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ERIC Number: EJ948638
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Dec
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0039-8322
EISSN: N/A
Narrow Viewing: The Vocabulary in Related Television Programs
Rodgers, Michael P. H.; Webb, Stuart
TESOL Quarterly: A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English as a Second Dialect, v45 n4 p689-717 Dec 2011
In this study, the scripts of 288 television episodes were analyzed to determine the extent to which vocabulary reoccurs in related and unrelated television programs, and the potential for incidental vocabulary learning through watching one season (approximately 24 episodes) of television programs. The scripts consisted of 1,330,268 running words and had a total running time of 203 hours and 49 minutes with a mean running time of 42 minutes. The vocabulary from a single season of six individual television programs (142 episodes) was compared with six sets of random television programs (146 episodes). The results indicated that, when there are an equivalent number of running words, related television programs are likely to contain fewer word families than unrelated programs. The findings also indicated that word families from the 4,000-14,000 levels were more likely to reoccur in a complete season of a television program than in random television programs. The percentage of low-frequency word families encountered 10 or more times was higher, and the percentage of word families encountered once was fewer in all six programs than in the random television programs. (Contains 7 tables and 1 footnote.)
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. 1925 Ballenger Avenue Suite 550, Alexandria, VA 22314. Tel: 888-547-3369; Tel: 703-836-0774; Fax: 703-836-7864; Fax: 703-836-6447; e-mail: info@tesol.org; Web site: http://www.tesol.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A