Prof Paul Nation
Professor
School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
address
Phone: 04 463 5628
Location: Room 408, Von Zedlitz Building, Kelburn Pde, Kelburn Campus
Currently Teaching
LALS 522 - Teaching and Learning Vocabulary
Course Lecturer
Paul Nation is Professor in Applied Linguistics at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (LALS) at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He supervises MA and PhD research on vocabulary.
He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Finland and Japan.
Current Research Projects
Paul’s current research project is a test of vocabulary size. It is now being trialled with non-native speakers of English. A version is available on this web site.
Publications
View and download publications by Paul Nation in
or
Topic order
Paul Nation's books include Teaching and Learning Vocabulary (Heinle and Heinle, 1990), New Ways in Teaching Vocabulary (TESOL, 1994), Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and Focus on Vocabulary (with Peter Gu) (Macmillan Australia, 2007). His publications include articles and books on teaching and learning vocabulary, language teaching methodology, and curriculum design. Most of his articles can be downloaded from this website. In addition he has written several booklets to be used in the courses he teaches. Paul Nation's most recent book on vocabulary is called Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques (2008) Heinle Cengage Learning, Boston.
There are three books from Routledge Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking (with Jonathan Newton), and Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing, and Language Curriculum Design (with John Macalister)
He was involved in the development of a set of course books with Casey Malarcher called Reading for Speed and Fluency and a six-book set called 4000 Essential English Words Compass Media, Seoul.
He has written a web-based course on teaching and learning vocabulary for the ELT Advantage series through TESOL International.
Paul Nation has taught LALS522 Teaching and Learning Vocabulary
This course involves study of the direct and indirect learning and teaching of vocabulary through the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. This course is taught both on-campus and by distance as a part of the LALS MA in Applied Linguistics and MA in TESOL. For admission to the programme, you need two years teaching experience and a Bachelors degree with grades of B or higher. Click here for the application form.
PhD Supervision
Recently completed PhD theses include learning vocabulary through listening, learning vocabulary through writing, the role of proper names in listening comprehension and polysemy and foreign language learners. Current PhD theses being supervised include creating a high frequency vocabulary list, word part relationships between high and low frequency words.
Resources
Download the Range program with either the GSL/AWL lists or with the British National Corpus lists, plus instructions for using the program.
| Zip Files | File size | File type |
|---|---|---|
| Range program with GSL/AWL list | 521 KB | ZIP |
| Range program with British National Corpus list | 701 KB | ZIP |
Download the Vocabulary Resource Booklet. This contains the Vocabulary Levels Test, bilingual 1000 and 2000 versions of the Vocabulary Levels Test, the survival vocabulary in various languages, and other tests and resources.
| Zip Files | File size | File type |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary Resource Booklet | 1,215 KB | ZIP |
Download the Vocabulary Size Test. It is also available from Tom Cobb's website. The 2007 article by Nation and Beglar (available in the list of publications above) describes the making and use of this test.
All PDF documents require Acrobat Reader.
| Document | File size | File type |
|---|---|---|
 Vocabulary Size Test (monolingual version) |
403 KB | |
| Vocabulary Size Test (bilingual Korean version) |
591 KB | |
| Vocabulary Size Test (bilingual Japanese version) |
539 KB | |
| Vocabulary Size Test (bilingual Mandarin version) |
541 KB | |
| Vocabulary Size Test (bilingual Russian version) |
129 KB | |
| Vocabulary Size Test (bilingual Vietnamese version) |
636 KB |
Download the Fluency text for running through the frequency program.
| Document | File size | File type |
|---|---|---|
| Fluency and Learning | 7 KB | TXT |
A Speed reading course at the 1000 word level.
All PDF documents require Acrobat Reader.
| Document | File size | File type |
|---|---|---|
| Speed Reading Course |
445 KB |
Almost all of Paul Nation's articles are available for free downloading from the list of publications above (chronological order or topic order).
Vocabulary Resources
- Bibliography on Vocabulary
- Learning Vocabulary in Another Language: Contents pages
- Vocabulary research topics
- Tasks to go with Learning Vocabulary in Another Language
- Test on Learning Vocabulary in Another Language
- "A Critique of Hart and Risley (1995)"
- Picture Vocabulary Size Test for Reading Recovery (Sue Ruffell)
Free graded readers
The following graded readers are now out of copyright and are available free for anyone who wants to use them. They must not be offered for sale, but can be distributed free.
Fire on the Mountain by Gerry Meister and Paul Nation (within a vocabulary of 700 words)
Indonesian Love Story by Paul Nation and Gerry Meister (within a vocabulary of 1200 words)
Mid-frequency graded readers (Click here for more information about mid-frequency readers)
The following mid-frequency readers are available free for anyone who wants to use them. They must not be offered for sale, but can be distributed free. Each book is available in three levels – one for learners who know 4000 words, one for learners who know 6000 words, and one for learners who know 8000 words.
Fiction
More William by Richmal Crompton (4000 level), (6000 level), (8000 level).
This book is about a very amusing set of stories about a young English boy who is always getting into trouble. The original (available from Project Gutenberg) contains a lot of deliberate mis-spellings to represent dialect pronunciation and children’s writing errors. These have been regularised in this adapted version. I really enjoyed reading this book when I was young and enjoyed reading it again to adapt it.
Non-fiction
The Art of War by Sun Tzu (4000 level), (6000 level), (8000 level).
This book is an adaptation of a translation from the original in Chinese. It consists of very practical advice on how to conduct war. Recently, the book has been studied so that the general principles can be adapted to the world of business. For further information see the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War
Useful links
An Analysed General Service List
Word part levels test (Yosuke Sasao, PhD student at LALS)
History of the Nation family in New Zealand
| Document | File Size | File type |
| Waimarino County Call |
429KB | |
| WC Nation Cemetery |
77KB | |
| WC Nation family tree |
82KB | |
| WC Nation Memoirs |
1747KB | |
| WC Nation Memorial Message |
1100KB | |
 WC Nation's memoirs |
73KB | DOC |