Lexical Networks and Lexicon Profiles in Didactical Texts for Science Education

The lexical structure of language of science as it appears in teaching and teaching materials plays a crucial role in learning the language of science. We inspect here the lexical structure of two texts, written for didactic purposes and discussing the topic of wave-particle dualism as it is addressed in science education. The texts are analyzed as lexical networks of terms. The analysis is based on construction of stratified lexical networks, which allows us to analyze the lexical connections from the level of cotext (sentences) to context. Based on lexical networks, we construct lexicon profiles as they appear in two texts addressing the wave-particle dualism of electrons and photons. We demonstrate that the lexicon profiles of the two texts, although they discuss the same topic with similar didactic goals, nevertheless exhibit remarkable variation and differences. The consequences of such variation of lexicon profiles for practical teaching are discussed.