The CEFR lists can-do statements, not words. COBUILD’s A1–B2 labels come from frequency data plus expert judgement per word sense. Use them to prioritise what to recycle and test, not to forbid ‘unlabelled’ words.
Practice
- Decide which emergent words to recycle, drop or test.
- Check a unit’s word list against level labels.
- Unlabelled ≠ hard: a concrete noun with a picture (graffiti) is easy; cognates are easy.
- For exam classes, labels set priorities; topic words still matter.
Context (Claude)
Cambridge publishes its own KET/PET vocabulary lists, and English Vocabulary Profile gives sense-level CEFR labels. Labels are frequency-led and productive-leaning; receptive knowledge runs well ahead.
- For Uzbek/Russian learners, international cognates (problem, interesting, computer) are free vocabulary; false friends are the cost.
Connections
Check vocabulary intuitions with corpus tools · How many new words per lesson - working memory limits · Check your feedback language against learners’ level