The Effectiveness of Fundamental Economics Vocabulary for International Students

Abstract

This study investigates the effectiveness in specialized education of 318 fundamental economics vocabulary items of high school graduate level. As a survey sample, the study used textbooks in three specialized basic subjects studied in undergraduate faculties of economics, and investigated the status of use of these terms. The findings showed that 184 words or phrases (over 60% of the total) appeared in the textbooks, and that over half of these were terms first occurring in junior high school civics textbooks.

If we break down the fundamental economics vocabulary list by field, economics accounts for close to 60% of the terms and consists of over 20 specialized subjects. Some of these are specialized basic subjects, and whether a particular vocabulary term appears in materials for these subjects depends on the content being studied. For this reason it is possible that vocabulary not found in this study would occur if materials for a different subject were used.

These findings indicate that fundamental economics vocabulary can be applied in a wide range of specialized subjects in economics, and that civics-related vocabulary is of central importance and highly effective in specialized study in the economics field.