High Frequency Words

High frequency words are those words that appear most often in printed materials. According to Robert Hillerich, “Just three words I, and, the account for ten percent of all words in printed English.” According to Fry et al. (The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists, 2000) the 25 most common words make up about one-third of our written material, while the 100 most common words actually make up about 50 percent of the material we read.

Research has shown that reading skill improves with the growth of a reader’s sight word vocabulary. These are words that a reader instantly knows without having to decode or figure out the words. A good starting point would be to teach them to instantly recognize the high frequency words.

RESOURCES:

Audiblox Cognitive Development Program
One of the aims of the Audiblox program is to teach learners to instantly recognize the 500-800 high frequency words. When applied one-on-one, the learner’s ability to recognize words in context is tested before he is promoted to a higher level.

The Dolch Kit
From 50-75% of all words used in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines are in the Dolch Word List, which comprises 220 words.