In 2007 Oxford University Press - Australia conducted a rigorous study titled ‘An investigation of high frequency words in young children’s writing and reading development’. Permission was sought from and granted by the relevant State Education departments, including DECS SA to conduct the study in a range of schools. Research of this type had not been conducted for over 30 years (since the Salisbury study in 1977) and there was a high demand by educators to be provided with an updated high frequency list for use in classrooms.
The aim of the study was to provide a contemporary wordlist of the most frequently used words by students in their writing in their first three years of schooling. The study guide was framed by Professor Joseph Lo Bianco and Ms Janet Scull, lecturers and researchers from the Department of Language & Literacy Education, University of Melbourne. Anne Bayetto, Flinders University as provided us with professional advice as we have analysed the list and she is currently authoring some support documents for educators in the area of reading acquisition.
Over 4000 writing samples from more than 1000 students from 95 Australian classrooms were collected. In total 167 000 words were entered. The cross section of students included indigenous students, students from a range of language and SES backgrounds and those situated in urban and rural schools. This data has now been collated and analysed and the Oxford Wordlist for Australian Kids has been released. This list of 307 words represents the most frequently used words in children’s writing and was collected by classroom teachers following a set of administration guidelines to ensure consistency in ‘free’ writing sessions.
The list is available to all Australian educators at no cost. We have also provided some free resources via our website to help support teachers in their classrooms. These resources were developed following the collation of questionnaire responses from the teachers involved in the study.
The Oxford Wordlist can also be accessed by following this link www.oup.com.au/thesuccessfulteacher and downloading a PDF doc. The words are set out on 3 pages plus cover (ie 1- 100, 101- 200, 201 – 307). You are free to download as many copies and use in classrooms in any way.
By following this link you will also find the 5 Word documents of resources suggested by teachers and specifically designed to support teachers in their classrooms.
They are only a beginning and at this stage include:
- Oxford Wordlist Bingo words 1–50
- Oxford Wordlist Bingo words 51–100
- Oxford Wordlist Flashcards words 1-100
- Oxford Wordlist Snap/Memory cards for words 1–100
- Oxford Wordlist Take home lists for reading and spelling in groups of 10 for Words 1–100
The resources have been designed in Word to allow teachers to change font style, size and add or remove words appropriate for specific groups of students. We will be adding to this area of our website as the year progresses.
The second stage of this support (expected in April) will give teachers the ability to use an online interactive tool allowing them to look at the most frequently used words by particular groups of students within the study (eg Yr 1/boys/non ESB etc). Researchers also collected the text type students elected to write and the tool will allow teachers to sort the relevant words in relation to each of these.
The availability of this tool will coincide with the release of the research summary report being written and compiled by the University of Melbourne which will also be available on the website.