THE DEGREE OF SPECIFICITY IN TEACHING LSAP VOCABULARY
THE DEGREE OF SPECIFICITY IN TEACHING LSAP VOCABULARY

Summary/Abstract: The Degree of Specificity in Teaching LSAP Vocabulary. Joining a long-running debate in the field of teaching and testing language for specific academic purposes (LSAP), the present study focuses on the degree of vocabulary specificity to be targeted in this type of courses. Researchers’ choices range between ‘pure’ general academic language and input with a high degree of specificity. The present study proposes a categorisation of vocabulary in the following groups: general (high and mid-frequency), general academic, border technical and technical. The category of border technical vocabulary proposed here includes words normally considered as belonging to general language levels B1 and B2, which are used frequently in a domain of study and only incidentally in others. Border technical and general academic vocabulary are proposed to be the focus of teaching and the object of assessment in the courses of specialised language, with technical language not excluded from the teaching process. Choosing the level of vocabulary specificity is one of the most difficult decisions the LSAP teacher needs to take in preparation of a course. He/She needs to consider factors like the available resources or the students’ familiarity with the domain. This study analyses the course of specialised language for humanities and arts in Romanian at Babeș-Bolyai University. Based on literature in the domain, on teaching experience and especially on student feedback, this study is hoped to contribute to setting the most adequate level of vocabulary specificity for different groups of learners, in contexts usually built on a multitude of variables, hardly in the teachers’ control.

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