Speak English Now.: Building Basics: Vocabulary Base

Vocabulary Base - The Dolch List 220

Vocabulary Base is very important in building/improving our Speaking, Writing and Reading skills. The second ingredient in building our Vocabulary Base is The Dolch Word List - the list of most common English words.

Edward William Dolch, PhD, compiled the list of frequently used words in the English language, The Dolch Word List, also called Sight Words or The Dolch 220. These words make up 50 to70 percent of any general text and includes pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs. The basic list excludes nouns, which make up a separate 95 word list.

Many of the 220 Dolch words cannot be "sounded out" and have to be learned by "sight," that is memorized. The list is divided into grade levels.

Because fluency in reading the Dolch 220 and the 95 nouns is essential to literacy, a variety of techniques are used to teach them, including: reading Dolch literature books, using flash cards, playing games, and writing activities. Repetition and practice are very important in making recognition of sight words automatic.

It is necessary to know this list of words to be able to speak. However, this is the last time that you learn words taken out of context, because English is the phrasal language. Anyway, I will try to give you advice to do this as best as possible.
Once after we built our base vocabulary we'll be in position to choose the best ways to expand it.

(This passage contains all of the 220 Dolch Basic Sight Words.)

The Best Thing In The World

Once upon a time, there were four brothers who lived in a far away land. Their father was an old king. One day he said, "I will not live long now. Today you must start out into the world. In a year, bring back the best thing you have found. The one who can pick the best thing shall be the new king." The first brother said, "I will look in every city or town. I will buy the best thing I can for my father." The next two brothers said, "We will both go on fast ships over the sea. We will find something better." The last brother said, "I am going to ask the people here in our own land to tell me the best thing." The other three brothers began to laugh. "Then you will never be king!" They said.

The last brother started off. When he had gone about six miles, he met a man. "What do you carry in those big bags?" he asked. "The best thing in the world," said the man. "These are full of the good nuts which fall from my five nut trees." "I don't think that would work," said the brother to himself, "I must try again." The brother went on another seven miles. He found a small brown bird. It had been hurt, so he put it in his coat where it could keep warm. As he went on, he saw a little girl crying. He ran to meet her. "Why are you crying?" he asked. "I want to get some water from the well," she said. "We use so much. We drink cold water. We wash the clothes clean with hot water. But I do not know how to pull it up. Please show me." The brother said, "Hold this bird and I will help you. It does not fly around any more because it got its wing cut." "Thank you. What a pretty bird!" she said. "I wish you would give it to me. If you will let me keep it, I will always be very kind to it. I will take care of it myself. I will make it grow well again." "Yes, you may have it," said the brother. So he gave her the bird and went on.

At night, he went to sleep under a round yellow haystack. When it was light again he walked on. Every day he would walk eight or ten miles. He asked the people about the best thing in the world. Some said it was best to sing. Some said it was best to run and jump and play. Some said the green grass was best. Some liked the red and blue and white flowers best. One man said the best thing was to ride a black horse. He always stopped to help people who needed it. Soon he made many friends. All the people began to like him. They would say, "See there goes the king's son. He would be just the right kind of king for us." Every door was open to him. The people would call to him to stop. They would ask him to come and eat with them. After he ate, he would sit down and read to the children. After he read, he showed them how to draw and write. Months went by. He still had no beautiful thing to take to his father. Just before the year was done, he went home again.

The time came when the king called his sons together. "What did you bring?" He asked them all. The other brothers had many beautiful things. "And what did you bring?" said the king to the last brother. "This is too funny!" said the other brothers. "He has nothing!" But the king was kind to the last brother. "What did you bring me?" the king asked again. "I bring only the friendship of your people," said the last brother. "That is the best thing!" cried his father. "You shall be the new king." The End

Key:

Pre-Primer Primer First Grade Second Grade Third Grade

For now, try to read this story without thinking of meaning of words

Then, try to find how the word is used grammatically, divide them in the groups of nouns, verbs, adjectives ..

Find the meanings

Try to pronounce them

Please explore >> http://www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm from where this story is. You will find this list of words as the printable version in the Word/Pdf/PP formats.

In the right of PowerPoint version you will see small audio button.

Learning Advice: Remember your brain like to see colours and pictures!

Use flash cards for learning words!
Play games!

You can download the Flash cards from the MrPerkin's website, print, and then cut. On your flash card write (below the word) how is pronounced and add different forms of the word - noun, adjective, adverb..

On the back of the flash card write down the meaning and synonyms.
If you don't have a printer you can use simple post-it notes.

Our next goal is to learn 220 - 32 ( irregular verbs from yesterday) = 188 new words

Take the time you need, don't hurry. Building the base is the most important part of your learning process. It will influence on the all your learning activities in the future.

If your learning style is linear:

Non nouns

Pre-primer: a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you

Primer: all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes

1st Grade: after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, giving, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when

2nd Grade: always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don't, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your

3rd Grade: about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm

Nouns

apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood