Word of the Week
With its 120th word, Word of the Week has now come to an end. We hope you enjoyed this free feature and that it has given you an insight into the thinking and research behind the English Vocabulary Profile.
All 120 are still available to read in our archive, below. Each Word of the Week in the archive is followed by a link to the full entry for that word on the English Vocabulary Profile. To view the entries, you will need to subscribe to the EVP: to subscribe for free click here.
Word of the week: think
The verb think is one that learners need from the very beginning of their English studies, and they will continue to acquire new meanings and uses of it throughout their learning. On the occasion of the 100th Word of the Week entry, this word seems an appropriate choice - one which illustrates knowledge and use across all six levels of the CEFR. You will find many phrases in the entry below, from think of something at B1 to not think twice at C1 and think highly/ a lot of someone/ something at C2. This last phrase illustrates an interesting phenomenon that has been noted numerous times during the English Vocabulary Profile research phase – that even advanced learners don’t always seem to know phrases using the most frequent words in combinations (think + highly + of). This is a fairly transparent example, but as Dr Ron Martinez has shown in his recent research on phrasal expressions, there are many combinations of frequent words that are more problematic for learners to unpack. See next week’s Word of the Week entry for more examples of such phrases.To view the full entry for think on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
Word of the week: course
Most students come across the noun course at the beginning of their learning – of course! The meaning CLASSES and the phrase just used here are both at A1, while the phrase of course not has been listed at A2. Deciding on the level of this phrase has not been straightforward. As it is largely spoken, there is as yet no suitable learner data to support the A2 decision – the Cambridge Learner Corpus example for of course not is at B2 – but other sources indicate that A2 is where this phrase should be placed, ie at one level above of course. It has been used successfully in listening scripts for the Cambridge English Key exam and features in some elementary coursebooks.To view the full entry for course on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
Word of the week: of
The entry for the preposition of is a long one. Apart from its four A1 meanings and the phrase of course at A1, several further meanings and phrases are listed from A2 up to B2, and there will be another meaning RELATING TO added at C1. When you search for a specific word in the English Vocabulary Profile, the core results give all instances of entries where that word occurs, so in addition to the meanings and phrases in the of entry itself, you will also find over 100 other listings, such as take account of something, all of a sudden, get rid of something, in the middle of nowhere and so on. Clicking on any one of these phrases will take you to the specific entry.To view the full entry for of on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
