Vocabulary has crucial importance in the development of speaking skills and plays a fundamental role in communication. A young (or not so young) person learning English must know how to use
Vocabulary has crucial importance in the development of speaking skills and plays a fundamental role in communication. A young (or not so young) person learning English must know how to use grammar and vocabulary and should be aware of the words’ pronunciation. This is called linguistic competence. Besides, a language learner should also know when, why and how to start speaking. This we call sociolinguistic competence.
Some people learning the English language have difficulty learning how to speak correctly, meaning fluent and grammatically precise English. One of the reasons behind this is related to their deficiencies with vocabulary. According to David Arthur Wilkins, an early proponent of communicative language teaching, vocabulary is as important as grammar. Improving vocabulary does not mean the memorization of separate words only, but also the acquisition and learning of collocations and phrases.
Most language learner know how important it is to acquire an adequate vocabulary and do their best to learn as many words as possible. But what does it mean to know a word? Is it enough if we know its definition in a dictionary? The answer is no. The language learner should also be able to write down the word and know how to pronounce it. Beyond the content of the dictionary definition, the meaning of a particular word also includes the knowledge of its related synonyms and antonyms. This group of words is called word families. Finally the use of a certain word is about using it appropriately in various contexts and knowing its most frequent collocations.
What is the magic number?
The question we have to ask ourselves is whether it is possible to define or quantify how many words we need to know if we want to communicate successfully at an intermediate ECL language exam for example. Naturally, communication also includes listening and reading comprehension.
It is important to emphasize that words do not occur at the same rate of frequency in our everyday speec
Work Terms
Vocabulary has crucial importance in the development of speaking skills and plays a fundamental role in communication. A young (or not so young) person learning English must know how to use grammar and vocabulary and should be aware of the words’ pronunciation. This is called linguistic competence. Besides, a language learner should also know when, why and how to start speaking. This we call sociolinguistic competence.
Some people learning the English language have difficulty learning how to speak correctly, meaning fluent and grammatically precise English. One of the reasons behind this is related to their deficiencies with vocabulary. According to David Arthur Wilkins, an early proponent of communicative language teaching, vocabulary is as important as grammar. Improving vocabulary does not mean the memorization of separate words only, but also the acquisition and learning of collocations and phrases.
Most language learner know how important it is to acquire an adequate vocabulary and do their best to learn as many words as possible. But what does it mean to know a word? Is it enough if we know its definition in a dictionary? The answer is no. The language learner should also be able to write down the word and know how to pronounce it. Beyond the content of the dictionary definition, the meaning of a particular word also includes the knowledge of its related synonyms and antonyms. This group of words is called word families. Finally the use of a certain word is about using it appropriately in various contexts and knowing its most frequent collocations.
What is the magic number?
The question we have to ask ourselves is whether it is possible to define or quantify how many words we need to know if we want to communicate successfully at an intermediate ECL language exam for example. Naturally, communication also includes listening and reading comprehension.
It is important to emphasize that words do not occur at the same rate of frequency in our everyday speec