austraLasia 1304
Reading Salesian literature: a proven guide
ROME: 25th October 2005 -- While word knowledge alone does not guarantee reading ability, for those for whom English is not their mother tongue, the lack of an adequate vocabulary is an undeniable impediment. But then comes the inevitable question: given that English may have as many as 30, 000 words in fairly regular use, and 60,000 words for the highly literate, is there a minimum number I should know and what are they"?
There is an answer to both questions. The answers are based on corpus studies which, in simple terms, are collections of as many as one million words taken from spoken/written English. It must be obvious that if a corpus is representative of the language, it will provide some answers. And indeed it does. There are a number of well-known corpora, the Brown Corpus (USA) and the British National Corpus being two of them. There is now also a Salesian corpus, in excess of one million words.
On the basis of the Brown corpus, ten lists, each containing 1,000 words (1K, 2K...), have been drawn up. Additionally, there is an academic word list (AWL) with an additional 570 words. And, readers of austraLasia would know by now that there is a further resource called SELECT. A plain 900 word list has now been extracted from this (or more accurately, 'term list', because it contains 'multi-word' words, for want of a better word!).
Now comes the most useful information. Corpus studies tell us, with statistical backing, that 23.7% of any normal text is made up of just 10 words. Sounds good, but these will not allow much comprehension of a passage - they are words like the, a, are, is, do... But the 1K word list referred to above offers an incredible 72.0% comprehension level. However, try reading a text with 28% of the words blanked out and other than being able to guess the topic in general, you will still be seriously impeded. With the 2K word list, comprehension will move to 79.7%. The rate of increase of comprehension has slowed a little, despite the addition of 1,000 new words. But add the 570 word Academic list at this point and comprehension jumps to 90%! At 90% you can read and understand much of any text other than the exceptionally explicit.
And now the 'icing on the cake': the random choice of a Salesian text, compared against the 2K list told the researcher that 76.84% was already comprehensible. This still leaves a little fewer than 25% worth of 'blanks' and that can be a problem. Add the academic WL and comprehension is now close to 90%. Add the Salesian WL and you are at 95%, enough to read and follow - and probably guess the remaining terms. The random text was the Regulations of the Salesian Society, chosen because with 9,000 words it just fitted the testing procedures - any larger and the sample would have been truncated.
The conclusion is clear. If you know the 2,000 word list, then add the Academic list of around 570, then the additional Salesian list with another 900, you are guaranteed, all other things being equal, to understand most Salesian texts. Around 3,500 words, then, is what you need, and we know what those words are. This information should be of considerable assistance to anyone responsible for the English language development of Salesians anywhere around the globe - or for their own.
Do you want the 2K, AWL and SWL? I'll willingly send them to you on request. They are zipped into a very lightweight file (64 kb). A return note to this email will ensure you receive the item quickly. JBF
VOCABULARY
While word knowledge alone does not guarantee reading ability, for those for whom English is not their mother tongue, the lack of an adequate vocabulary is an undeniable impediment. On the basis of the above information, an English language-learner who knew the 2K list plus the AWL would have understood 96% of that sentence. 2 words were not on those lists: vocabulary and......... The 4% lack of comprehension is no major impediment!
all other things being equal: they never are of course!! The phrase here implies that one needs a basic grasp of English grammar as well as the words.
icing on the cake: the best part of all
_____________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml. If you subscribe, email this information and your name will come off the regular email list. RSS eliminates problems such as multiple mailings, viruses, email bloat. Think about it!
Reading Salesian literature: a proven guide
ROME: 25th October 2005 -- While word knowledge alone does not guarantee reading ability, for those for whom English is not their mother tongue, the lack of an adequate vocabulary is an undeniable impediment. But then comes the inevitable question: given that English may have as many as 30, 000 words in fairly regular use, and 60,000 words for the highly literate, is there a minimum number I should know and what are they"?
There is an answer to both questions. The answers are based on corpus studies which, in simple terms, are collections of as many as one million words taken from spoken/written English. It must be obvious that if a corpus is representative of the language, it will provide some answers. And indeed it does. There are a number of well-known corpora, the Brown Corpus (USA) and the British National Corpus being two of them. There is now also a Salesian corpus, in excess of one million words.
On the basis of the Brown corpus, ten lists, each containing 1,000 words (1K, 2K...), have been drawn up. Additionally, there is an academic word list (AWL) with an additional 570 words. And, readers of austraLasia would know by now that there is a further resource called SELECT. A plain 900 word list has now been extracted from this (or more accurately, 'term list', because it contains 'multi-word' words, for want of a better word!).
Now comes the most useful information. Corpus studies tell us, with statistical backing, that 23.7% of any normal text is made up of just 10 words. Sounds good, but these will not allow much comprehension of a passage - they are words like the, a, are, is, do... But the 1K word list referred to above offers an incredible 72.0% comprehension level. However, try reading a text with 28% of the words blanked out and other than being able to guess the topic in general, you will still be seriously impeded. With the 2K word list, comprehension will move to 79.7%. The rate of increase of comprehension has slowed a little, despite the addition of 1,000 new words. But add the 570 word Academic list at this point and comprehension jumps to 90%! At 90% you can read and understand much of any text other than the exceptionally explicit.
And now the 'icing on the cake': the random choice of a Salesian text, compared against the 2K list told the researcher that 76.84% was already comprehensible. This still leaves a little fewer than 25% worth of 'blanks' and that can be a problem. Add the academic WL and comprehension is now close to 90%. Add the Salesian WL and you are at 95%, enough to read and follow - and probably guess the remaining terms. The random text was the Regulations of the Salesian Society, chosen because with 9,000 words it just fitted the testing procedures - any larger and the sample would have been truncated.
The conclusion is clear. If you know the 2,000 word list, then add the Academic list of around 570, then the additional Salesian list with another 900, you are guaranteed, all other things being equal, to understand most Salesian texts. Around 3,500 words, then, is what you need, and we know what those words are. This information should be of considerable assistance to anyone responsible for the English language development of Salesians anywhere around the globe - or for their own.
Do you want the 2K, AWL and SWL? I'll willingly send them to you on request. They are zipped into a very lightweight file (64 kb). A return note to this email will ensure you receive the item quickly. JBF
VOCABULARY
While word knowledge alone does not guarantee reading ability, for those for whom English is not their mother tongue, the lack of an adequate vocabulary is an undeniable impediment. On the basis of the above information, an English language-learner who knew the 2K list plus the AWL would have understood 96% of that sentence. 2 words were not on those lists: vocabulary and......... The 4% lack of comprehension is no major impediment!
all other things being equal: they never are of course!! The phrase here implies that one needs a basic grasp of English grammar as well as the words.
icing on the cake: the best part of all
_____________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml. If you subscribe, email this information and your name will come off the regular email list. RSS eliminates problems such as multiple mailings, viruses, email bloat. Think about it!
