EFL Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Size and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Estimates Across Levels

The Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) is widely used as a reference for language teaching and learning. However, providing vocabulary size (VS) estimates is beyond the CEFR's original aim. Previous research has also shown that learners’ receptive VS is related to overall proficiency and to the four language skills. Nevertheless, the existing attempts to link receptive VS and the CEFR are very scarce and have not investigated vocabularies beyond the 5K level. The present study aims to fill these gaps by sampling 311 Spanish learners of English distributed across the six CEFR levels. Participants took the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) to know their proficiency level and the Vocabulary Size Test (VST), measuring receptive VS up to 14,000 word families. Results showed that these learners’ receptive VS ranged from 5,300 word families at the A1 level to 11,200 at the C2 level. Moreover, there were significant differences in VST scores depending on learners’ CEFR levels, although some adjacent‐level pairs failed to reach statistical significance. VST scores were also closely linked to OPT grammar scores, which explained 45.2% of the variance in receptive VS. The study sheds some light on the vocabulary descriptors of the CEFR and presents important pedagogical implications for vocabulary teaching and learning.