Yvon Le Bras - A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core Vocabulary for Learners

• General Editors:
• Paul Rayson, Lancaster University, UK
• Mark Davies, Brigham Young University, USA

• Editorial Board:
• Michael Barlow, University of Auckland, New Zealand
• Geoffrey Leech, Lancaster University, UK
• Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, University of Lodz, Poland
• Josef Schmied, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
• Andrew Wilson, Lancaster University, UK
• Adam Kilgarriff, Lexicography MasterClass Ltd and University of Sussex, UK
• Hongying Tao, University of California at Los Angeles
• Chris Tribble, Kings College London, UK

• Other books in the series:
• A Frequency Dictionary of Mandarin Chinese
• A Frequency Dictionary of German
• A Frequency Dictionary of Portuguese
• A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish
• A Frequency Dictionary of Arabic (forthcoming)

• General Editors:
• Paul Rayson, Lancaster University, UK
• Mark Davies, Brigham Young University, USA

• Editorial Board:
• Michael Barlow, University of Auckland, New Zealand
• Geoffrey Leech, Lancaster University, UK
• Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, University of Lodz, Poland
• Josef Schmied, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
• Andrew Wilson, Lancaster University, UK
• Adam Kilgarriff, Lexicography MasterClass Ltd and University of Sussex, UK
• Hongying Tao, University of California at Los Angeles
• Chris Tribble, Kings College London, UK

• Other books in the series:
• A Frequency Dictionary of Mandarin Chinese
• A Frequency Dictionary of German
• A Frequency Dictionary of Portuguese
• A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish
• A Frequency Dictionary of Arabic (forthcoming)

In providing such a resource, we are both bringing students closer to real language (as opposed to textbook language, which often distorts the frequencies of features in a language, see Ljung 1990) and providing the possibility for students to use frequency as a guide for vocabulary learning. In addition we are providing information on differences between frequencies in spoken and written language as well as, from time to time, frequencies specific to certain genres. Why should one do this? Nation (1990) has shown that the 4,0005,000 most frequent words account for up to 95 per cent of a written text and the 1,000 most frequent words account for 85 per cent of speech. While Nations results were for English, they do at least present the possibility that, by allowing frequency to be a general guide to vocabulary learning, one task facing learners to acquire a lexicon which will serve them well on most occasions most of the time could be achieved quite easily. While frequency alone may never act as the sole guide for a learner, it is nonetheless a very good guide, and one which may produce rapid results. In short, it seems rational to prioritize learning the words one is likely to hear and use most often.

That is the philosophy behind this series of dictionaries. The information in these dictionaries is presented in a number of formats to allow users to access the data in different ways. So, for example, if you would prefer not to simply drill down through the word frequency list, but would rather focus on verbs, the part of speech index will allow you to focus on just the most frequent verbs. Given that verbs typically account for 20 per cent of all words in a language, this may be a good strategy. Also, a focus on function words may be equally rewarding 60 per cent of speech in English is composed of a mere 50 function words. We also hope that the series provides information of use to the language teacher.