Lexical Properties of English Textbooksfor Swedish Primary School : A Corpus-Based Study of Champ and Skills 4–6

Sammanfattning

This study examines and compares the lexical properties of two English textbook series for grades 4–6 in Swedish primary school, Champ and Skills. The study focuses on lexical sophistication and lexical diversity, which are two dimensions of lexical complexity. Lexical sophistication was analysed through measures of word frequency, word range, bigram and trigram frequency using TAALES. Lexical diversity was analysed through MATTR, HD-D, and MTLD Original using TAALED. The results show that lexical diversity increased across grades in both textbook series and that Champ had higher lexical diversity values than Skills at every grade level. Lexical sophistication showed more uneven patterns, with some measures increasing across grades while others varied between books. The results suggest that progression in textbook vocabulary cannot be automatically assumed and that textbooks intended for the same learners may provide different kinds of lexical input. The study contributes to the limited pool of research on English textbooks used in Swedish primary school.