CEFR A-2 Vocabulary List was originally developed by Cambridge English in consultation with external consultants to guide item writers who produce materials for the Preliminary and Preliminary for Schools 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 B1 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 Preliminary and Preliminary 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 Preliminary and Preliminary for Schools 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 Vocabulary Profile has developed. The English Vocabulary Profile shows the most common words and phrases that learners of English need to know in British or American English. The meaning of each word or phrase in the wordlists has been assigned a level between A1 and B2 on the CEFR.
A preview version of the English Vocabulary Profile can be accessed by visiting the website: http://www.englishprofile.org
Organisation of the list
• Word sets
Some categories of words that a learner at this level might be expected to know, e.g. days of the week, are not included in the alphabetical list but are listed in Appendix 1. Although ‘grammar words’ (pronouns, modal verbs, etc.) are included, the ‘Language Specification‘ section of the Preliminary and Preliminary for Schools Handbook (available from http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/) should be consulted for a more complete listing.
Click on: A2 Vocab
TED English Materials 