Abstract
This study sheds light on the vocabulary complexity of various physics genres and how it affects reading and listening comprehension of the science of physics. We analysed the vocabulary frequency profile of seven physics genres: research articles, textbooks, lectures, magazines, popular books, TV documentaries and TED talks, to determine the presence of general-purpose, academic and technical vocabulary in them, as well as their vocabulary level and variation. The main research question was whether the vocabulary level of these genres could pose an impediment to typical native and non-native speakers of English in terms of their reading/listening comprehension, and, in general, how accessible these genres are vocabulary-wise. The results suggest that typical native speakers will struggle reading physics research and magazine articles, whereas typical non-native speakers will not read/listen to any of the genres at an optimal level, but will be able to read/listen to four of them at an acceptable level.
About the author
Milica Vuković Stamatović, PhD, is Associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the Faculty of Philology, University of Montenegro. She currently teaches Discourse Analysis and English for Specific Purposes – she has taught English for Physics and English for Mathematics for over a decade. Her main research interests lie in the field of discourse analysis, pragmatics and ESP.
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