Background
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Praxis Ed Vocabulary is designed for high-beginning and intermediate students of English, particularly university students. This learning program is especially useful for students who find learning and remembering English vocabulary a heavy burden.
For the best results, the program should be used five days a week (each session lasts about 20 minutes).
Most vocabulary programs currently available have few if any of the above features. Most programs simply quiz students on direct translations of individual words without any context, collocation information, or production development.
On Effective Memorization
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Of the thousands of words students memorize for tests in high school, our research at Sogang University suggests that most students have forgotten about half of them upon entering a university. Why are some words remembered and some forgotten? In most cases, the words that are remembered are those that the students encountered frequently in their high school studies. Arguably, the main reason why students forget most of the vocabulary they study is that they do not encounter the words often enough after initial memorization. It doesn’t matter what techniques you use to learn a list of vocabulary words; if you do not review those words again later, then most will soon be forgotten.
This program reviews words following a tested memory schedule. The word schedule is based on the principle that most forgetting happens early on. Thus, many repetitions need to be done in the first few days, but then as memory of the word gets stronger, the repetitions can be spaced further and further apart without any forgetting. This vocabulary program does the scheduling automatically, so as long as students continue to use the program, the words learned here will not be forgotten.
Native speakers of English understand 20,000-35,000 words. This is an intimidating number, but the good news is that roughly 80% of any conversation, book, TV show, etc. is composed of just 2,000 of the most common English words. Knowing the high frequency words well is thus a very important first step towards being able to understand spoken and written English.
The following chart gives an idea of how common high frequency words are.
| Number of words | Average text coverage |
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| 10 most common words | 23.7% |
| 1,000 most common words | 72% |
| 2,000 most common words | 79.7% |
| 3,000 most common words | 84% |
| 4,000 most common words | 86.7% |
| 5,000 most common words | 88.6% |
| 6,000 most common words | 89.9% |
(based on data from Nation, 2001)
A good vocabulary study program should focus on the high frequency words first before time is spent studying low frequency words. These are the words you will encounter the most in any kind of reading and listening in English. This vocabulary site focuses exclusively on the 5,000 most common vocabulary words in the English language, in addition to several hundred words that are very common in academic settings (the Academic Word List). All the words you will see on this site are ‘must know’ words for learners of the English language.
We currently have the following lists available:
We also provide vocabulary lists which match vocabulary covered in nearly all major commercial course books. Please inquire for details.
On Depth of Word Knowledge
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‘Collocation’ means ‘occurring together.’ For vocabulary, this means knowing what words are usually used together by native English speakers.
For example, a collocation of the word ‘medicine’ is ‘take.’ When a native speaker talks about medicine, she is likely to say, “I need to take my medicine before I go to sleep.” Other words like ‘eat’ or ‘do’ are almost never used with the word ‘medicine’ in this way.
Knowing the common collocations of the words will help you to use the words like a native speaker. This site provides information on the most common collocations for each word to help you not only memorize the new word, but know how to use it properly in your speaking and writing.
Research has shown that learning vocabulary in context has many advantages over simply memorizing word for word translations. When we encounter a word in a meaningful sentence or dialogue, we see a model of how the word is used by native speakers. It also provides good models for us to know how to use the word in our speaking and writing.
For each word you learn, this site will present the word in 17 different exercises, with at least five of them providing different contexts. Each new context will allow you to see the word in a slightly different way, thus strengthening and deepening your knowledge of that word.
Vocabulary is presented in reading and listening exercises in short passages and dialogues. The dialogues also exhibit common phrases and expressions used in informal speech. The listening exercises will help you become familiar with how the word sounds in North American English.
Results
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Knowing a word does not only mean you can recognize it when you hear or read it; it also means you can use the word properly in your speaking and writing. These exercises require you to recall the English word, which will develop your ability to remember and use the word in your speaking and writing. Some work with spelling and usage (how the word is used grammatically) is also given.
The quizzes are not always meant to be difficult. The main purpose of each exercise is to remind you of what the word means and, in most cases, to show an example of how the word is commonly used. To get the best benefit from each session, do not just speedily answer the questions with minimal thinking. Pay attention to how the word is used. It takes just a few seconds, and the end results are much better.
Secondly, this site seeks not only to introduce some new words, but to strengthen words of which you already have some knowledge. Simply knowing the translation of a vocabulary word is not enough; you need to be able to recognize it immediately when you hear or read it. You also need to be able to know how to use it in a natural way. These exercises will help you develop these skills.
Though our research shows that this site can be very effective for improving your knowledge of words, it is meant to be as a complement to extensive reading and listening. No vocabulary class, book, website or program can give you complete mastery of all the words you need to know. Only through reading and listening to the language extensively and making opportunities to speak and write in English can you truly master new vocabulary. This program cannot replace extensive reading and listening, but it can help you speed up the learning process. Effective vocabulary study along with extensive reading and listening is a powerful learning combination!