A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Year 5 Malaysian Primary School Textbook

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-662-3_10How to use a DOI?

Keywords

English Textbook; Vocabulary Acquisition; Corpus Analysis; CLIL

Abstract

Textbooks are important teaching resources that are commonly utilized by English language teachers in Malaysian primary schools. It is imperative that lexical items presented in the textbooks are aligned well with English as a second language (ESL) students’ proficiency level to support language learning. Therefore, the evaluation of these lexical items has become increasingly important in the development of English textbooks. This study examines the lexical features of the Year 5 Malaysian primary school English textbook through a corpus-based approach. The objectives of the study are to identify the textbook’s CEFR-aligned vocabulary items and to explore the textbook’s thematic and lexical patterns, by conducting keyword and wordlist analyses. Data analysis includes the compilation of a textbook corpus and the analyses of word frequency, lexical composition, and content themes; all of which are used to determine the textbook’s linguistic appropriateness for young ESL learners. The findings revealed that the textbook contains predominantly high-frequency function words and beginner-level vocabulary items. Additionally, the thematic analysis indicated the need for the integration of global competencies into English language instruction. However, notable advanced or content-specific vocabulary in the textbook points to challenges for CEFR Level A1 and A2 learners. Without appropriate linguistic scaffolding and textbook adjustments, their vocabulary acquisition might be significantly impaired. These findings suggest the need for strategic vocabulary input to ensure effective language acquisition. The study highlights the importance of balancing content richness with lexical alignment in the development of English textbooks that can support meaningful language learning experiences.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Fatin Qaisara Rozaimi
AU  - Azwin Hasyana Azhar
AU  - Nur Fadhila Ahmad
AU  - Muhammad Fazli Abdullah
AU  - Norwati Roslim
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/14
TI  - A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Year 5 Malaysian Primary School Textbook
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Cross- Disciplinary Academic Research 2025 - Track 3 Advances in Humanities, Education, Teaching, Learning & Arts (ICAR-T3 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 135
EP  - 147
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-662-3_10
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-662-3_10
ID  - Rozaimi2026
ER  -