Word Stream: High-frequency / General & Specialist courses
Features of the courses
Courses are generated from a database of over 6000 of the most frequent words in English. A 6000 word vocabulary covers over 95% of written English and 98% of spoken English, and is the 'fluency threshold' beyond which people can guess remaining unknown words in context without a dictionary.
Courses can be customized to the needs of particular groups or to complement an existing course or text.
Popular courses include a series that covers all the high-frequency words; a series that covers words that occur with high frequency in the TOEIC test; and shorter courses that cover business and finance vocabulary or travel vocabulary.
Target audience
People who want to improve their English vocabulary; people who want to improve their TOEIC score; people who want to improve their vocabulary in a particular subject domain (eg, business, travel).
Study period
Each Word Stream course takes at least 12 weeks (3 months) to complete, and covers either 240 words (standard course) or 400 words (intensive course). Each course may take longer than 12 weeks to complete if you study less than the recommended time each week.
The recommended study time for a Word Stream course is three hours per week for standard courses and five hours per week for intensive courses. This includes review of previous words and progress tests etc.
System requirements
A PC which can be connected to the Internet (broadband connection recommended). Microsoft OS (Windows 2000, XP, Vista), Internet Explorer version 6 or above, the most recent version of Flash Player, Adobe Reader version 5 or above
Course list (example)
| Course name | Type | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Word Stream: Business & Finance 1 | Standard | 240 |
| Word Stream: Business & Finance 2 | Standard | 240 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Elementary 1) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Elementary 2) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Elementary 3) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Elementary 4) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Pre Intermediate 1) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Pre Intermediate 2) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Intermediate 1) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Intermediate 2) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Upper Intermediate 1) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Upper Intermediate 2) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Upper Intermediate/Advanced 1) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Upper Intermediate/Advanced 2) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Advanced 1) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: High-frequency (Advanced 2) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: TOEIC (Elementary | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: TOEIC (Pre Intermediate) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: TOEIC (Intermediate) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: TOEIC (Upper Intermediate) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: TOEIC (Advanced) | Intensive | 400 |
| Word Stream: Travel & Transportation | Standard | 240 |