Word Family. Test Results

Number of words vs % of text understood

High Frequency Vocabulary
Words like “time”, “jump” and “she”.
Can be taught easily.
Variety of methods.
Takes about 6 years studying for 3 hours a week to learn the first 3,000 most common words.

80% words known
If___planting rates are____ with planting____satisfied in each_____and the forests milled at the earliest opportunity, the _____wood supplies could further increase to about 36 million ______ metres ______ in the period 2001 – 2015.
We can clearly see how difficult this would be to a low level student.

Low frequency vocabulary
Words like “rasp”, “coop”, “wily” and “squirm”.
Low frequency words do not require a teacher to learn them.
Teachers should really just be helping students to learn methods to study these words on their own.
Scholars say low frequency is anything 9,000+

95% words known
If current planting rates are maintained with planting targets satisfied in each______ and the forests milled at the earliest opportunity, the available wood supplies could further______ to about 36 million cubic metres annually in the period 2001 – 2015.
We can see that we understand a lot more at this level but still are not completely sure.

Mid Frequency Vocabulary
Problem is the words don’t appear very often
Need to see a word 10 – 26 times before it ‘sticks’
Most teachers do not agree on how to teach this 3000 – 9000 word family group
Reading or listening to ‘real’ English doesn’t help much. Not many low frequency words.
Reading 420 novels only increase 2,000 words.

Mid Frequency Vocabulary…. continued
Solutions? Read more factual texts. News and magazines use different vocabulary than fiction. Use quizlet.com
Not as fun. But more useful for you.
Look up words as you read. This helps you remember them.
Keep a word journal.
Don’t give up!