Lexical Demand of Animation Movies and Vocabulary Learning Through Watching Them: A Corpus-Driven Approach

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine the lexical demand of 70 animation movies and measure the number of word families that could be learned incidentally through watching them, utilizing a corpus-driven analysis. It was found that learners should know about 2,000 word families to have 95% text coverage and about 5,000 word families to have 98% text coverage of the running words of the 70 animation movies. The vocabulary size necessary for understanding the animation movies was lower than that of American and British movies in general. With regards to potential vocabulary learning through watching them, it was found that the learners with the vocabulary size of 2,000 word families might be able to learn 611 word families (11.63%) from the 3rd through the 25th 1,000 word bands and not-in-the-lists when assumed that 95% text coverage was sufficient for understanding the animation movies. Meanwhile, supposing that 98% text coverage was needed to comprehend them, the learners with the vocabulary size of 5,000 word families might be able to learn 213 word families (6.75%) from the 6th through the 25th 1,000 word levels and not-in-the-lists. It was suggested that watching animation movies for an extended period of time on a regular basis could lead to substantial vocabulary learning.