English Speaking Skills: How Many Words for English Fluency?

       Here are some rough word counts according to Jakob Gibbon, 2023:

      Advanced: With 4,000-10,000 words your communication goes beyond everyday conversation  and into specialized vocabulary for talking about your professional field, current geo-political and local events and news, opinions and vocabulary for more complex abstract verbal vocabulary.  This is also the C2 level in the Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR).

      Fluent: 10,000+ words.   At around 10,000 words is considered near-native level of vocabulary, with the requisite words for talking about a wide range of topics in detail.   Most importantly, you recognize enough words in every utterance or sentence so that  most frequently you understand the unfamiliar ones from context.  That means you can easily add words to your vocabulary if you read English a lot.

    And just so you know: Estimates of words known by the average native American English speaker vary from 10,000 to 65,000 words.   

     Don’t stop now deliberately adding to your vocabulary!  It’s no wonder that  proficiency in American English speech communication continues for native-born Americans throughout their life.  They are adding vocabulary, along with accurate pronunciation for professional words, scientific words, geo-political words, necessary words (like pandemic, corona virus), and skill for persuasive and information giving speaking communication, and skill for stimulating social conversation and presentations.

     Research suggests that the average American hears between 20,000 and 30,000 words during the course of a 24-hour period according to Rebecca Lake, 2014.  That’s a major source of  “continuing education” for English speech communication, a source for increasing vocabulary and honing or making better the skills for communicating information, emotion, doing presentations, even refining body language to emphasize ideas.

      Relatedly, many (most?) professions in the education world, tech, medical, lawyers, etc. require continuing education.  Got to keep up with the profession and improve communication within the organization.  Such is lifelong learning.

      In the human development of proficiency for English speech communication throughout the lifespan (that’s what native-born speakers of AE do), just remember that the best kind of practice for English speech communication skills is deliberate practice where the purpose is to get better.

      Along with expanding their spoken vocabulary, nonnative-born persons can experience “pronunciation drift.”  Pronunciation drift is real and happens when AE pronunciation has gotten sloppy or inaccurate or the speaker has forgotten how to do American English speech sounds accurately or has forgotten the pronunciation rules.   Most likely is drift to  accented- English (Chinglish, Spanglish,  Indian English, Arabic English, etc.)  Most likely is also drift or movement of articulators (tongue, lips, jaw) to go lax and not tense, with decreased force or range of movement, and into difficult to understand consonants and slurring of words.

      Fact is, the kind of work environment makes a difference for vocabulary development, pronunciation  (and other English speech communication skills such a voice inflection or presentation skills). 

     Do you work in an organization where verbal English communication takes between 30 minutes and two hours or more?  If so, then you can do deliberate practice of clear English speech daily.

       Or does your profession call for less than 30 minutes or even less than 15 minutes of oral communication in English speech?    A good number of professions call for  extensive  computer work (or other forms of solo-work)  where hearing and speaking  English may be very limited.   Especially for the second circumstance, it’s not surprising that persons with English as a second language forget skills and may have very limited opportunity to deliberately practice American English speech skills in work and daily life. Deliberate practice of clear American English is the remedy. Take every opportunity to practice accurate and clear English speech by reading aloud anything from books to your children, online newspapers, several pages from a fiction book, or abstract or portions of a research article.

      For English speech communication, deliberate practice strengthens the accurate motor or muscle memory—including adding to vocabulary.  Deliberate practicc can be done no matter what stage in the lifecycle.  Ack, you could be 99 years old and benefit from doing deliberate practice to improve your deficits or make your strengths even stronger.   In other words, producing  strong, vibrant, accurate English speaking for a vocabulary of 10,000 words to 65,000  benefits with deliberate practice, no matter the life circumstances or age.

     Do native-born speakers deliberately practice pronouncing new vocabulary for work and social life? Absolutely!  One strategy is to pronounce words after a news broadcaster or entertaining program while streaming or while viewing YouTube.  Another strategy for native-borns is to enter vocabulary words to their smart phone, on the computer, or a notebook, and deliberately practice the pronunciation over and over until it is fluently and easily accurate.

     Funny thing is, deliberate practice for the motor and muscle activity of English speech takes about the same amount of time as “mindless” practice.  But the results are accuracy, proficiency, and long lasting… and deeper learning.   More on  “deeper learning” later.

Copyright 2023 by Clear Talk Mastery, Inc.