later. These findings suggest that higher-level picture books employ more sophisticated vocabulary, underscoring their potential as a valuable resource for exposing young L2 learners to rich and diverse language. Our study highlights the need to choose picture books considering specific lexical features and reading levels. Such careful selection is crucial for achieving language teaching goals and enhancing vocabulary development.
참고문헌 (25)
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