Investigating the use of semantic primes (semantic universals) in the Iranian 7th grade Junior secondary school English textbook (Prospect 1)

Authors

1 MA student in Linguistics at Islāmic Āzād University (Science and Research Branch-Tehran) (Corresponding Author)

2 (PhD), Islāmic Āzād University (Karaj Branch) (Corresponding Author)

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the use of semantic primes (semantic universals) in the 7th grade junior secondary school English textbook (prospect1). An electronic version of the textbook was prepared and then the type and the frequency of the semantic primes were extracted by NSP software. The results were analyzed through SPSS computer program. Although the semantic primes are the most frequent words in any language, this study indicated that semantic primes (compared to other features) were less frequently used in the above-mentioned textbook. Based on the previous research (Moller et al., 2005), the language teachers and curriculum designers should use all or most semantic primes in the early syllabus, but only 512 semantic primes were presented in the whole textbook and among semantic primes, «substantives» (244 times) had the highest frequency; moreover, the following semantic primes were less frequently used in the textbook, respectively: «space» with the frequency of 7, «existence» with the frequency of 7, «possession» with the frequency of 7, «specification» with the frequency of 7, «life and death» with the frequency of 3, and «relational substantives» with the frequency of 1. «Descriptors,» «intensifiers (augmenter)» and «similarity» were not used at all in the textbook of prospect 1.

 

Keywords

References

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Journal of Educational Innovations
Volume 16, Issue 3 - Serial Number 63
September 2017
Pages 91-114

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