During Pearson's 20 years in Ukraine celebration, Vaughan Jones, author of the best selling, award-nominated book FOCUS, gave a fantastic presentation about the importance of vocabulary in English teaching. Vaughan spoke about how students often show steady improvement through the early levels of A1-B1, but then seem to reach a plateau. Getting stuck at B1 level is a common trait among learners and Vaughan explained why.
One key reason why students get stuck on the B1 plateau is because to reach B1 the students need about 2000 words. These 2000 words are the most common words, which they come across in every text they read, every conversation they have. The extra 5000 words needed to reach B2 and C1 consist of words that have a much lower frequency.
They learn them --- They don't see them again --- They forget them --- They stay B1
Good coursebooks and teachers must find ways to constantly recycle new vocabulary so as to help students retain it. As well as making sure students are exposed to new vocabulary in his book FOCUS, Vaughan provided some useful vocabulary games which we can use in class to do this.
Check the blog this week for details on the activities and more!
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