Do You Need to Read 8,000,000 Words to Acquire 2,000 Word Families in English?: A Comment on Hill and Laufer (2003)

Year 2017, Volume: 2 Issue: 3, 130 - 132, 30.09.2017

Jeff Mcquillan

Abstract

This brief research note comments on
estimates made by Hill and Laufer (2003), and repeated by other researchers, regarding
the total number of words one needs to read to acquire 2,000 word families in
English. Hill and Laufer failed to distinguish between unknown word samples and
unknown word populations in incidental vocabulary research designs, leading to
an erroneous estimate.

Keywords

Vocabulary , Reading , Acquisition , Research Design

References

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