English Vocabulary
- How much input do you need to
learn the most frequent 9000 words
Name: Peggy Wang 王瑩淳
Class: 碩專應英一甲
Student No.: NA4C0007
It was a pleasure to read one of Professor Paul Nation’s studies about the input of
how much reading you need to reach 9000 words of target languge vocabulary size.
Just as Professor Doctor mentioned before in the class, I had many inspirations in
reading this study.
The first inspiration comes to my mind is about “repetition”. For padagogical
implications, teachers must create at least eight times of the same word for learners to
know and to recognize. Through reading, students may recognize it for the first time.
Moreover, by doing spelling, reading out aloud, and role-playing in conversation,
various activities can help learners not only use words in contexts but also show the
target words more than eight times.
My second idea in the study is that teachers should choose comprehensible and
teachable material for learners. According to the knowledge level of learners, teachers
need to have 2% of new words and 98% of familiar words of the text. In doing this,
teachers can have a scaffolding effect as reading goes through. Old words provides
connections with new words, and learners can “guess” the meaning of it. Text of this
design can constuct learners vocabulary size subsconsciously.