aaleks's log

[aaleks]

del.

[reineke]

Another vocabulary test http://vocabulary.ugent.be/wordtest/test

Your result
On the basis of your results, we estimate you know 60% of the English words.

You said yes to 60% of the existing words.
You said yes to 0% of the nonwords.
This gives you a corrected score of 60% - 0% = 60%.

This is fairly high level for a native speaker.

I have no clue what that means and why their hypothetical "native speaker" has such a small vocabulary.

Anyway IMO the ultimate vocabulary tests are reading and listening. How much and how well do you can understand native materials? That's it.

Probably I could've expanded my vocabulary but now it's not so easy because I don't have as many unknown words as I did before. The best case scenario is 10 or so words a book, but usually it's 3-5 words. There could be some words that occur one or two times and are too rare or/and unimportant. Theoretically I could've written such words down and work with them later but what for? The odds that I ever see such a word again are very slim. Active vocabulary is different thing but I can write here without the assistance of a dictionary. Usually I need it only to check my spelling, and on very rare occasions - to find a word I don't know or just can't remember. Of course my vocabulary isn't equal the one of an educated native speaker, but the truth is it's different from an uneducated one as well. Kids slang, playground words, and other words of daily life - I can't learn them from TV and books. And there's another thing. I'm more interested in how all the words I have already known work with each other, how to use them more effectively, so to speak, how to get one's point across.

I'm guessing that you don't like taking chances. The nursery rhymes show "Baby bum" has some playground words. It's available on Netflix. Cartoons are full of children's slang. If you run into new vocabulary only occasionally you've entered into the virtuous circle of language learning. Good luck.

[aaleks]

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[reineke]

I'm guessing that you don't like taking chances.

Well, I guess, that actually I do. At least in case with words learning. I don't learn words "on purpose" by writing them down, using word lists and so on. All my English vocabulary - from exposure, i.e. reading books and watching TV. In the beginning I thought that - ok, right now I won't write down words, I can remember them like that, but when there would be not so many words I'll start to use that "proper" approach. Now I think that since I live in a non-English speaking country there's no point in doing it .

Btw, about "proper" learning - where I get it from .
When I read one English learner's forum I often see something like "I did N-th units of X textbook", or someone post their schedule with all grammar, reading, writing, listening exercises included. And all that looks and sounds like a lot of work. Compared to them I do nothing. I just watch TV, read books, and write here sometimes. So I kind of feel that I cheat somehow or do something wrong, and that I might have a better result if I had used that "proper-textbook" approach. The truth is I wouldn't use it anyway, it's just an idle thinking

P.S. According to this test http://www.myvocab.info/en my English vocabulary is not so good. It's somewhere in between 9000 to 14000 (I did it several times)

Your result is not bad.

"First, let's compare with native speakers. A native speaker of age 6 knows on average 6000 words. This number goes up to 15500 by graduation from high school at age 18. An adult's vocabulary varies from 16000 to 19000 words."

You must have also received a comparison with L2 learners.

Statistics
"The data on vocabulary of native speakers as a function of age, as well as dependence of vocabulary of non-native speakers on their IELTS scores, are scaled from results obtained at testyourvocab.com."

http://testyourvocab.com

[aaleks]

del.

[reineke]

These are three different tests. Your results are consistent in relation to other participants.

http://testyourvocab.com

Your result: 21000+

"Based on participations so far, we've already got some decent statistics. Most native English adult speakers who have taken the test fall in the range 20,000–35,000 words.

And for foreign learners of English, we've found that the most common vocabulary size is from 2,500–9,000 words. Click here for the full distribution (opens in new tab/window).
However, we still need more data for complete analysis by age or education level, especially for participants under 15.
So please share this test...
Over the coming months, we will continue to update our statistics as more data comes in."

Myvocab.info

P.S. According to this test http://www.myvocab.info/en my English vocabulary is not so good. It's somewhere in between 9000 to 14000 (I did it several times)

This test also hits you with mini quizzes. What was your percentage of "honesty"?

Myvocab.info

"First, let's compare with native speakers. A native speaker of age 6 knows on average 6000 words. This number goes up to 15500 by graduation from high school at age 18. An adult's vocabulary varies from 16000 to 19000 words."[/quote]

Urgent.be

Your score: 60%

"How many words do people know?

This is one of the questions we’d like to answer with our test. However, on the basis of our experiences with a similar test in Dutch and previous rating studies in English we estimate that a proficient native speaker will know some 40,000 words of the list (i.e., 67%)."

Your vocabulary size is within the lower end of the range of a young adult native speaker. These tests don't tell us much about your vocabulary depth although a large vocabulary would imply some depth. Finally, the tests don't measure processing speed which is crucial in on-line processing (listening and speaking).

[aaleks]

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[aaleks]

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[smallwhite]

... a horoscope text. But I don't read those things even in my native tongue, I don't beleive in them, and even if I hear one accidentally I don't pay attention.
... how my knowledge about horoscopes' text can reflect my reading ability in general? It's preposterous.

B2 is knowing things within your daily life. C2 is knowing things beyond your daily life.

[aaleks]

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