[Corpora-List] Numbers of English vocabulary required for students

[Brett Reynolds]

On Oct 1, 2006, at 8:49 PM, Su-hsun Tsai wrote:
> I would like to know how many words of English vocabulary required  
> for a high school graduate entering a college/university program?   
> Do you have a similar requirement for students entering into high  
> schools?
Leaving aside the question of what it means to "know" a word...

In Ontario, Canada, I know of no school that gets as specific as to  
have a minimum number of known words as an entry requirement.  
However, from a practical viewpoint, you should have a look at Paul  
Nation's work with word families. Paul's results suggests that the  
2000 most common word families, plus the 570 word families of Averil  
Coxhead's Academic Word List would be a minimum for most non-native  
speakers of English to begin tertiary education.

Best,
Brett

<http://english-jack.blogspot.com>

-----------------------
Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
brett.reynolds at humber.ca



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