Lots Of Words

Why should we build up a Start-up vocabulary quickly?

Draft v1.1. August 4, 2002 Rob Waring

This page is at http://www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/vocab/principles/early.htm

Ѓ@

Abstract

This article will examine the reasons why it is important both linguistically and psychologically to build a vocabulary quickly when learning a foreign language. The article asserts that very little can be achieved or learned in a foreign language with a small vocabulary and that by building a sizable vocabulary quite quickly one can soon be able to function adequately. You may also wish to look at http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/95/feb/meara.html

Ѓ@

Introduction

Ѓ@

It is obvious that in order to learn a foreign language one needs to learn many many words. But how many? Educated English native speakers have a vocabulary of about 20,000-25,000 word families (A 'word family' refers to a group of words that share the same basic meaning e.g. create, creation, creating, created, creative etc), foreign learners of English need far fewer[1].The speaking vocabulary is usually said to be half of the reading and writing vocabulary. Foreign learners of English only need about 3000-5000 word families to be quite competent in speaking and listening to English. This is great news for learners of English because their task is much easier than that of native speakers!

Ѓ@

One of the reasons for this seemingly small number is the nature of words and the frequency with which they appear in a language. Not all words are equal because some words such as time, the, come, make, and so on are very common whereas others such as parasol, bombastic and edifice are relatively rare and not met everyday. It therefore seems clear that these frequent words should be among the first words to learn because they will be met most often and will be needed frequently in speech or writing. Thus the pay off for learning them is higher than for an average rare word. These words are often called a General Service Vocabulary because these words are found in many kinds of situations and domains. This is a vocabulary of about 2000 word families. The best list (although it is a bit dated is Michael West's 1954 list called the General Service Word List.) These General Service words are found a very very wide range of contexts such as in the medical world, in novels, in scientific reports, on web pages, in daily conversation, in politics and so on. Because these words appear in so many contexts they are extremely useful to almost all learners. Thus they are called "General Service" words. It has to be remembered of course that each of these topic areas just mentioned has its own specialist or technical vocabulary, for example the words embolism and gastroenteritis and so on appear in medicine, hydrogen and thermodynamics appear in science and engineering, and interferometer appears in astronomy.

Ѓ@

The case for a General Service vocabulary

Ѓ@

Some teachers insist that their learners should only be taught the words