VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE DIMENSIONS IN EFL TEXTBOOKS

Textbooks are important tools to develop the lexical competence of English foreign language learners. However teachers and researchers have paid little attention to the language input contained in textbooks, particularly as far as the representation of knowledge dimensions in vocabulary activities is concerned. The present study pursued two objectives. Firstly, it aimed at the identification of the dimensions involved in the vocabulary activities included in two English textbooks used in the last year of Spanish compulsory education (4th year ESO). Secondly, it aimed at ascertaining whether there were differences in the distribution of vocabulary knowledge dimensions in two textbooks of the same level. Results show that the distribution of vocabulary knowledge dimensions is different in the two textbooks under examination, which may give rise to differences in learners' lexical acquisition and output.