High-frequency Spanish vocabulary for KS2

In my last post I examined the Teaching Schools Council's MFL Pedagogy Review, and looked at its implications for Key Stage 2 Languages.

The review recommends that: "Vocabulary to be taught should be informed by frequency of occurrence in the language, and special attention should be paid to common verbs in the early stages.  Many language courses are organised around thematic topics, such as ‘free time activities’, ‘the environment’, ‘home and family’ etc. which act as ‘vehicles’ for vocabulary. In such cases the choice of vocabulary can be too specialised, teaching relatively rarely used words at the expense of common words which it is harder to plan for re-encountering later."

This has led me to reflect on the curricula that I have devised and which I teach for Spanish and French in Key Stage 2, and to find out the extent to which they include this high-frequency vocabulary.  I want to know if I am including sufficient common words and indeed if the vocabulary that I teach is unnecessarily specialised.  If KS2 is truly to be a doorway to KS3 then its teaching should include the first rungs of the ladder and not be something completely separate.

I have consulted this list of the "Top 100 Spanish words", which is also subdivided into lists of 25 verbs, 25 nouns, 25 adjectives and so on.  The list throws up some surprises, like mi only being no.49 on the list, and lower than su (no.14).

Verbs

I have started with the list of 25 verbs, of which the first 24 are in the top 100 words.  I have considered which of them could reasonably be included in a KS2 Spanish scheme of work, and which topic areas they would be best suited to.  I have added as a 26th verb gustar, which doesn't appear on the list but which is used very often in Spanish teaching at all levels.

		KS2	possible curriculum area
1.	ser to be	yes	description, identification (¿Eso qué es?)
2.	haber to have
3.	estar to be	yes	places in town
4.	tener to have	yes	age, possession, family, pets, money, physical description
5.	hacer to do, make	yes	household chores, sports
6.	poder to be able to, can	yes	classroom instructions and language
7.	decir to tell, say
8.	ir to go	yes	places in town, transports, holidays
9.	ver to see	yes	veo veo, nouns (¿qué ves?)
10.	dar to give
11.	saber to know (a fact), find out
12.	querer to want, love	yes	food, shopping, classroom equipment
13.	llegar to arrive	yes	telling the time
14.	pasar to pass, spend time
15.	deber should, ought to; to owe
16.	poner to put on, get (+ adj.)	yes	clothes
17.	parecer to seem, look like
18.	quedar to stay, remain
19.	creer to believe, think	yes	opinions
20.	hablar to speak, talk	yes	countries and their languages and nationalities
21.	llevar to take, carry
22.	dejar to let, leave
23.	seguir to follow
24.	encontrar to find
25.	llamar to call, name	yes	personal identification
	gustar to please	yes	opinions of anything

Nouns

This is the list of the top 25 nouns, of which the first 8 are in the top 100 words.  I have marked the ones which I feel KS2 children are likely to come across.  There are a lot of time, place and general people words, but of course no animals, no food, no clothing....

		KS2 ?
1.	vez time (as in number of times)
2.	año year	yes
3.	tiempo time, weather	yes
4.	día day	yes
5.	cosa thing
6.	hombre man, mankind; husband
7.	parte part, portion
8.	vida life
9.	momento moment, time
10.	forma form, shape, way
11.	casa house	yes
12.	mundo world	yes
13.	mujer woman, wife
14.	caso case, occasion
15.	país country	yes
16.	lugar place, position
17.	persona person
18.	hora hour, time	yes
19	trabajo work, job, effort
20.	punto point, dot, period
21.	mano hand	yes
22.	manera manner, way
23.	fin end
24.	tipo type, kind
25.	gente people

Adjectives

Here is the list of the top 25 adjectives.  Grande is there, but, interestingly, not pequeño.  And of course no colours.  Again, I have indicated the ones that I feel KS2 Spanish is likely to cover.

		KS2?
1.	su his, her, their, your (fam.)
2.	lo the (+ neuter)
3.	todo all, every
4.	más more	yes
5.	este, -a this
6.	otro other, another
7.	ese, -a that
8.	mucho much, many, a lot	yes
9.	mi my	yes
10.	alguno some, someone (pron.)
11.	mismo same
12.	primero first	yes
13.	grande large, great, big	yes
14.	poco little, few; a little bit (adv.)	yes
15.	tanto so much, so many
16.	nuestro our
17.	cada each, every
18.	menos less, fewer	yes
19.	nuevo new	yes
20.	aquel that (over there)
21.	bueno good	yes
22.	tal such (a)
23.	mejor best, better (adv.)
24.	cierto certain, sure, true
25.	mayor larger, older, main

Conjunctions

The first ten of these conjunctions are in the list of the top 100 words.  There are only 15 conjunctions in the top 5000 words.  I am surprised to see que at the top rather than y, and surprised to see mas at all, as I consider its use to be somewhat antiquated.  I have added on the end of the list sin embargo, which we use frequently in KS2 as an alternative to pero.

		KS2?
1.	que that, which	yes
2.	y and	yes
3.	como like, as	yes
4.	pero but, yet, except	yes
5.	o or	yes
6.	si if, whether
7.	porque because	yes
8.	cuando when	yes
9.	ni not even, neither, nor
10.	donde where
11.	pues then, well then
12.	sino but, except, rather
13.	aunque although, even though
14.	mientras whereas; as long as
15.	mas but, however
	sin embargo however	yes

Adverbs

		KS2?
1.	no no	yes
2.	ya already, still
3.	muy very, really	yes
4.	también also	yes
5.	así like that
6.	sí yes	yes
7.	bien well	yes
8.	entonces so, then
9.	tan such, as, too
10.	ahora now
11.	después after
12.	siempre always, forever
13.	sólo only, just
14.	antes before
15.	cómo how?	yes
16.	aquí here	yes
17.	luego later, afterward
18.	casi almost, nearly
19.	durante during, for (time)
20.	nunca never, ever
21.	además as well, besides
22.	hoy today, nowadays	yes
23.	allí there, over there
24.	dentro inside
25.	ahí there

Prepositions

There are only 19 prepositions in the top 5000 words.

		KS2?
1.	de of, from	yes
2.	a to, at	yes
3.	en in	yes
4.	por for, by, through
5.	con with	yes
6.	para for, to, in order to
7.	sin without
8.	sobre on top of, over, about
9.	hasta until, up to, even (adv.)
10.	entre between, among
11.	desde from, since
12.	hacia toward
13.	contra against, opposite
14.	bajo under, underneath
15.	ante before, in the presence of
16.	según according to
17.	tras after, behind
18.	mediante by means of
19.	excepto except (for)

On reflection, I am happy that I include sufficient high-frequency conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs, but I don't think that I am including enough verb forms or that I am including them often enough.  The KS2 curriculum does, after all, specify high-frequency verbs, and I think I should make them more explicit.  Fewer nouns could be in order.  After all, that is why we teach them phonics and dictionary skills.  All in all, plenty to think about. 

I'd be interested in hearing your views on the high-frequency vocabulary, especially verbs, that we should be tackling at KS2.  Please feel free to leave a comment!

Similar information for French coming soon.