Linguist Terrell believes that foreign language learners can better understand and express themselves in a foreign language as long as their vocabulary is large enough and their grammar knowledge is not much. The linguist Wilkins has a classic saying: "Without grammar, only a little information can be conveyed, and without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed." American linguist Diller's research shows that if we know 25 words, on average, we know 23% words per page; If we know 135 words, the percentage will reach 50%; The amount of 2500 words corresponds to 78%; 5000 words corresponds to 86%; 10000 words corresponds to 92%. Laufer found that when he knew 5,000 words, the correct reading comprehension rate was 56%. Know 6400 words, the percentage is 63%; Know 9000 words, about 70%. The same is true of writing, speaking and listening. Practice has proved that in the IELTS test, candidates with large vocabulary often get higher scores than those with small vocabulary.
Second, the choice of vocabulary manual
IELTS official has never published a formal IELTS vocabulary, but there are many kinds of IELTS vocabulary manuals on the market, but the good and the bad are mixed. To sum up, there are roughly the following categories:
1. IELTS vocabulary
This vocabulary manual is the most popular among candidates, because it meets the needs of candidates in one step. It is characterized by a huge number of words, generally around 8000, arranged alphabetically. Some words are said to be "memorized skillfully" according to "root affixes" to arouse the interest of candidates. However, the writing method of this kind of vocabulary is to sort out and summarize the new words appearing in the listening and reading of the series of IELTS true questions in Cambridge, and then arrange them in order. Students who are familiar with IELTS know that not every word in the test paper needs to be fully understood by the candidates. Especially in the IELTS reading section, only words with synonymous conversion between the topic and the original text are the focus of the examiner's examination. In addition, with the increasing phenomenon of younger IELTS, more and more candidates with weak foundation take the IELTS test, and their vocabulary is often around 2000. The so-called "root affix memory method" can not only help them remember words, but also increase their memory burden and make the task of memorizing words more complicated. For people with a large vocabulary (for example, those who have passed CET-6), this vocabulary manual can help them find the missing and fill the gaps, but for most other candidates, memorizing this vocabulary is time-consuming and laborious, and the result is often half the effort.
2. "Classified vocabulary"
The biggest selling point of this kind of vocabulary manual is to classify IELTS vocabulary according to the actual situation in the four parts of IELTS listening, speaking, reading and writing, and most of them are classified according to the scene. Because this vocabulary manual can be used frequently now, it is favored by many candidates. However, the disadvantages of this vocabulary manual should not be underestimated. Firstly, IELTS listening, speaking, reading and writing are not isolated parts, but an organic whole. For example, IELTS listening and reading articles have many similar scenes, while IELTS reading and IELTS writing have great similarities in material selection. However, these vocabulary manuals artificially separate these words that could have been combined together, and the original vocabulary manual has become four, which greatly increases the memory burden of candidates, and it is difficult for most candidates to stick to it.
3. "Core vocabulary"
The biggest highlight of this kind of vocabulary is that it contains the most frequently used vocabulary in IELTS test, and this kind of vocabulary is the focus of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Therefore, this kind of vocabulary is most suitable for the majority of candidates, especially those with weak foundation. It is an effective strategy to recite other IELTS words on the basis of mastering these words thoroughly.
In fact, the most authoritative "core vocabulary" that can be bought on the market at present is the vocabulary of CET-4 and CET-6, because the vocabulary of CET-4 and CET-6 is different from the general vocabulary manual and is arranged according to the word frequency. CET-4 contains 4000 most commonly used words in English, while CET-6 contains 5500 most commonly used words. IELTS Band 6 requires a vocabulary of about 5,000-6,000. If you master CET-6 vocabulary, it is equivalent to mastering the most commonly used core vocabulary in English, which is of great benefit both in the IELTS test and in your future study and life.