Hello everyone! This is the blog for the C1 and C2 classes! I'll be posting some activities / videos / homework / pieces of writing and many other interesting resources. You'll be able to find some websites and other useful material.
Visit it regularly, please!
Bilingual I suppose that means to use both your mother tongue and another language in a proficient way.
Although I have heard about different kinds of bilinguism I am not quite sure about that.
As regards the numbers of words an avarage speaker knows, it is quite difficult to guess. But, if we take into account that test and a native speaker friend of mine who did it, it would be around 38000 or 40000.
Maybe this is a bit off-topic, but is this test reliable? I mean, I don't think so, but I haven't found any reliable data about this idea of the amount of words used by an average speaker.
I don't really know how true the following data are, but that's what I found... How many words do you think there are in the English language? Oxford English Dictionary: 616,500 word forms + Scientific words: would total 1,000,000 In common use: 200,000 German: about 184,000 in common use French: around 100,000 Italian: 190,000 How many words do you think the average English person knows? At 2 years of age: 200 At 5 years of age: 5000 At 12 years of age: 8,000 (the average number or words used by tabloids) Graduates know: 60,000 – 75,000 Shakespeare used: 31,534 An ordinary person knows: 35,000
What range could be considered as bilingual? :)
ReplyDeleteDifficult question to answer...
ReplyDeleteI'll ask you 2 more:
What does "bilingual" mean?
How many words does an average speaker know in their mother tongue?
Those are also difficult questions!
ReplyDeleteBilingual I suppose that means to use both your mother tongue and another language in a proficient way.
Although I have heard about different kinds of bilinguism I am not quite sure about that.
As regards the numbers of words an avarage speaker knows, it is quite difficult to guess. But, if we take into account that test and a native speaker friend of mine who did it, it would be around 38000 or 40000.
Maybe this is a bit off-topic, but is this test reliable? I mean, I don't think so, but I haven't found any reliable data about this idea of the amount of words used by an average speaker.
I don't really know how true the following data are, but that's what I found...
ReplyDeleteHow many words do you think there are in the English language?
Oxford English Dictionary: 616,500 word forms + Scientific words: would total 1,000,000
In common use: 200,000
German: about 184,000 in common use French: around 100,000 Italian: 190,000
How many words do you think the average English person knows?
At 2 years of age: 200
At 5 years of age: 5000
At 12 years of age: 8,000 (the average number or words used by tabloids)
Graduates know: 60,000 – 75,000 Shakespeare used: 31,534
An ordinary person knows: 35,000