• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.363-371
• /
• 2008

The purposes of this study were to analyze the level of Earth science vocabularies in the 10th grade textbooks with the Science Word Analysis (SWA) program and to investigate the vocabularies selected by the 10th grade students as difficult ones. For this purpose, we extracted the Earth science vocabularies from eleven textbooks, and classified into scientific and non-scientific vocabularies with the SWA program based on the standard Korean language dictionary. In addition, we investigated the difficulty of each vocabulary by surveying five hundred sixty students with a questionnaire. Results showed that the frequency of the scientific vocabularies that were beyond the designated level was the largest among any other levels in all textbooks. Most of the vocabularies selected by students as difficult ones to understand were classified into out of the level. From these results, it were suggested that the students' cognitive level should be considered when developing science textbooks and difficult vocabularies should be replaced with easy ones without a change of meaning.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.87-102
• /
• 2008

The purposes of this study were to analyze vocabularies used the section of 'Living Earth' in 11-grade Earth science textbooks with the Science Word Analysis (SWA) program and to investigate the vocabularies selected by the 11th grade students as difficult ones. For the purpose, we extracted the Earth science vocabularies from six textbooks, and classified into the scientific and non-scientific vocabularies with SWA program based on the standard Korean language dictionary. Also, we investigated the difficulty of each vocabulary by using questionnaire to three hundred sixty students. From the results analyzed with the program, it was found that the frequency of the scientific vocabularies out of the level was the largest any other level in all textbooks. And from the survey, most of the vocabularies selected by students as difficult to understand were classified into out of the level. From these results, it were suggested that the students' cognitive level should be considered in developing science textbooks and difficult vocabularies should be replaced to easy ones within the limits of changeless in the meanings.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.471-478
• /
• 2010

This study analyzed the vocabulary level in the 'Water' unit of chemistry I textbook. It also analyzed its relevance to the 11th graders' vocabulary level. The main tool for analyzing vocabulary level was SWA(Science Word Analysis) program which was referenced the Standard Korean Dictionary and Graduated Vocabulary of Korean Language Education. The results in this study turned out to be as follows: The distribution of scientific vocabulary level increased from Level-1 to Level-3 and showed a tendency to decrease from Level-3 until Level-5. The average percentage of Out of level is the largest as 37%. The highest percentage of non-scientific vocabulary was Level-1. The distribution of non-scientific vocabulary level decreased progressively. The Level-5 and Out of level are used 18% averagely. So, there are 6 vocabularies of Level-5 and 82 vocabularies of extra-level inappropriate in scientific vocabularies. And there are 53 vocabularies of Level-5 and 145 vocabularies of Out of level inappropriate in non-scientific vocabularies. Therefore, the overall state of textbooks for grade 11 students are reasonable. But there are a great many vocabularies inappropriate for them. Those should be used minimum, and to be changed to the 1-4 of level vocabulary as stated in the student's level of understanding of appropriate vocabulary.