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Tom Cobb

Universite du Quebec a Montreal

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Cobb has designed, taught, and coordinated almost every type of English reading and writing course possible in a career spanning 20 years and five continents. He was convinced quite early that whatever the target skill, there would never be enough time for language learners to get very far with it, but that well instructed computers could radically increase the effectiveness of the time available. He now consults in language program development internationally, supplies learning and research tools to the profession through his website, The Compleat Lexical Tutor (http://www.lextutor.ca), and helps young Montreal ESL teachers get the most out of computers in their classrooms. Email: cobb.tom@uqam.ca Table 1. Decreasing Likelihood of Meeting Words in Grouped Sub-Corpora

1000 level Word Press Aca- Fic- family demic tion lead' 200 64 45 point' 106 194 61 bus 15 1 1 associat' 66 49 4 press' 66 100 38 creat' 61 51 21 real' 153 86 172 other' 383 355 273 special' 90 52 20 final' 62 66 57 MEAN (SD) 120.20 101.80 69.20

(106.17) (101.97) (86.61) Words/10 10 9 8 with 6+