The Need For L2 Vocabulary

By Author: Ameda
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It has been estimated that the child aged 5 to 6 years already has a speaking and listening vocabulary of about 5000 in L1, words obtained through the normal processes of acquisition, although Harrison (1980) puts it as low as 2000 words. Estimates for LI vocabulary have, however, varied wildly. Graves's reports that vocabulary studies before 1960 resulted in estimates of children's acquired vocabulary as ranging between 2500 and 26,000 words. Such estimates, however, were greatly dependent on the definition of 'word', and different interpretations resulted in different results. More precisely specified parameters now put the range for 5- to 6-year-olds as being between 2500 and 5000 words.

At the other end of the scale, estimates of the recognition vocabularies affluent LI readers have been estimated to range from 10,000 to 100,000 words with 40,000 being the level required to read academic prose (Grabe, 1991). This contrasts sharply with the beginning L2 reader who starts with a base of virtually zero and may attain 5000-7000 words only after several years' study. If an LI reader starts with between 2500 and 5000 words, ...
... what vocabulary size would be needed for an L2 learner to read with any degree of fluency? For L2, Hirsh and Nation (1992) examined the vocabulary of three short novels in English (where English is the L2), the genre being chosen because 'it offers the most favourable conditions for light vocabulary load' and therefore less likely to offer difficulties to readers for whom English was their L2. They found that a vocabulary of around 5000 word families (i.e. roots and related forms) was needed, as the 2000 most frequent words in English did not cover the 97-98% coverage needed for understanding. Similarly, Laufer (1998) reports that graduates of Israeli high schools are expected to have learnt 3500-4000 word families in English. At the upper end of the learning scale, Hazenberg and Ulstijn (1996) discovered that a vocabulary of 10,000 words is necessary for L2 students wishing to pursue their studies at university level. Even this falls short of Grabe's 40,000 words for academic prose (1991).

In England, specifications (syllabuses) for examinations are drawn up by a number of examination boards, including the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), the Oxford, Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts Board (OCR), and EDEXCEL, this latter being an abbreviation which has no corresponding proper name. For the examination known as the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), taken at age 16, these boards specify only about 1600 words and expressions for modern foreign languages, a figure which may account for the low performance of many pupils, and which falls far short of the 4000-5000 recommended by Laufer (1998) and Hirsh and Nation (1992) at intermediate level. Milton (2006) found that GCSE students have a receptive vocabulary of only about 850 words. After GCSE, students move on to Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS), taken at age 17 or 18. With such a low lexical base, the gap between the demands of GCSE and those of AS is quite considerable, since the latter is an examination which requires students to engage with 'authentic' and intellectual texts.

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