• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1Theoretical Underpinnings
• Chapter 2Learning and Teaching Materials
• Chapter 3Voc Games and Activities
• Chapter 4References
• Appendix 1Preamble & Wordlists
• Appendix 2Learning Targets

Appendix 1: Preamble to the Development of the Wordlists for the English Language Curriculum

 

2. Compilation of the wordlists

 

Words were selected with reference to the following sources of information about word frequency in English:

1. A General Service List of English Words (West 1953)
   This list, popularly known as the GSL, contains around 2,000 word families and is regarded as the classic list of the 2,000 most useful words for second language learners. Although the list was compiled over fifty years ago, most of the items are still regarded as essential for language learners.
2. The British National Corpus (BNC)
   The BNC is a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken English from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-section of current British English, both spoken and written. The 4,000 most frequent words from BNC were considered for inclusion in the Hong Kong lists.
3. The Academic Wordlist (AWL) (Coxhead 2000)
   This list contains 570 words that occur frequently across disciplines in academic texts. The items were identified from a study of the textbooks used to teach first-year undergraduate students at English-medium universities.

In considering words for inclusion, reference was also made to an analysis of the vocabulary content of the various English coursebooks on the CDC Recommended Textbook List and to the modules, units and communicative functions suggested in the CDC Curriculum Guides. Groups of teachers from primary and secondary schools were also invited to participate in tasks to identify suitable vocabulary for the different levels of learners.

 

In developing the wordlist for Key Stage 1 (KS1), the first 1,000 words of the GSL were shown to a sample of KS1 teachers, who were asked to scrutinise the words and to say which items, in their view, were suitable for students of KS1. Words were, therefore, selected with the interests, needs and cognitive levels of the learners in mind. After the teachers had made their decisions, the project team used their professional judgement to make revisions to the list, as appropriate, with reference to the themes and topics suggested in the Curriculum Guides and the recommended English textbooks.

 

In developing the wordlist for KS2, items which had not been recommended for the previous level were again included in the sample of words shown to the teacher representatives, together with a batch of words from the next level of frequency on the GSL (i.e. the remaining words from the first 1,000 words on the GSL were added to the second 1,000 words for teachers’ selection). To prepare students for secondary education, it was considered appropriate to include some academic words in the KS1 and KS2 wordlists and teacher representatives were also asked to select some words from the AWL. The same process was repeated in the development of the lists for KS3 and the Senior Secondary level with the addition of words from the BNC. In finalising the wordlist for each Key Stage or level, care was also taken to include a reasonable distribution of different parts of speech so that the words can be combined easily and used productively.