books have 50 percent more rare words in them
than does adult prime-time television and the
conversation of college graduates. Popular magazines
have roughly three times as many opportunities
for new word learning as does prime time
television and adult conversation. Assurances by
some educators that “What they read and write
may make people smarter, but so will any activity
that engages the mind, including interesting
conversation” (Smith, 1989) are overstated, at
least when applied to the domain of vocabulary
learning. The data in Table 1 indicate that conversation
is not a substitute for reading.
It is sometimes argued or implied that the type
of words present in print but not represented in
speech are unnecessary words—jargon, academic
doublespeak, elitist terms of social advantage,
or words used to maintain the status of the
users but that serve no real functional purpose.
A consideration of the frequency distributions