Lecture Transcripts for English Medium Instruction Lecturer within-course linguistic evolution: monitoring changes between STEM lectures

In order to investigate linguistic behaviors in one Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subject, this study investigated changes in linguistic behavior over a series of three lectures in an EMI robotics course. To monitor speech and articulation rates, five evenly-distributed one-minute excerpts from each of three lectures were analyzed and compared using ELAN software.

AntWordProfiler, in combination with various word lists (e.g., the Academic Word List and the Academic Spoken Word List), was used to study vocabulary choice and keyword aspects throughout the entire lectures. Findings showed increases in both speech and articulation rate from the first to the third lecture with an accompanying reduction in total pause time. Vocabulary coverage remained largely consistent, with the most common 2000 words being used around 90% of the time.