Which 100 English words should Fabio learn?

England football manager Fabio Capello has claimed that he only requires a 'maximum [of] 100 words' to communicate tactics to the England footballers. This is not as laughable as it first seems because The Reading Teachers Book of Lists claims that the first 25 words make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and that the first 100 make up about one-half of all written material. When I was involved with writing technical manuals for engineers whose first language was not English, we were encouraged to use a limited vocabulary. This is not quite the same as using the most frequent words because each word had to have only one meaning and - of course - we used the most useful words for the context. Fabio Capello's 100 words in the locker room would be different to Michel Roux's in the Kitchen. What are your suggestions for the 100 most useful words in your subject? These insights can be very helpful - not only for teaching languages but in any situation and subject where students have limited ability in the language being used. While Fabio Capello is aiming for an English vocabulary of 100 words, I'm pretty sure my dog understands 200 words. I think I'll start listing them - look out for a blog on this subject. Follow us on twitter Latest posts