How many lexical items do students need to know? Schmitt, N., & Schmitt, D. (2013) A reassessment of frequency and vocabulary size in vocabulary teaching. (TESOL Quarterly)

‘High-frequency’ words – the first 2000 – considered basic, essential. cost/benefit as a guiding principle Above 10,000 – ‘rare’ Nation estimates that need up to 8,000 – 9,000 level in order to read unsimplified texts with no problem.

Nation says that beyond first 2000 words – not worth teaching: rather, teach vocab-learning strategies to learners to they’ll be able to manage on their own. ???

Vocabulary Size and Text Coverage (Written and Spoken)   Approx. spoken coverage Approx. written coverage Word families 81-84% 78-81 % 1st thousand 5-6% 8-9% 2nd thousand 2-3% 3-5% 3rd thousand 1.5-3% 3% 4th-5th thousand 0.75-1% 2% 6th-9th thousand 0.5% Less than 1% 10th – 14th

But maybe 3000 more realistic? A range of research studies to show that 3,000 word families may be enough to cover conversational English Most graded readers get up to about 3000 ‘headwords’ – implying this is an important stage, and that after it they can start reading unsimplified. Defining vocabulary in dictionaries: LDOCE 2000, OALD 3000, Macmillan 2500 – come from first 3000.

In fact, research shows that learners quite often have shockingly small vocabularies (e.g. Akbarian, 2010; Ward, 2009), with Laufer (2000) showing that even after 1,000 hours or more of instruction, learners often do not master even the 3,000 word families of high-frequency vocabulary. It seems that mid-frequency vocabulary needs to be explicitly addressed in order to be learned effectively.

The lack of a principled approach to teaching mid-frequency vocabulary High-frequency is systematically taught; low-frequency left to learners, What about mid-frequency? Nation says it can be left to the learners. Schmitt and Schmitt disagree. Little possibility of re-encounters of more advanced vocabulary; little exposure outside the classroom  

But it isn’t taught Folse 2010 found that teachers rarely teach new vocab, and even more rarely do they review it. Same goes for textbooks. Conclusion: need to teach mid-frequency vocabulary systematically; and review it.  

How many lexical items do students need to know? By the end of … …Elementary school: 1,000 – 3,000 …Middle-school: 3,000 – 5,000 …High school: 5,000 - 8,000 (first figure: satisfactory; second figure: optimum target)

Next article to read: Liu Liu, D. (2003). The most frequently used spoken American English idioms: a corpus analysis and its implications. TESOL Quarterly 37(4), 671-700. How did Liu make his list? What problems did he encounter? What are his main recommendations? Any other interesting points that came up as you read? Select 4 items from his Bands 1 and 2 which you would NOT include as essential in a core selection of vocabulary in junior high school, and say why.