Checklist
Check the vocabulary burden before blaming yourself
A level label cannot read the page for you.
When it fits
- A text labelled for your level is unexpectedly exhausting.
When to avoid it
- Dense legal or technical material may require expert explanation. Counting familiar words cannot establish safe understanding.
Checklist
- Which unknown words block the main argument rather than optional detail?
- Can I explain a paragraph after checking only those words?
- Is the remaining obstacle vocabulary, background knowledge or sentence structure?
Why it matters
Sample the actual text and separate unfamiliar vocabulary from unclear reasoning. Vocabulary coverage relates to comprehension, but research does not support a single magic threshold. Use the diagnosis to choose support, not to award yourself a language level.
An example
A technical article becomes readable after you learn two domain terms. A simpler-looking article still fails because its argument assumes unfamiliar law.
Check your result
After a small vocabulary intervention, does comprehension improve on a new paragraph?
Keep this limit in mind
- Dense legal or technical material may require expert explanation. Counting familiar words cannot establish safe understanding.
Connected ideas
Useful withLearn a word with the company it keeps
Evidence and sources
The lexical coverage study found an approximately linear relationship with reading comprehension, rather than a sharp comprehension threshold.
Text difficulty also depends on the task and reader; a sampled percentage cannot diagnose overall proficiency.
The Percentage of Words Known in a Text and Reading Comprehension · Abstract, relationship and threshold finding.