What I Learned from Paul Nation’s Webinar on Word Frequency and Vocabulary Learning
- Silvia Bastow
- Apr 5
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 6
When we talk about teaching languages, it’s easy to get caught up in the grammar structures, the tenses, or the ever-growing pressure of exam specifications. But again and again, I find myself coming back to something more fundamental: words. Vocabulary isn’t just a list at the back of the textbook – it’s the bedrock of everything our learners need to do with language.
Recently, I had the chance to join a webinar (organised and hosted by Wendy Adeniji) with Professor Emeritus Paul Nation – a giant in the field of vocabulary research. I’ve followed his work for a number of years, but hearing him speak live brought a new layer of clarity to ideas I thought I already understood. His calm, practical explanations reminded me of why vocabulary deserves more space – not just in the classroom, but in curriculum planning, CPD and teacher training too.
Not All Words Are Created Equal
Nation began with something deceptively simple: not all words matter in the same way. We often talk about how many words learners need to know, but the type of word makes all the difference.
He unpacked the terminology we often hear – tokens, types, word families – and explained it all in a way that made immediate sense. For example, if 'the' appears ten times, that’s ten tokens, but only one type. Then you zoom out again and think about word families: 'book, books, booking, bookish' – all connected.
It reminded me how often we throw around these terms in CPD without making sure everyone is on the same page. Nation brought us back to the basics, but without ever talking down to us. It was refreshing.
The Power of High-Frequency Vocabulary
Here’s the statistic that stopped me in my tracks: just 10 word types make up 25% of written English. The top 100? 50%. And the top 1,000? Around 75%.
That has serious implications for us as teachers. If we want our learners to understand what they’re reading or hearing, we need to focus on the right words first – not the obscure or fancy ones, but the ones they’ll actually encounter again and again.
Nation says that about 3,000 word families give learners 95% coverage of typical texts and around 9,000 is the sweet spot for real reading fluency (98% coverage – the threshold for comprehensible input). That figure sounds high, but it makes sense: without that vocabulary base, everything else is harder.
Nation suggests aiming for around 1,000 word families per year – that’s just five words per hour of instruction. But in the UK system, where curriculum time is tight and exposure is limited, the challenge is clear: how can we realistically make that happen?
Zipf’s Law and Why Frequency Matters
Nation also revisited Zipf’s Law – which basically tells us that a few words occur very frequently and most words appear very rarely. In fact, even in huge text corpora, half the different words will show up only once.
This is where things get practical again. If learners spend their time on low-frequency words, they won’t see them again for ages – meaning they won’t retain them. But high-frequency words show up all the time – and that means learners get repetition, reinforcement and a chance to use what they’ve learned.
It really drove home the idea that vocabulary learning is a battle against Zipf’s Law. Exposure is everything.
Seeing It In Action
One of the most powerful moments in the webinar was when Nation showed us a real text, broken down by word frequency. You could see how much of it was made up of those first 3,000 word families – and how just a handful of low-frequency words were enough to block comprehension.
His point? We need to build materials, lessons and curricula around those core words – not because it’s limiting, but because it opens the door to everything else.
This is just as true in German, French, or Japanese as it is in English. As a German teacher, that really resonated. We all know what it’s like to juggle curriculum content and what we instinctively know learners need. Nation gave us the research to back up what I’ve felt for a long time: get the core vocabulary in early, often and in meaningful contexts.
The Impact of Socioeconomic Background on Vocabulary Acquisition
Research, particularly from the U.S., shows that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to have a vocabulary 1,000 to 2,000 words smaller than their peers from higher-income families. This gap is linked to fewer opportunities for rich language exposure - such as reading, museum visits and discussions.
For foreign language learners, vocabulary growth is slower than for native speakers. While children acquiring a language naturally can learn over 1,000 words per year, foreign language learners in schools typically learn at a rate of 500 to 1,000 words annually. This would depend on curriculum time and learners motivation. Nation's advice for course design: Language courses should aim for at least 1,000 word families per year to ensure meaningful progress.
How vocabulary is Learned: The Four Strands Approach
One of the things I love most about Nation’s work is how practical it is. His Four Strands model offers a simple but powerful way to balance language learning:
Meaning-Focused Input – learners need lots of accessible listening and reading where they understand most of the words (98% known vocabulary is the ideal = CI).
Meaning-Focused Output – speaking and writing to communicate real messages, not just practising forms.
Language-Focused Learning – deliberate pronunciation practice, vocabulary drills and grammar learning. Nation strongly supports the use of bilingual word cards, where learners write a foreign word on one side and its translation on the other. Research spanning over 120 years confirms their effectiveness. Contrary to misconceptions, words learned through deliberate study are not easily forgotten and become readily available for real communication.
While learning phrases and collocations is useful, Nation cautions against focusing too much on true idioms, where meaning cannot be inferred from the individual words (e.g., kick the bucket). In English, fewer than 100 true idioms exist, meaning that systematic vocabulary learning should prioritise individual words over idiomatic expressions.
Fluency Development – helping learners get faster and more confident using what they already know, across all four skills. One story that stuck with me was when Nation talked about his time in Japan. He knew the numbers in Japanese – had learned them – but couldn’t understand them when they were spoken quickly - he wasn't able to retrieve them quickly enough. It wasn’t until he had a few sessions focused purely on fluency (the teacher would say a number and he would point to it - faster and faster) that it finally clicked: he could understand “120 yen” at the post office. It wasn’t about learning new words – it was about speeding up access to the words he already knew. The fluency development is about familiarity, getting faster at retrieving what you already know. That reminder really hit home for me: if we want learners to make progress, we need to give them space not just to learn new vocabulary, but to use it fluently.
Each of these strands matters – and each one gives vocabulary its rightful place. This isn’t about cramming word lists. It’s about building a deep, usable bank of language knowledge that supports fluency, confidence and independence.
High, Mid, and Low Frequency Words
Another useful distinction Nation made is between high-, mid-, and low-frequency vocabulary:
High frequency (1000 - 3000 words): essential for daily communication; should be heavily prioritised, these need to be taught explicitly and recycled constantly.
Mid frequency (3000 - 9000 words): here, learners start to use independent strategies – like guessing from context, recognising word parts, spotting prefixes and suffixes, or using dictionaries effectively.
Low frequency (9000+ words): these are picked up incidentally – through wide reading, listening and meaningful input. Technical vocabulary might need direct teaching, but the rest comes with time and exposure.
It’s a useful framework when selecting texts, designing tasks, or supporting learners who feel overwhelmed by long word lists.
The Case for Graded Readers
This is one area where English has a head start. Nation praised the use of graded readers – books written using controlled vocabulary – as one of the best ways to give learners meaningful, accessible reading experiences.
Even with just 90 word families, learners can begin to read real stories. That’s powerful – and it’s motivating.
For other languages, these kinds of resources are less common – but they do exist and we need more. Without vocabulary-controlled texts, learners are often thrown into material that’s too hard. And if you only know 500 words, but the text demands 9000, it’s not going to help – it’s going to frustrate.
So, What Does This Mean for Us - Teachers?
The biggest takeaway for me? We need to be far more intentional about which words we teach, how often we recycle them and why they matter. Language learners don’t need to know every word - they need to know the right words first. High frequency vocabulary should be the foundation of everything: curriculum design, reading selections, assessment planning and resource creation.
It also made me reflect on how we scaffold reading and listening. Are we giving learners enough input at the right level? Are we introducing enough of the high frequency vocabulary early on and making it stick through repetition, variation and real use?
If you ever get the chance to hear Paul Nation speak - or better yet, read his work - do it. His combination of clarity, research grounding and practical implications is second to none. I left the webinar buzzing with ideas for my own learners and a renewed sense of purpose when it comes to vocabulary.
Let’s teach fewer words - but teach them better.
Further reading and resources:
Hi Silvia, Thank you very much for this great post! Do you know how I can watch the recording of that webinar? I’d also be very interested in seeing the MFW demonstration in action. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for summarising the webinar. I discovered Mr. Nation and was fascinated by his masterclass. Lots of takeway to help our learners to learn not harder but smarter! Merci.
Thank you so much for this. It's what I've known for years but it's good to see it online and in print.