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UNIVERSITY of CAMBRIDGE

ESOL Examinations

  English for Speakers of Other Languages

VOCABULARY LIST

Preliminary English Test (PET) Preliminary English Test for Schools (PETfS)

PET Vocabulary List ©UCLES 2012

Introduction to the PET Vocabulary List

The PET Vocabulary List gives teachers a guide to the vocabulary needed when preparing students for the PET and PET for Schools examinations.

Background to the list

The PET Vocabulary List was originally developed by Cambridge ESOL in consultation with external consultants to guide item writers who produce materials for the PET examination. It includes vocabulary from the Council of Europe's Threshold (1990) specification and other vocabulary which corpus evidence shows is high frequency.

The list covers vocabulary appropriate to the 81 level on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and includes receptive vocabulary (words that the candidate is expected to understand but which is not the focus of a question) and productive vocabulary (words that the candidate needs to know to answer a question).

The list does not provide an exhaustive list of all words which appear on the PET and PET for Schools question papers and candidates should not confine their study of vocabulary to the list alone.

How the list is updated

The vocabulary of English changes over time, with words being added and other words falling into disuse. In order to maintain its currency, the PET Vocabulary List is updated on an annual basis, with the decision to add or remove words being informed by reference to the Cambridge Learner Corpus and English Profile Wordlists.

The Cambridge Learner Corpus is a collection of over 44 million words of English, based upon evidence of language use by learners from all over the world and from which the English...