Guide to Success

By the end of this section you will be able to know the following:

　　 There are four kinds of vocabulary.
　　 How to spend your time and energy on each type of vocabulary.
　　 What is required in order to master a word.

Words are building blocks of language. Recent research in cognitive linguistics has put greater emphasis on the importance of words, not only with regard to language learning, but to the very structure of language itself.

English has an enormous spool of vocabulary. No one, even native speakers, is able to know them all. Fortunately, we do not need to know them all in order to use English. We only need to know those that are relevant to our practical purposes. From your point of view, it is useful to distinguish at least four kinds of vocabulary, as shown in Table 1 below.

Table1

Kinds of vocabulary	Size realistically attainable	Feel pleased with yourself if you can	You do not have to
reading vocabulary	extremely large	recognize it figure out its meaning with the help of the context	spell it out correctlyà pronounce it correctly use it correctly in your speech or writing
listening vocabulary	very large, though smaller than reading one	recognize its sound figure out its meaning with the help of the context	spell it out correctly use it correctly in your speech or writing
speaking vocabulary	large, though much smaller than listening one	recall it at free will pronounce it correctly use it appropriately	spell it out correctly use it correctly in your writing
writing vocabulary	medium	spell it right use it correctly in grammar, accurately in thinking, & appropriately in context	pronounce it correctly

Professor Guide, I am not quite clear about this table. You say that reading vocabulary is extremely large. But my reading vocabulary is not large, still less to say extremely large. Would you please elaborate what you mean?
It's good that you raise this point. What I am saying is not that your reading vocabulary is already extremely large, but that it can become extremely large, if you make some efforts. Do you know why reading vocabulary can be extremely large?

Is that because learning reading vocabulary is less demanding than the other kinds of vocabulary in the table?
Precisely! Learning writing vocabulary is the most demanding. You need to know so many things about a word in order to use it correctly, accurately and appropriately. Only professional writers have an extremely large writing vocabulary. The writing vocabulary of ordinary speakers is fairly limited.

Professor Guide, I have one more question. The third and fourth columns of the table say: "Feel pleased with yourself if you can" and "You do not have to". I am not quite clear about what you mean by them.
Now let me illustrate what I mean by using an example. Do you know the word maniac in "He's a football maniac"? If you know nothing else about this word except that it might mean "fan" or "a mad person", this word can be accounted as part of your reading vocabulary. If you know nothing else about this word except that it might mean "fan" or "a mad person" and that it is pronounced as, this word can be accounted as part of your listening vocabulary.


	Now it's your turn to tell me what else you need to know about this word in order to place it in your speaking and writing vocabulary.