250 Words Represent Over Two-Thirds of Captioned Television

“There are more than 500,000 words in the English language, but a person who masters only 250 words will recognize more than two-thirds of all words shown in television captions—provided the 250 words are those that are most frequently used. Equally dramatic, a beginning reader could be taught just 10 words—the, you, to, a, I, and, of, in, it, that—and then recognize more than one out of every five words. Mastery of the top 79 words means being able to read half of all words captioned.” Source: Perspectives in Education and Deafness, Volume 16, Number 1, September/October 1997

Henry and I read that incredibly powerful quote on  Bill Vicar’s ASLUniversity , a free site to learn American Sign Language . We are both so excited about the implications of this especially when considering that simply turning on the Closed Captioning can increase literacy skills so dramatically.

Think about it. Anyone who learns the 250 most frequently occurring words, will  recognize more than two-thirds of the content on captioned television!

Anyone can start learning these words right now and have their learning naturally reinforced by doing something they enjoy.

It’s never too late or too early to start  – you could be six months old or  80 years old.

How exciting is this?

It’s definitely a Literacy Lifehack.

Download our free Literacy Lifehack Flashcards here .