Completing the English Vocabulary Profile - C1 and C2 vocabulary

Aug 25, 2026

English Vocabulary Profile is an online vocabulary resource for teachers, teacher trainers, exam setters, materials writers, and syllabus designers, providing CEFR-based information on words, phrases, phrasal verbs, and idioms with just under 7,000 headwords. The article reports the trialling and validation of A1–B2 while outlining research and completion work for C1 and C2, grounded in corpus evidence and a can-do rationale focusing on what learners acquire first.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

The English Vocabulary Profile

Coverage within the six levels of the English Vocabulary Proﬁle

Validation phase of the A and B levels

English Proﬁle Journal. (2012), 3(1), Page 1 of 14, e1 􀀂c Cambridge University Press 2012 doi:10.1017/S2041536212000013 Completing the English Vocabulary Proﬁle: C1 and C2 vocabulary Annette Capel Freelance consultant based in Cambridge Abstract The English Vocabulary Proﬁleis an online vocabulary resource for teachers, teacher trainers, exam setters, materials writers and syllabus designers. It offers extensive information about the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels of words, phrases, phrasal verbsand idioms, and currently includes just under 7,000 headwords. This article reportson the trialling and validation phase of theA1−B2 levels of theresource, as well as outlining the research and completion of the C1 and C2 levels. The project has followed a‘can-do’rationale, focusing on what learners actually know rather than prescribing what they should know, and is underpinned by up-to-date corpus evidence, includingthe 50-million word Cambridge Learner Corpus and the 1.2-billion word Cambridge English Corpus of ﬁrst language use. AtC1 and C2 levels, the English Vocabulary Proﬁle describes both General and Academic English, and the additional sources used to research this area of language learning are described in the article. Polysemouswords are treated in depth and the project has sought to determine which meanings of these important words appear tobe acquired ﬁrst; new, less frequent meanings often continue tobe learned across all six CEFR levels. Phrases form another substantial part of theresource and this aspect has been guided by expert research (seeMart´ınez 2011). Keywords: CEFR, corpus, idioms, phrases, polysemous words, word families This article, written at the end of the compiling stage of the C1 and C2 levels of the English Vocabulary Proﬁle (formerly known as the English Proﬁle Wordlists), describes the work that has been carried out on the project since September 2010 . (For information about the initial phase of the project, see Capel 2010.) 1. The English Vocabulary Proﬁle The decision to move away from the original working title of ‘Wordlists’ reﬂects how this project has grown, not just in terms of its coverage of vocabulary, to include many more phrases, phrasal verbs and idioms rather than just words, but also the way in which the current online resource has been developed to provide a fully interactive database, instead of being a static listing of vocabulary. Even now, when the compiling process has come to an end with the inclusion of C1 and C2 level data, the resource is not (and never will be) set in [https://doi.org/10.1017/S2041536212000013](https://doi.org/10.1017/S2041536212000013 Published)[ Published](https://doi.org/10.1017/S2041536212000013 Published) online by Cambridge University Press Page 2 o f 1 4 Annette Capel stone. It represents the extent of the description that is currently achievable given the learner data and other sources that the project team has access to. It goes without saying that the resource will need to be regularly monitored and reﬁned, partly to keep it up to date but equally to ensure that it accurately reﬂects typical learner competence. As additional learner evidence becomes available in the form of spoken and non-exam written data –the Cambridge English Proﬁle Corpus –and as more people use theresource and give their feedback on it, this community project will be honed and augmented. Public access to the resource is currently limited to the A and B levels of the British-English and American-English versions, which have both been validated over a twelve-month period (see Section 3 below) . At the time of writing (February 2012), the resource is available for free on the main English Proﬁle website. It is hoped that the complete six-level resource will be available on general release in May 2012 . 2. Coverage within the six levels of the English Vocabulary Proﬁle For CEFR levels A1 to B2, the rationale for inclusion a

FAQs

What is the English Vocabulary Profile resource used for?

It serves teachers, teacher trainers, exam setters, materials writers, and syllabus designers, offering CEFR-level information on words, phrases, phrasal verbs, and idioms.

How does the project approach C1 and C2 vocabulary compilation?

It focuses on core vocabulary using actual learner evidence, frequency information from first-language corpora, and additional sources for Academic English.

Why is the resource updated and refined after release?

Ongoing monitoring is needed to keep it current and ensure it accurately reflects typical learner competence, using new learner evidence and community feedback.

Aug 25, 2026

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