English Science Textbook Word Lists 

(ESTWL)

Kruawong & Phoocharoensil (2024)

This page describes the English Science Textbooks Word Lists (ESTWL), giving information on what the ESTWL are, how the lists were developed, as well as a complete list of words in the ESTWL.

What are the ESTWL?

The English Science Textbooks Word Lists (ESTWL) are a set of nine lists of academic and technical vocabulary for middle school students (grades 6-8) that cover three disciplines in middle school science: (1) Physical Science Word Lists (PhySciWL), (2) Biological Science Word Lists (BioSciWL), and (3) Earth and Space Science Word Lists (E&SSciWL). Each list includes three themes from respective fields that are connected with the Thailand Basic Education Curriculum B.E.2551 (Revised Edition B.E.2560).  The lists appear regularly in each of these categories.

The ESTWL aims to assist Thai EFL students in their middle school science studies in English program in orienting themselves in the sea of English language terminology. The lists were also created based on the themes covered in Thailand's scientific Curriculum to make it easier for science instructors and English language teachers to employ the lists when preparing students for each topic.

How were ESTWL developed?

          The ESTWL were created using the ESTC (English Science Textbook Corpus), a corpus of 54 science textbooks from 9 publishers. The ESTC contained a total of 2,076,389 words. The ESTWL academic words were chosen based on frequency and range. The function terms were then deleted, and science teachers in the English Program were asked to decide whether the words should be included in the ESTWL.