Mid Sweden University

In this study, two different series of course books were analysed using content analysis with a focus on high-frequency words and lexical recycling. The study was conducted using a webbased tool called Vocabprofile, a computer program designed to lexically analyse different texts. The study shows that there are differences and similarities between the two series, Happy and Magic!. The most noticeable difference between the two series was found to be the number of words used in the analysed chapters, where Happy contains a much larger number compared to Magic!. When comparing the number of NGSL words to the total number of words the results show no major difference between the two series, although Magic! is slightly better. On the other hand, when comparing the lexical recycling in the two series, Happy performs slightly better. However, the results show that differences between the books regarding the number of NGSL words in relation to the total number of words, as well as the use of lexical recycling is very slim. The results also show that that both series are performing well in both aspects. There are, however, limitations to the study. As only a few chosen chapters of each book were analysed the result is somewhat inconclusive. To get a reliable result a more complete study needs to be made.

To conclude this work, the study shows that there is no major difference in the use of high-frequency words or lexical recycling between the two investigated series. This suggests that there are other factors that make Happy that much more popular compared to Magic!. Those factors can, however, only be speculated on, and would make an interesting topic for future research. The fact that many Swedish teachers see course books as the main material for English education makes it easy to argue that further research in this field is necessary. This would not only benefit teachers, who would get a clearer picture of when and how to use the course books, but it would also benefit students, as further research would improve the learning environment in their journey towards proficiency in the English language.