Professor Arguelles for English
According to Prof Arguelles:
my.vocabularysize.com
-his students, Asian teachers of English get: around 10.000
-average native speaker: 16.000
-native speaker with a degree should have: 20.000
-Prof. Arguelles himself got: 28.000
-his students, Asian teachers of English get: around 10.000
-average native speaker: 16.000
-native speaker with a degree should have: 20.000
-Prof. Arguelles himself got: 28.000
In general, there is no minimum vocabulary size. Language ability is related to vocabulary size, so the more words you know, the more you will be able to understand. However, if you want to set a learning goal, Paul Nation's (2006) research suggests that the following sizes might be useful:
| Skill | Size estimate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | 8,000 - 9,000 word families | Nation (2006) |
| Listening | 6,000 - 7,000 word families | Nation (2006) |
| Native speaker | 20,000 word families | Goulden, Nation, & Read (1990) Zechmeister, Chronis, Cull, D’Anna, & Healy (1995) |
What is a word family?
There are many different forms of a word, so this test measures your knowledge of the most basic form of a word and assumes that you can recognize the other forms. For example, nation, a noun, can also be an adjective (national), a verb (nationalize), or an adverb (nationally). There are also forms which can be made with an affix such as de- or -ing which also modify the way that the word is used or adds to the basic meaning. For a test of receptive vocabulary knowledge such as this one, word families are considered to be the most accurate way of counting words. You can read more about how this test measures your vocabulary size in the FAQ section.
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